Abstract: Based on the evident changes of theories methodologies and discipline constructions,the history of ecology can be divided into 4 stages. The long history before Humboldt's plant geographic re-search (1805) is the first or rudimentary stage,in which,ecological thoughts were emerged in ancient philosophy and biology. The secondary or formation stage is from Humboldt's plant geography to Warming's plant ecology (1895), in which a large number of ecological researches male ecology separated from plant geography and became a new branch of biology, In the third or es- tablished stage, the period from Warming's plant ecology to Odum's "Fundamentals of ecology"(1953),the basic theories, meththodologies and discipline constructions of ecology were formed and some new areas were also being developed.Odum's "Fundamentals of ecology"(1953)is the symbol that ecology gets into its fourth or advancing stage. Due to the social needs and applica- tion of modern techniques,ecology grows explosively in areas of further exploring the nature of life and sustainable development of humanity.resulting in the ecological epoch.

Key words: field border length, wheat, grain yield, water consumption characteristics, water use efficiency.