Ecology: Theories and Applications (4th Edition)

Presents a comprehensive, yet concise and clear, overview of ecology—evolutionary, behavioral, population, community and applied. The Third Edition retains a broad scope and completely integrates the applied sections into the theories of ecology — showing how the theories are applied in the real world. Emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving. Discusses what is currently known about a topic as well as what is yet unknown—emphasizing that future study in the discipline can lead to important contributions. Completely new first chapter, introduction—Discusses the four main sections of the book: behavioral, population, community, and ecosystems ecology. Expanded coverage of behavioral and ecosystems ecology includes a new chapter which features sections on mating systems, sex ratios, habitat selection, dispersal and age structure. Includes discussions on energy flow; features a new, independent chapter for nutrient cycles; separate chapters on species richness, diversity, stability, succession and biogeography. Discusses non-equilibrium theories in coverage of stability and touches on cluster analysis and ordination in discussion of diversity. Broad discussion of evolutionary biology to put conservation and biodiversity in perspective. For ecolgists and environmental scientists.