by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: June 09, 2010

There are many ways in which botanical ecology can be studied in the field or in the laboratory setting. Botanical ecology involves two areas of human activity: seeking to satisfy curiosity and striving to find out how what is learned and observed can lead to practical applications.

Botanical ecology can be described as a field of study to determine, among many other things, how plants contribute to our atmosphere, respond to events and changes in their habitat, interact with each other, are affected by the introduction of alien species, operate within plant communities or operate in controlled settings where variables such as space, water composition and PH and other factors are manipulated.

The way that plants work and behave tells us how the natural world affects living things and how living things affect the natural world. In light of the massive ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, studies in botanical ecology will take on even more importance, both in the field and in the controlled artifical environment.

In the field, botanists might simply observe the behavior and functions of plants over time. They may do nothing to alter the habitat or the plants themselves, while identifying, classifying, examining and measuring the plants that are collected in the field and examined in the laboratory.

Or, botanists may physically get involved by taking samples, manipulating various environmental aspects, or even introducing various types of modified or carefully selected plants in order to see what happens.

The use of pesticides, for example, may require plantings followed by microscopic, chemical, cellular and DNA studies of the affect of pesticides on plants. Changing the aspects of water, nutrients, exposure to light, protective apparatus to prevent sunburn and other aspects might be studied in larger plantings or in naturally growing plant communities.

Field environmental studies might involve examining, testing and modifying the soil, water, atmosphere, access to sunlight and other critical factors in plant growth and reproduction. These studies might go on for decades as tree growth and development is studied, or they might be briefer, but thorough and periodic examinations of vast areas of forest, grassland or the other plant biomes of the planet.

The animal/plant interactions might be studied, as animals and insects eat or damage plants and tree trunks or they spread seeds and pollen through their hooves, fur and

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