Ecology is the study of the relationship between living things and their environment, specifically deals with analyzing the influence of one on another. When we talk about environment we are considering certain physical properties that are defined as local abiotic factors, and this includes the climate, geology and organisms that live in said environment. Ecology is a broad concept that addresses everything from our relationship with the planet to small daily practices that have less impact on the environment.
The biotope concept tends to be used to consider all the abiotic factors in an area. When evaluating as a whole the biotope and the living things in an environment (animals, plants, protists, money and fungi), we prefer to use the word ecosystem. Thus, for example, a simple puddle is a complete ecosystem, with its abiotic (water, air, bottom soil) and biotic factors. The sum of different interdependent ecosystems makes up the so-called biomes. In this model, a tropical jungle is a large biome in which various ecosystems are confused. Finally, the sum of all the biomes on the planet gives rise to the biosphere.
In this sense, it is interesting to note that, etymologically, ecology means "study of the home", understanding home as the environment or habitat in which living things develop. The root of this word, in fact, is similar to that of concepts as different as "economics". The study of ecology involves tools from such versatile sciences as mathematics and statistics, on the one hand, and bioscience and geology, on the other.
Although when we talk about this branch of biology we tend to associate it with the preservation of the environment and plant and animal species, ecology consists of a multidisciplinary science that uses other disciplines and that in turn has derivations such as microbial ecology, population and community ecology, behavioral ecology, mathematical ecology and others. It cannot be forgotten that ecology is also integrated with the health sciences. On the one hand, the modifications in biomes and ecosystems caused by deleterious effects of human action motivate the appearance or enhancement of various conditions, among which vector-borne diseases and the results of environmental contamination stand out. On the other hand, today there is a tendency to consider an ecological approach to health in different aspects. Thus, the human intestine is recognized as a true ecosystem, with its abiotic factors and its local microflora that constitutes the biotic factor.