A history of the environmental problematic and its effects on the discipline of ecology

Resumo

The main objective of this article is to elucidate, from a historical perspective, the influence that environmental issues have had on the discipline of ecology. To this end, the period from the 1960s to the present was examined. The proposed analysis revealed two main results; both were found to be mediated by environmental knowledge that emerged along with environmental issues. The first refers to a series of phenomenological (establishing new ecological patterns), epistemological (incorporating the notion of scale and hierarchical theory) and methodological (consolidating of experiments involving measurements) transformations over the ecology matrix. The second was linked with a synchronic continuity between environmental issues and the discipline of ecology. This continuity was traced by the recognition that environmental issues have global impact.