Ecology

Roles: organism, population, community, ecosystem, niche, habitat, predator, prey, nutrient-cycle, succession, disturbance, resilience

The study of relationships between organisms and their environments. As a source domain, ecology provides a rich vocabulary for systems that are interconnected, self-regulating, and vulnerable to cascading failure. The frame foregrounds interdependence over independence, dynamic equilibrium over static balance, and the idea that removing one element can collapse an entire network. Its metaphorical power comes from the intuitive appeal of “nature knows best” — but ecologists themselves know that nature is indifferent, not wise.

As Source Frame (36)