Known for its emphasis on the relevance of ecology in everyday life and the human impact on ecosystems, Elements of Ecology, Seventh Edition features new “Interpreting Ecological Data” exercises to help students develop quantitative skills.
Each chapter draws upon current research in the various fields of ecology while providing accessible examples that help students understand species natural history, specific ecosystems, the process of science, and ecological patterns at both an evolutionary and demographic scale.
To engage students in using and interpreting data, a wide variety of Quantifying Ecology boxes walk through step-by-step examples of equations and statistical techniques. The expanded Companion Website (www.ecologyplace.com) includes GRAPHit!, and QUANTIFYit! exercises to help students further master and apply math skills.
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. Adaptation and Natural Selection
6. Plant Adaptations to the Environment
7. Animal Adaptations to the Environment
8. Life History Patterns
III. POPULATIONS
9. Properties of Populations
10. Population Growth
11. Intraspecific Population Regulation
12. Metapopulations
IV. SPECIES INTERACTIONS
13. Interspecific Competition
14. Predation
15. Parasitism and Mutualism
V. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
16. Community Structure
17. Factors Influencing the Structure of Communities
18. Community Dynamics
19. Landscape Ecology
VI. ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY
20. Ecosystem Energetics
21. Decomposition and Nutrient Cycling
22. Biogeochemical Cycles
VII. BIOGEOGRAPHICAL ECOLOGY
23. Terrestrial Ecosystems
24. Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems
25. Land-Water Margins
26. Large-scale Patterns of Biological Diversity
VIII. HUMAN ECOLOGY
27. Population Growth, Resource Use, and Sustainability
28. Habitat Loss, Biodiversity, and Conservation
29. Global Climate Change
About the 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). He 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.
