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

From the time he moved to remote Michigan, he brought the world to him, amassing thousands of books and corresponding with the savants who resonated the most — Garrett Hardin, the ecologist from University of California, Santa Barbara, and Richard Lamm, the environmentalist and three-term governor of Colorado, among them.

From Salon

“The great majority of homes that burn in wildfires are already in flaming ruins by the time the fire reaches the town,” said Chad Hanson, a wildfire scientist and the director and principal ecologist at the John Muir Project.

From Los Angeles Times

"The judgment brings into focus a flawed understanding of the interplay between climate change, biodiversity and development issues," ecologist Debadityo Sinha wrote in a column.

From BBC

Ellen Mackey, a senior ecologist and leader of the women’s caucus at the MWD, called for reinstating Hagekhalil while the investigation proceeds.

From Los Angeles Times

“I think that when people are confronted with nature in the city people are both fascinated by it and sometimes inconvenienced by it,” says seabird ecologist Louise Blight.

From Salon

Related Words

• biologist
• botanist
• conservationist
• environmentalist
• zoologist