Chemical ecology is the study of chemicals involved in the interactions of living organisms. It focuses on the production of and response to signalling molecules (i.e. semiochemicals) and toxins. Chemical ecology is of particular importance among ants and other social insects – including bees, wasps, and termites – as a means of communication essential to social organization. In addition, this area of ecology deals with studies involving defensive chemicals which are utilized to deter potential predators, which may attack a wide variety of species. Other aspects of chemical ecology deal with chemical reactions of organisms with regards to abiotic factors such as temperature and radiation.
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Famous quotes containing the words chemical and/or ecology:
“We are close to dead. There are faces and bodies like gorged maggots on the dance floor, on the highway, in the city, in the stadium; they are a host of chemical machines who swallow the product of chemical factories, aspirin, preservatives, stimulant, relaxant, and breathe out their chemical wastes into a polluted air. The sense of a long last night over civilization is back again.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“... the fundamental principles of ecology govern our lives wherever we live, and ... we must wake up to this fact or be lost.”
—Karin Sheldon (b. c. 1945)