Elements of Ecology:International Edition

Description

Features

• Interpreting Ecological Data exercises help students test their understanding of graphs and data and to consider different outcomes.
• The Ecology Place companion website is referenced in the text and features new MapMaster interactive map activities for exploring ecosystems, physical environments, and populations at regional and global scales, along with  popular GRAPHit!, and QUANTIFYit! exercises that help students further master and apply math skills, and a new Pearson eText. A subscription to the Ecology Place is included with each new copy of the text for no additional charge (www.ecologyplace.com).
• Quantifying Ecology boxes help students develop the quantitative skills they need to interpret ecological data, research, and models. Skills are reinforced by a set of follow-up questions and links to GRAPHit! and QUANTIFYit! on the companion website (www.ecologyplace.com).
• Field Studies discuss ecological research performed by young up-and-coming scientists, and challenge students to interpret the results of the featured research.
• Ecological Issues essays describe how humans influence the study of ecology. For example, the short essay “The Ecology of Antibiotic Resistance” discusses how antibiotic resistance is a result of natural selection. Each essay is followed by a set of critical thinking questions.
• Engaging introductions give students a “big picture” overview of the coming chapters in each of the eight parts of the book, so they can understand how various topics interrelate.
• Landscape Ecology chapter explores the role of disturbance in ecosystems.
• Further Readings at the end of each chapter emphasize how the text is based on real scientific studies. These Further Readings are annotated to explain their relevance to the student/instructor.

New to this Edition

• The book's evolution theme has been expanded as a framework for unifying the study of ecology at higher levels of organization:
  • A substantially revised Chapter 10 (Life History) highlights the concept of adaptation through natural selection and makes explicit the links between life history characteristics and population dynamics using the life table analysis techniques that are revisited in later chapters.
  • NEW! Chapter 13: Species Interactions, Population Dynamics and Natural Selection introduces the variety of species interactions that occur among populations, and explores how these interactions influence respective populations.
  • Reorganized Part 4 (Species Interactions) emphasizes the concept of adaptation through natural selection and explores patterns and processes across ecological scales.
• Revised Chapter 7 (Animal Adaptations to the Environment), eliminates the overlap of content with material that is covered in introductory biology texts.
• The enhanced Ecology Place companion website (www.ecologyplace.com) is referenced in the text and offers the following new resources:
  • NEW! MapMaster interactive map activities act as a mini-GIS tool, allowing students to layer thematic maps to analyze special patterns and data at regional and global scales. Multiple-choice and short-answer quizzes are organized around themes of ecosystems, physical environments, and populations.
  • NEW! Pearson eText is identical to the printed textbook and allows students and instructors to highlight text, add their own study notes, and customize the book using the whiteboard-style annotation tool.
• Thoroughly updated examples and topics reflect the most recent research and results in the field of ecology.
• Refined Interpreting Ecological Data figure legend questions help students develop quantitative skills. 
• NEW customizable PowerPoint lecture outlines are available to adopting instructors.  The files can be downloaded from the instructor resource area of www.ecologyplace.com. 

Table of Contents

1. The Nature of Ecology

I. THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

2. Climate

3. The Aquatic Environment

4. The Terrestrial Environment

II. THE ORGANISM AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 

5. Ecological Genetics: Adaptation and Natural Selection

6. Plant Adaptations to the Environment

7. Animal Adaptations to the Environment

III. POPULATIONS

8. Properties of Populations

9. Population Growth

10. Life History

11. Intraspecific Population Regulation

12. Metapopulations

IV. SPECIES INTERACTIONS

13. Species Interactions, Population Dynamics and Natural Selection

14. Interspecific Competition

15. Predation

16. Parasitism and Mutualism

V. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

17. Community Structure

18. Factors Influencing the Structure of Communities

19. Community Dynamics

20. Landscape Ecology

VI. ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY

21. Ecosystem Energetics

22. Decomposition and Nutrient Cycling

23. Biogeochemical Cycles

VII. BIOGEOGRAPHICAL ECOLOGY

24. Terrestrial Ecosystems

25. Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems

26. Land-Water Margins

27. Large-scale Patterns of Biological Diversity

VIII. HUMAN ECOLOGY

28. Population Growth, Resource Use, and Sustainability

29. Habitat Loss, Biodiversity, and Conservation

30 Global Climate Change

Author

Thomas M. Smith, Associate Professor in Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, received his Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Tennessee in 1982. The main focus of his research over the past two decades has been to develop an individual based theory of community and ecosystems dynamics. As part of this work he has served on numerous national and international panels that have addressed the potential influence of human activities on the global environment. He has authored over 70 publications based on his research, and he has been recognized as one of the most cited scientists in the field of global change research.

      Thomas's work has taken him to over 70 countries and 6 continents. He has served on the faculty of the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa), Australian National University (Canberra, Australia), as well as the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA, USA). In addition, he has held research scientist positions at both Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN, USA) and the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Laxenburg, Austria). His has over 20 years of experience teaching the science of ecology to both science and non-science majors.

Robert L. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology from Cornell University. He is Professor Emeritus of Ecology at West Virginia University. He has spent over 30 years teaching Ecology and conducting field research throughout the world.

His teaching responsibilities have involved mostly undergraduate courses in general ecology and graduate courses in population ecology and wildlife management. His research has included forest-fire related problems in southern West Virginia, vegetational development and succession on abandoned and reclaimed surface mines, the relation between forest vegetational structure and the forest bird community, and forest habitat assessment and habitat evaluation procedures based on vegetational structure.

Smith has served as a consultant to congressional committees, workshops on environmental education and energy and environmental problems, the National Landmarks program of the U.S. Department of Interior, National Research Council Task Forces on wildlife and fisheries issues and ecological classification systems for implementing environmental quality evaluation procedures.