I've tested the ecology and science rewards at my end and they appear to be working correctly. There is an example in FF 2. Paskovka. In the final part of the level there is an optional objective where you have to use an Ecology Poster. The reward is 2000 Ecology. I checked and it seems to be working fine. I had an animal research going and it jumped up significantly when I got the 2000 Ecology.

Looking at the code you posted, it looks correct. Here is the extract from the level mentioned above:

"doOnComplete": [
{
"popupMessage": "opt_posters_complete"
},
{
"ecology": 2000
}
]

This is structurally identical to what you posted. I'm not sure why it's not working for you.

===

Regarding grantIncrease, it is also used on FF 2. Paskovka. It increases the amount of "daily grant" given to the player each day.

In 2. Paskovka it's teamed up with:

"gameParameters":{
...
"noEntrancePrice": true
...
}

In this case the cashflow window will change to show "Daily grant" instead of Entrance tickets. I'm not sure exactly what happens if you don't set "noEntrancePrice": true. I suspect the daily grant will work but it won't appear in the cashflow.

for "grantIncrease" I had seen that in conjunction with the closed/no $ Entrance, just forgot about it. Thanks for the explanation/reminder.

I have debug and cheats on. Wouldn't think that would matter but will try turning those off and a few other ideas to see why it (ecology point reward) didn't seem to be working.

If something worthwhile is discovered, will post here for others.

Turned the debug/cheats off and still see issues with the Ecology/Science points display. I agree that the Ecology Point Reward is working for FF-2, but the display confuses things.
Some examples:
1st one - RedSriped Eartheater Research, Points shows 525 but progress bar shows ~50% of way to 1600.

2nd one - BlindCave Tetra Research, Points shows 507 but progress bar shows ~1% of way to 1600.

3rd one, Ecology Poster Research, Points shows 478 but progress bar shows ~95% of way to 1600.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1631948687276436907/6A54C83EE5A3F04F4F990EED77238EEE1E7ABDB9/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1631948687276435544/2FB49C161026B9DC92E613844699D8D28288F18E/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1631948687276433215/A25527D65BBB6A8F94E80146CFDBFA6A4DEA6D9E/

The progress bar appears to be accurate while the points shown are not. (The Blind Cave Tetra is just after picking "new research", and the Ecology Poster unlocks just after that screenshot)

possibly something wrong with my install. Even a straightforward sandbox game stalls the Ecology points after a few guests.

Will try verifying install.

verify install showed 14 files to be repaired. Repeat showed 0 files repaired.

But Game (Valberg) still losing Ecology and Science points each day (sort of like Prestige, which I didn't think was possible). No mods installed.

Uninstalled the game (via Steam Interface). Hid/renamed everything under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Megaquarium
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\LocalLow\Twice Circled\Megaquarium
C:\Users\<user>\Documents\My Games\Megaquarium\

Reinstalling pulled down some mods (I then disabled all).

Game seems to progress Ecology correctly, (not losing any) but progress bar still incorrect.
Moving this part of the issue to main discussion.