This report was designed as an initial attempt to address the role of the federal government in ecological research and application of this research. The Ad Hoc Committee on Ecological Research, appointed for this study, provided advice and guidance in the following five areas: (1) identification of national needs for ecological knowledge and capability; (2) assessment of our present ecological knowledge and capabilities and the current status of our efforts to meet these needs; (3) development of recommendations for short- and long-term national programs of ecological knowledge and capabilities basic to achieving our national goals; (4) coordinating interagency ecological research activities; and (5) strengthening the ecological basis for regulatory action for land, air, water, and renewable resource management, and for land use decisions. The report falls into three major sections. The first part of the report contains the six principal findings on national needs for improving ecological understanding and its application, and the 12 recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee which emerged. The second part is a discussion of basic concepts in ecology and a brief highlighting of human progress and problems in relationship to ecosystems and resources. Finally, there is a categorization of present federal agency involvement in ecological research. (TK)