ecologist

[ ih-kol-uh-jist, ee-kol- ]

noun

1. a scientist or researcher whose field of study involves the relationships and interactions between organisms and their environment:

   Ecosystem ecologists study how nutrients, energy, and water flow through an ecosystem.

2. an environmentalist:

   Like climate change activists and ecologists around the world, I feel passionately that the issue is crucial to the long-term well-being of the human race.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ecologist¹

ecolog(y) ( def ) + -ist ( def )

Example Sentences

Fizri lowered his smartphone and began to explain colugo ecology.

From Science News

Some changes to that law in the 1990s allowed the government to make concessions, or grant private parties’ rights to provide water services, said Margaret Wilder, associate professor of geography and political ecology at the University of Arizona.

From Voice of San Diego

He studies worms and soil ecology at the University at Buffalo in New York.

From Science News For Students

Several Democratic candidates with degrees and work experience in chemistry, engineering, ecology, and medicine have been defeated in House and Senate races.

From Popular-Science

Given the great variation in size, ecology and physiology between these species, “this was a really unexpected result,” and one that the researchers don’t have an explanation for, Stroud says.

From Science News

“Dwarf mistletoe is freaky, freaky, freaky stuff,” says David Watson, an ecologist at Charles Sturt University in Australia.

From The Daily Beast

“If you look for new viruses, you will find them,” said Bucknell University disease ecologist DeeAnn Reeder.

From The Daily Beast

Makovich himself is a keen ecologist—and other members like him are opposed to shale gas drilling.

From The Daily Beast

Related Words

• biologist
• botanist
• conservationist
• environmentalist
• zoologist