autecology

noun

aut·​ecol·​o·​gy ˌȯ-ti-ˈkä-lə-jē 

ˌȯt-ē-

: ecology dealing with individual organisms or individual species of organisms

autecological

ˌȯt-ˌē-kə-ˈlä-ji-kəl 

-ˌe-kə-

adjective

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from German Autökologie, from aut- aut- + Ökologie ecology

Note: The word has been attributed to the German-born Swiss botanist Carl Schröter (1855-1939), though it does not occur in Schröter and Oskar von Kirchner's Die Vegetation des Bodensees (1. Teil 1896, 2. Teil 1902), in which the complementary term Synökologie synecology is introduced.

First Known Use

1910, in the meaning defined above