Author Description

First Ecology: Ecological Principles and Environmental Issues provides a critical and evaluative introduction to the science of ecology. Alan Beeby and Anne-Maria Brennan present a succinct survey of ecology, describing and explaining the relationship between living organisms and their environment.In sequence, First Ecology develops the core themes of ecology at each level of organization - subcellular, population, ecosystem, landscape, and planetary. Understanding this hierarchy - and the interplay between these levels - is crucial to the environmental decisions our species faces at the start of the twenty-first century.Distinctive Features- Assumes little background knowledge and leads students gradually into the subject to build understanding, making it ideal for students from a range of disciplines.- Detailed examples and case studies build on principles introduced in the text, thus allowing students to see ecological techniques in action.- An Online Resource Center (password protected) offers instructors a virtual field course comprised of exercises using real data to assist and enrich students' time in the field; figures from the book, available to download to facilitate lecture preparation; PowerPoint slides introducing key concepts, supported with integrated figures from the book; and answers to exercises provided in the book. For students, the site provides hyperlinks to the primary literature cited in the book, and a web link library of all the URLs included in the book, together with additional web links on specific topics.