Synopses & Reviews
Essentials of Ecology presents introductory ecology in an accessible, state-of-the-art format designed to cultivate the novice student's understanding of, and fascination with, the natural world. In a concise, engaging style, this text outlines the essential principles of ecology from the theoretical fundamentals to their practical applications. Full color artwork, simple pedagogical features, and a wide range of carefully-chosen examples make this book an ideal introduction to ecology for students at all levels.
The third edition of this successful text is much more than a simple update, reflecting the vibrancy of the field. With hundreds of new examples, it contains for the first time a separate chapter on evolutionary ecology, with all other chapters, especially those on applied aspects, having been extensively revised and re-written. The new edition also features new artwork and an enhanced design, making Essentials of Ecology as attractive as it is up-to-date and relevant.
Outstanding features of the third edition of Essentials of Ecology include:
- Dedicated website - available at www.blackwellpublishing.com/townsend, featuring study resources and web research questions
- Key Concepts - summarized at the beginning of each chapter
- History boxes outlining key landmarks in the development of ecology
- Quantitative boxes - allowing mathematical aspects of ecology to be explained clearly without interrupting the flow of the text
- Topical ECOncerns boxes - highlighting ethical, social and political questions in ecology
- Review questions - included at the end of each chapter
Review
"The new edition also features new artwork and an enhanced design, making Essentials of Ecology as attractive as it is up-to-date and relevant." Biotechnologie, Agronomie Societe et Environment
Review
"In a concise, engaging style, this book contains the essential principles of ecology from theoretical to their practical applications." (
Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, July/August 2008)
"The new edition also features new artwork and an enhanced design, making Essentials of Ecology as attractive as it is up-to-date and relevant." (Biotechnologie, Agronomie Societe et Environment)
Review
"The volume is an important collection of chapters at the cutting edge of developmental social neuroscience. In addition to several well known figures, the international array of authors includes some rising stars whose work points to the future of the field. This exciting synthesis of social cognition and developmental neuroscience will provide stimulating reading for a wide variety of researchers and students of typical and atypical human development."
–Professor Mark H Johnson, Director of the Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, University of London
"A landmark for a new era in social cognition research, Striano and Reid have gathered together an outstanding collection of contributions to point the way to a truly interdisciplinary social cognitive developmental neuroscience. Coherently organized and thoughtfully edited, this volume represents the latest in research and theory on social cognition in the brain and on how it changes through typical and atypical development. The quality and range of the chapters will make the volume an invaluable reference for researchers and students alike."
–Professor Chris Moore, Dalhousie University, Canada
"The new discipline of social neuroscience has made remarkable strides in the last decade. This book is an important and highly readable collection of essays in the field. It should help dissolve the barrier between what C P Snow called "The two cultures" - science and humanities - long separated by a gap he regarded as unbridgeable."
–VS Ramachandran MD
"The last 10 years have witnessed an explosion in our understanding of the neural and developmental factors that underlie social interactions in humans. This impressive volume skilfully weaves together the various threads that have driven this revolution forward to produce a work of significant importance.
"Striano and Reid have managed to bring together most of the world’s top experts in social cognitive neurosciences through 21 neatly written and interrelated chapters. It is refreshing to see that the majority of authors are European-based, thereby providing not just a European perspective on this vibrant discipline, but underscoring the centrality of European research in this endeavour.
"As a whole, this collection provides both an erudite and gripping glimpse into what makes us who we are as individuals within a society. While there are several other works on the foundations of social cognition, Section 4 of the current volume on social cognition in children with autism and other developmental disorders makes the work stand out as a unique contribution. It should be essential reading for students of human behaviour and practitioners alike who wish to catch up with the latest developments in our understanding of the social brain."
–Professor Denis Mareschal, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck University of London
"Taken individually, each of the chapters in Striano and Reid’s important new volume extends the horizon of what is known regarding mechanisms of social cognition and its development. Taken as a whole, this volume compellingly showcases the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, and highlights the key role such collaboration will play in illuminating the human social capacity."
–Dr Dare Baldwin, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon
Synopsis
Essentials of Ecologypresents introductory ecology in an accessible, state-of-the-art format designed to cultivate the novice student's understanding of, and fascination with, the natural world.
- A significantly updated new edition of this popular introductory ecology textbook
- Outlines the essential principles of ecology from the theoretical fundamentals to their practical applications
- Contains hundreds of new examples, and for the first time, a separate chapter on evolutionary ecology
- Student features include: key concepts; “unanswered questions” sections; history boxes outlining key landmarks in the development of ecology; quantitative boxes explaining mathematical aspects of ecology; chapter-by chapter review questions; and “topical concerns” boxes highlighting ethical, social and political questions in ecology
- Supported by a dedicated website featuring study resources and web research questions (www.blackwellpublishing.com/townsend)
Synopsis
This textbook presents introductory ecology in an accessible, state-of-the-art format designed to cultivate the novice student's understanding of, and fascination with, the natural world. In a concise, engaging style, this text outlines the essential principles of ecology from the theoretical fundamentals to their practical applications. Full color artwork, simple pedagogical features, and a wide range of carefully-chosen examples make this book an ideal introduction to ecology for students at all levels.
The third edition of this successful text is much more than a simple update, reflecting the vibrancy of the field. With hundreds of new examples, it contains for the first time a separate chapter on evolutionary ecology, with all other chapters, especially those on applied aspects, having been extensively revised and re-written. The new edition also features new artwork and an enhanced design, making this book as attractive as it is up-to-date and relevant.
Outstanding features of the third edition of Essentials of Ecology include:
- Dedicated website - available at www.blackwellpublishing.com/townsend, featuring study resources and web research questions
- Key Concepts - summarized at the beginning of each chapter
- History boxes outlining key landmarks in the development of ecology
- Quantitative boxes - allowing mathematical aspects of ecology to be explained clearly without interrupting the flow of the text
- Topical ECOncerns boxes - highlighting ethical, social and political questions in ecology
- Review questions - included at the end of each chapter
About the Author
Colin R. Townsend is the Director of the Ecology, Conservation and Biodiversity Research Group at the University of Otago. He has published over 150 ecology papers and books, including the best-selling and award-winning
Ecology, 4th Edition, with co-authors Michael Begon and John L. Harper. He is also co-editor of the international journal
Freshwater Biology.Michael Begon is Professor of Ecology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Liverpool. He has authored several books in addition to Ecology and around 150 research articles. His current research interests are focused on the population ecology of pathogens in wildlife populations.
John L. Harper is an award-winning biologist and a leading figure in plant population biology. He has served as a council member of the Fellowship of the Royal Society and received the Darwin Arward in 1990. He is also the author of Population Biology of Plants and a co-author of Ecology.
Table of Contents
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Part I: Introduction:.
1. Ecology and how to do it.
1.1 Introduction.
1.2 Scales, diversity and rigor.
1.3 Ecology in practice.
2. Ecology’s evolutionary backdrop.
2.1 Introduction.
2.2 Evolution by natural selection.
2.3 Evolution within species.
2.4 The ecology of speciation.
2.5 Effects of climatic change on the evolution and distribution of species.
2.6 Effects of continental drift on the ecology of evolution.
2.7 Interpreting the results of evolution: convergents and parallels.
Part II: Conditions and Resources:.
3. Physical conditions and the availability of resources.
3.1 Introduction.
3.2 Environmental conditions.
3.3 Plant resources.
3.4 Animals and their resources.
3.5 Effects of intraspecific competition for resources.
3.6 Conditions, resources and the ecological niche.
4. Conditions, resources and the world’s communities.
4.1 Introduction.
4.2 Geographic patterns at large and small scales.
4.3 Temporal patterns in conditions and resources.
4.4 Terrestrial biomes.
4.5 Aquatic environments.
Part III: Individuals, Populations, Communities and Ecosystems:.
5. Birth, death and movement.
5.1 Introduction.
5.2 Life cycles.
5.3 Monitoring birth and death: life tables and fecundity schedules.
5.4 Dispersal and migration.
5.5 The impact of intraspecific competition on populations.
5.6 Life history patterns.
6. Interspecific competition.
6.1 Introduction.
6.2 Ecological effects of interspecific competition.
6.3 Evolutionary effects of interspecific competition.
6.4 Interspecific competition and community structure.
6.5 How significant is interspecific competition in practice?.
7. Predation, grazing and disease.
7.1 Introduction.
7.2 Prey fitness and abundance.
7.3 The subtleties of predation.
7.4 Predator behaviour: foraging and transmission.
7.5 Population dynamics of predation.
7.6 Predation and community structure.
8. Evolutionary ecology.
8.1 Introduction.
8.2 Molecular ecology: differentiation within and between species.
8.3 Coevolutionary arms races.
8.4 Mutualistic interactions.
9. From populations to communities.
9.1 Introduction.
9.2 Multiple determinants of the dynamics of populations.
9.3 Dispersal, patches and metapopulation dynamics.
9.4 Temporal patterns in community composition.
9.5 Food webs.
10. Patterns in species richness.
10.1 Introduction.
10.2 A simple model of species richness.
10.3 Spatially varying factors that influence species richness.
10.4 Temporally varying factors that influence species richness.
10.5 Gradients of species richness.
10.6 Patterns in taxon richness in the fossil record.
10.7 Appraisal of patterns in species richness.
11. The flux of energy and matter through ecosystems.
11.1 Introduction.
11.2 Primary productivity.
11.3 The fate of primary productivity.
11.4 The process of decomposition.
11.5 The flux of matter through ecosystems.
11.6 Global biogeochemical cycles.
Part IV: Applied Issues in Ecology:.
12. Sustainability.
12.1 Introduction.
12.2 The population ‘problem’.
12.3 Harvesting living resources from the wild.
12.4 The farming of monocultures.
12.5 Pest control.
12.6 Integrated farming systems.
12.7 Forecasting agriculturally driven global environmental change.
13. Habitat degradation.
13.1 Introduction.
13.2 Degradation via cultivation.
13.3 Power generation and its diverse effects.
13.4 Degradation in urban and industrial landscapes.
13.5 Maintenance and restoration of ecosystem services.
14. Conservation.
14.1 Introduction.
14.2 Threats to biodiversity.
14.3 Conservation in practice.
14.4 Conservation in a changing world.
14.5 Finale.
References.
Index