The history of Ecology in Jena begins with Ernst Haeckel, who was offered the newly established chair of Zoology in 1865. Haeckel was one of the main proponents of Darwin's Theory of Evolution in Germany at this time. In his 1866 book General morphology of organisms Haeckel defines the term "Ecology" for the first time. The definition explicitly refers to Darwin's theory:
"By ecology we mean the body of knowledge concerning the economy of nature - the investigation of the total relations of the animal both to its inorganic and its organic environment; including, above all, its amical and inimical relations with those animals and plants with which it comes directly or indirectly into contact - in a word, ecology is the study of all those complex interrelations referred to by Darwin as the conditions of the struggle for existence."
Haeckel's view of the interactions within the living biota influenced many biologists, even though the term "Ecology" did not always feature prominently in their publications. In 1878, Gustav Fischer founded the Gustav Fischer Verlag in Jena (today Urban & Fischer) which published a number of Haeckel's works and up to today has provided a forum for the exchange of ecological insights by publishing a number of ecological journals.
Prominent ecologists in Jena after Haeckel were Heinrich Walter (e.g. Vegetation of the earth and ecological systems of the geo-biosphere), who graduated as Ph.D. in 1919, and Hans-Joachim Müller, who in 1969 founded the 'Research Unit Ecology' within the 'Section Biology' at the University of Jena, which he headed until his retirement in 1977.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, a major focus of ecological research in Jena was the study on dormancy in arthropods. In the late 1970s, long-term studies in xerotherm grasslands became a second major line of research. Community ecology studies came to dominate the research when Gerhard Schäller succeeded Müller in 1977. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, Schäller became the first Director of the newly founded Institute of Ecology at the University of Jena and remained so until 1995. A number of research groups were established during that period, including the Limnology group of Winfried Schönborn, formerly being an independent research group at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR. Also the Institute started several international co-operations. In 1996 Stefan Halle followed Schäller on the chair of Ecology in Jena and established behavioural ecology and experimental field studies as new branches of the scientific work. In 1999 Wolfgang W. Weisser was appointed as professor for Terrestrial Ecology at the Institute, who futher strengthened the evolutionary ecology and experimental approach.
Today, a total of seven research groups in the Institute of Ecology address ecological questions at various levels of integration. The Institute runs a field station in Remderoda (5 km north of Jena) with lab facilities, accommodation for long-term stays, and large enclosures for studies on experimental small mammal populations. The station also serves as a base for student courses and other field studies. With about 30 Doctorate and 40 Diploma students the Institute is one of the largest University Institute for Ecology in Germany. Ongoing collaborations exist with other Institutes at the University of Jena and internationally with a number of research groups in Europe and overseas.
In 1996, the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Ecology was founded in Jena, which investigates the role of chemical signals that mediate the interactions between plants, animals, and their environment. In this institute, ecologists, biochemists, population geneticists and organic chemists work in close collaboration to investigate and unravel the complexity of chemical communication. In 1997, a second Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry was founded in Jena. Here, the research deals with the question, how ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles respond to changes in climate, land-use, and diversity. All together, about 500 ecologist are working today in Jena in a highly international environment at the University and the Max-Planck-Institutes. This concentration of ecological research centres is unique in Germany and allows to run exceptionally large projects, like the Jena Experiment, one of the world-wide largest studies on biodiversity. Both Max-Planck-Institutes also participate in teaching undergraduate and graduate students, so that the Friedrich-Schiller-University is proud of being able to offer a very broad diversity of courses and classes of high scientific standing in Ecology.
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