Autecology is an approach in ecology that seeks to explain the distribution and abundance of species by studying interactions of individual organisms with their environments.
[5] The most recent attempt at deriving a theoretical structure for autecology was published in 2014 by ecologists Gimme Walter and Rob Hengeveld.
Seasonal changes and variability in climate mean that the spatial and/or temporal distribution of suitable habitat for a species also varies.
[6] By determining the requirements and tolerances of a particular species, it is possible to predict how individuals of that species will respond to specific environmental changes [2] Autecological theory predicts that populations will reproduce at around replacement level unless a period of environmental change causing unusually high or low survival causes the population to grow or shrink before restabilising at replacement level again.
[9][10] With focus on individual organism, autecology has mechanistic links to several other biological fields, including ethology, evolution, genetics and physiology[2]