Ecology

Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each other and their surrounding environment. Ecologists look at the soil, plants, animals, fungi — everything! — in an area to understand the entire community.

Ecologists want to know it all about the circle of life: who eats who, how dead things get recycled, and how resources like water are shared among the group. It’s a broad view of living things and how they work together and live in balance. But ecology isn’t just about pristine environments; ecologists are also interested in how the balance can be shifted, such as by climate change, human activities, and introduced species. 

Ecology is about how living things coexist both today and in the past. Paleontologists who study fossils are interested in ecology too — what we call paleoecology. In a way, all of our researchers touch on ecology in some way, just to varying degrees. Whether you study insects or L.A. history, everything is interconnected, and ecology is the study of those connections.