is a great web of interaction between various biotic
organisms and nonliving, abiotic factors that make up their environment.
The study of this web, and of the interactions that shape both living
organisms and the environment in which they live, is called ecology.
Ecology is a critical component of biology; in some sense,
it is the place where everything we have learned up until now fits
together and functions in the real world. Up until this chapter
we have studied biology in an increasing hierarchy:
Ecology takes individuals and puts them into larger contexts:
Ecology is important on the SAT II Biology for another
reason: it makes up about 13 percent of the questions on the core
of the test. In addition, if you choose to take the Biology E version
of the test, then another 25 percent of the test will have some
relation to ecology. In other words, this chapter and the material
it covers are crucial.