Ecology: evolution, application, integration

Ecology: Evolution, Application, Integration provides students and instructors with a groundbreaking evolutionary approach that transforms ecology from a collection of disassociated facts into an integrated, concept-driven discipline. Since most ecological interactions are rooted in adaptive evolution, students learn to place ecological problems in an evolutionary context, thinking critically instead of just memorizing facts. This text develops scientific reasoning skills by teaching students not just what we know about the field, but also how we know what we know about it. Each chapter of Ecology begins with a fundamental ecological question. The sections of the chapter are designed around a logical sequence of smaller questions, the answers to which eventually enable students to answer the chapter's main question. This approach models the process of science; as students gain experience with this approach, they can apply it to new problems and questions.

Part 1: Organisms, the environment, and evolution. Introduction to ecology ; Adaptation and evolution ; Adaptations to the physical environment ; Terrestrial communities ; Freshwater and marine communities ; Behavioral ecology ; The ecology of intraspecific variation -- Part 2: Populations. Demography ; Population regulation ; Life history strategies -- Part 3: Communities : interactions among species. Competition ; Coevolution ; The structure of communities ; Ecological succession -- Part 4: Communities and ecosystems. Species diversity ; Energy flow and trophic structure ; Biogeochemical cycles -- Part 5: Large-scale and applied ecology. Conservation biology ; Landscape ecology ; Human global ecology -- Figure analysis: Answer key -- Glossary.