Introductory Ecology

Peter Cotgreave and Irwin Forseth have designed this book to meet the needs of these students, by providing a basic synthesis of how individual organisms interact with their physical environment, and with each other, to generate the complex ecosystems we see around us. The unifying theme of the book is biodiversity-its patterns, causes, and the growing worldwide threats to it.

Basic ecological principles are illustrated using clearly described examples from the current ecological literature. This approach makes the book valuable to all students studying ecology. Examples have been chosen carefully to represent as wide a range of ecosystems (terrestrial and aquatic, northern and southern hemisphere) and life forms (animal, plant and microbe) as possible. Particular attention is paid to consequences of global change on organisms, populations, ecological communities and ecosystems. The end result is a text that presents a readable and persuasive picture of how the Earth's natural systems function, and how that functioning may change over the coming century.

Features include:
· strong coverage of applied and evolutionary ecology
· applications of ecology to the real world
· a question-orientated approach
· the only comprehensive treatment of ecology written for the introductory student
· an emphasis on definitions of key words and phrases
· an integration of experimental, observational and theoretical material
· examples drawn from all over the world and a wide variety of organisms
· a logical structure, building from the response of individual organisms to physical factors, through population growth and population interactions, to community structure and ecosystem function
· suggested further reading lists for each chapter
· boxes to explain key concepts in more depth

Contents

Preface

1. The diversity of life
2. Global patterns of biodiversity and productivity: biomes
3. Interpreting ecological information
4. Climate and life on Earth
5. Interactions between individuals and the physical environment
6. Introducing biotic interactions and population models
7. Population demography and life history patterns
8. Interspecific competition
9. Predation, herbivory, parasitism and other interactions between populations
10. Similarities and differences in ecological interactions
11. Ecological communities
12. Ecosystems: the flux of energy and matter
13. The structure and composition of ecological communities
14. Species richness, abundance and diversity

References
Index