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So, you’re studying biology because you want a career in the health sciences and you realise that unit 3 is focused on ecology.
Do you:
a) resign yourself to wasting months of learning
b) give up on biology
c) ignore it and hope it doesn’t come up on the exam
d) celebrate!
I’m convinced that the correct answer is d, and by the end of this article I hope you’re convinced too.
Suited for succession
Let’s start with how unit 3 is the natural successor to unit 2. In unit 2 you learnt about pathogens and the vectors that transport them, and in unit 3 you’ll learn about predicting the size of populations, understanding how they change, and how they adapt. This can be applied to antibiotic resistance, pathogen carrying vectors and pathogens themselves. Thus, understanding population ecology is crucial if you’re interested in reducing disease, predicting pandemics, or removing a vector or pathogen from an area.
Humans are animals too
Ecological principles don’t just apply to non-human organisms – they can be applied to humans too. Ecology can help us understand the issues that occur when human populations are too small or large, predict and explain human impacts on natural systems, and model changes in the natural aspects of artificial environments.
Biodiversity for innovation
You’ve probably got an idea that biodiversity is supposed to be ‘good’ but have you stopped to think about why that is? Aside from being pretty useful and pretty interesting, having a diverse range of organisms drives innovation. Many medicines have been, and still are, discovered by finding a beneficial property that already exists in an organism and then figuring out what specific molecule/s are responsible for that and why.
Additionally, by better understanding how other species operate in their environments we can gain insight into how we operate in our environments. Ecology can be used to help us promote biodiversity – thereby giving us access to a greater range of tools, inspiration, and research material.
Nature for health
Having access to natural environments has been shown to be beneficial for human health both mentally and physically (e.g. reducing rates of anxiety, depression, and obesity). Ecology isn’t political or innately focused on this – however it can be used to understand human impacts on environments and how these can be managed to allow humans to access the benefits (such as health benefits) of environments in a sustainable way.
Since mental health has been brought up in this, I also want to say that it’s normal for your mental wellbeing to change over the course of your life and if it’s currently at a point where you’re struggling please, please don’t feel like you have to deal with this on your own & remember that you can seek professional help.
Finally, ecology is an interesting and interdisciplinary field – if nothing else you’ll improve your understanding of different biological perspectives as well as the breadth and complexity of biology. If it’s not your cup of tea that’s fine but I hope you try to make the most of this learning experience 🙂
Where to next? We have free QCE biology notes available here and if you have any questions leave them here and we’ll address them – also for free 🙂
Good luck with your studies and future careers!
