Got organisms?

In the face of enormous global change, why does it matter that the stuff of life is packaged into organisms?  The last several decades of biological research have seen an explosion of effort at the end members of biological organization – genes and ecosystems.  But where did the organisms go?  Organismal contexts (e.g. linked genes, growth rates) constrain or promote genetic capacity  for function, and its expression, at larger scales, particularly under rapid environmental change. Physiological ecology provides a foundation for exploring the larger scale consequences of organismal packaging of linked functions, while also admiring the entrancing diversity of  life.