Autecology is a sub-section of ecology primarily dealing with species populations and how these populations exist in the area and environment they are in. The main goal is to study population sizes and how they change over space and time. The most common example of this is human species overpopulation and how it effects other species. Autecology is the only way we can get the information needed to help prevent things like climate change as well as the destruction of the planet.

The fundamentals of autecology are few but very important. The following are fundamentals of autecology. Species population is the total number of a single species. Metapopulation is combining a set of separated population which have some form of migration. A group of nonspecific individuals that is usually separated demographically, genetically, or spatially from other groups. Aggregation is a group of spatially clustered individuals. Deme, which is a set of individuals that are genetically like each other rather than others. The local population can also be measured, which is usually a specific location's population of individuals. And lastly, subpopulation is categorizing and grouping individuals that are picked out through specific traits.

The most fundamental law of autecology was made by Thomas Malthus, who made the exponential law of population growth. It states that, "A population will grow (or decline) exponentially as long as the environment experienced by all individuals in the population remains constant.". What this does for autecology is it creates the basis for making predictive theories and tests.

Autecology's origins owe much to a couple things, demography (The study of populations, mostly humans) and actuarial life tables (tables that show birth day and death day, as well as possibilities to prevent or increase life expectancy). These two subjects helped created the need for autecology, giving vast amounts of data for scientists to work with.

Autecology is a branch of biology, but this does not limit the data gathered to just that branch. Conservation biology relies heavily on autecology. This is because to conserve life, you need to first see what is hurting it, and how it can be changed. The information also helps create PVA (population viability analysis), which is a method that is usually species specific to determine how likely a population is going to last.

Mathematicians and statisticians also greatly benefit from this as well. This is because when they are working on population dynamics, information gathered by autecology helps paint a clearer picture for them, and gives them the data they need.

Autecology helps many different branches of science, as well as helps create preventative measures to stop overpopulation and climate change. With more information gathered every day, there is no question that scientists will be able to. The real question is, will they be able to make and take these measures in time.

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