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Ecology - Third Edition - Concepts and Applications
Excellent Book
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Published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 8, 2021
The books spends less time talking about ecology and more time talking about scientific studies which have formed the basis of ecology. For instance, the book may say something like “Environmental disturbance facilitates species diversification” and then follow that statement with four paragraphs describing an experiment which supports that statement, including irrelevant background information like the names of the researchers and their school affiliations. While I can see how such a style is useful for would-be researchers, for someone who wants a textbook introduction to ecology—not an introduction to ecological research—the style is inappropriate. For someone with humbler goals, the book focuses too much on “how do we know this” and not enough on “this is what we know”.
March 14, 2009
An informative text on the ecological discipline, explaining organism / environment relationships, various biomes, marine environments, various landscapes, etc. with web support
February 11, 2017
The audience for this book is "students taking their first undergraduate course in ecology"...with " some knowledge of basic chemistry and mathematics and... a course in general biology...physiology, biological diversity and evolution"
It also claims to have "accessible writing - your students are most certain to notice... attempts at humour"
The book is well structured, with sections covering the sub-disciplines in ecology and introducing key concepts in context. It not only uses many Canadian examples but describes specific experiments and observations and the researchers who performed them. It also includes more global examples.
My knowledge of this topic is more advanced than the target audience; my intent was to get an overall update on the whole field. I've read many papers in journals but my last "big picture" read was 30 years ago.
The book met my needs in that respect but I almost quit several times. Only the thought of risking similar issues made me keep going. When I finally finished, I was so relieved at not having to read the awful prose any more. If it weren't for the high cost of buying another textbook, I would definitely have quit
My two main issues are the "accessible writing" and accuracy. A minor issue is that several graphs are hard to read for a variety of reasons such as dark grey backgrounds that make the dark coloured lines difficult to pick out. In other cases, at least one of the axes is not labelled and in a few cases, the graph did not illustrate what the text claimed it illustrated.
The inaccuracies were less irritating than the language. At least they kept me awake and critical. They were relatively minor but did leave a suspicion that maybe I had missed something more important.
Example: expanding a "sum from 1 to n" incorrectly where n= 2. Re-read definition of term, it was incomplete so I couldn't tell if sum written wrong (missing parentheses?) or expansion. Defining "small scale" in absolute terms (few hundred metres) when clearly it depends on organism in question, as even the next sentence implies (significant to the organism under study)
It was the language that discouraged me the most. I'm no fan of overly formal language, especially passive mood. But this seemed overly informal in parts. A good editor could have cleaned this up a lot. Too many filler words, use of immediately answered questions (not the kind that gets the reader to think, the style that says "Did we do this? Yes we did!"), unwarranted "!"s.
A decent editor could have reduced the amount of text by 30% without losing any information.
Perhaps I'm overly picky and I admit I found more faults after a while because of my general irritation level, but text books aren't cheap and editing would have helped a lot. Luckily, I bought this book used.
It also claims to have "accessible writing - your students are most certain to notice... attempts at humour"
The book is well structured, with sections covering the sub-disciplines in ecology and introducing key concepts in context. It not only uses many Canadian examples but describes specific experiments and observations and the researchers who performed them. It also includes more global examples.
My knowledge of this topic is more advanced than the target audience; my intent was to get an overall update on the whole field. I've read many papers in journals but my last "big picture" read was 30 years ago.
The book met my needs in that respect but I almost quit several times. Only the thought of risking similar issues made me keep going. When I finally finished, I was so relieved at not having to read the awful prose any more. If it weren't for the high cost of buying another textbook, I would definitely have quit
My two main issues are the "accessible writing" and accuracy. A minor issue is that several graphs are hard to read for a variety of reasons such as dark grey backgrounds that make the dark coloured lines difficult to pick out. In other cases, at least one of the axes is not labelled and in a few cases, the graph did not illustrate what the text claimed it illustrated.
The inaccuracies were less irritating than the language. At least they kept me awake and critical. They were relatively minor but did leave a suspicion that maybe I had missed something more important.
Example: expanding a "sum from 1 to n" incorrectly where n= 2. Re-read definition of term, it was incomplete so I couldn't tell if sum written wrong (missing parentheses?) or expansion. Defining "small scale" in absolute terms (few hundred metres) when clearly it depends on organism in question, as even the next sentence implies (significant to the organism under study)
It was the language that discouraged me the most. I'm no fan of overly formal language, especially passive mood. But this seemed overly informal in parts. A good editor could have cleaned this up a lot. Too many filler words, use of immediately answered questions (not the kind that gets the reader to think, the style that says "Did we do this? Yes we did!"), unwarranted "!"s.
A decent editor could have reduced the amount of text by 30% without losing any information.
Perhaps I'm overly picky and I admit I found more faults after a while because of my general irritation level, but text books aren't cheap and editing would have helped a lot. Luckily, I bought this book used.
October 4, 2025
It's a solid ecology textbook.
Pros:
- Accessible online resources for accessing the textbook from your phone including text to audio
- Toooonnns of examples from the literature - I'm talking examples of random studies everywhere. Some of the figures are simple transcriptions from the articles but with colors and different graphic backgrounds. Other figures actually involved a lot of manipulation - e.g. converted tabular data to a bar chart or combining three figures from the article into a single panel chart describing all the data
- Using both classical examples of certain concepts like lynx/hare graphs for lotka-volterra and newer less well known examples
Cons
- The mathematical concepts never quite get there. They introduce an equation but don't actually explain all of the aspects of it enough for a student to truly grasp what is happening. So the student can't apply it.
- The mathematical concepts/formulas sometimes use atypical terminology or formulas that I haven't seen other textbooks/writings use. This makes using other examples difficult (because now I have multiple algebraic terms having the same meaning for a variable and I have to clarify to already confused/nervous students).
- While it's nice that they include lots of less well known researchers in examples they refer to them like they all have discipline defining discoveries when some of them really just have a study that supported a particular concept really well so students are left wondering "is this a name I should know because it was the quintessential definer if this idea and every ecology textbook or ecologist should know this person by name or is this simply an example of a study in which this idea was supported?"
- there aren't any good simulation resources to support the class
Overall it's an great choice for a first time teaching ecology if you don't want to rock the boat.
Pros:
- Accessible online resources for accessing the textbook from your phone including text to audio
- Toooonnns of examples from the literature - I'm talking examples of random studies everywhere. Some of the figures are simple transcriptions from the articles but with colors and different graphic backgrounds. Other figures actually involved a lot of manipulation - e.g. converted tabular data to a bar chart or combining three figures from the article into a single panel chart describing all the data
- Using both classical examples of certain concepts like lynx/hare graphs for lotka-volterra and newer less well known examples
Cons
- The mathematical concepts never quite get there. They introduce an equation but don't actually explain all of the aspects of it enough for a student to truly grasp what is happening. So the student can't apply it.
- The mathematical concepts/formulas sometimes use atypical terminology or formulas that I haven't seen other textbooks/writings use. This makes using other examples difficult (because now I have multiple algebraic terms having the same meaning for a variable and I have to clarify to already confused/nervous students).
- While it's nice that they include lots of less well known researchers in examples they refer to them like they all have discipline defining discoveries when some of them really just have a study that supported a particular concept really well so students are left wondering "is this a name I should know because it was the quintessential definer if this idea and every ecology textbook or ecologist should know this person by name or is this simply an example of a study in which this idea was supported?"
- there aren't any good simulation resources to support the class
Overall it's an great choice for a first time teaching ecology if you don't want to rock the boat.
December 14, 2020
Pros: Well written and informative. Very detailed and good for review. User-friendly. Questions on the assignments are catered to your responses. It learns what you know and don't and asks questions accordingly. If you don't know a question, it will take you to the place in the book where you can read up a bit. It highlights portions of the book that are relevant to study.
Cons: Connect program is extremely annoying. Questions are often worded strangely. It is a digitized grammar Nazi. If you have the right answer but spelled incorrectly it will mark you wrong. It could be as simple as typing in a singular noun when a plural is needed (i.e. typing in cat, when the answer is cats). Time estimates are always way off- it often takes me 2-3 hours per assignment to complete, though it insists it takes 45 minutes. Also worth noting that while it does take you to the place where you can review the answer if you don't know it, it sometimes will take you to the wrong place. It is good for review, but it does have excessive detail that requires you to sort through what's important and what isn't.
Cons: Connect program is extremely annoying. Questions are often worded strangely. It is a digitized grammar Nazi. If you have the right answer but spelled incorrectly it will mark you wrong. It could be as simple as typing in a singular noun when a plural is needed (i.e. typing in cat, when the answer is cats). Time estimates are always way off- it often takes me 2-3 hours per assignment to complete, though it insists it takes 45 minutes. Also worth noting that while it does take you to the place where you can review the answer if you don't know it, it sometimes will take you to the wrong place. It is good for review, but it does have excessive detail that requires you to sort through what's important and what isn't.
December 9, 2022
Just finished the final chapter of this text. I used the resource for my 300-level Ecology students. I thought the book was an excellent balance of introducing new concepts and terms, followed by interesting ecological examples. I would recommend.
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October 23, 2020El mejor manual de ecología general que hay disponible.
December 19, 2023
Decent textbook. Lots of examples which, for me, is helpful.
November 14, 2017
Global change chapter is outdated. Minimal updating from edition to edition (been using from Ed 5 to Ed 7), yet costs stay high. Could get away from adherence to "classic" studies (like in population and predation chapters) that wouldn't stand a chance in peer review today. I'd recommend introducing concept and then demonstrating it with a published study from within the past 5 years. Some of the examples don't seem quite well-targeted to principle they are claiming to represent.
All this being said, I still use this book. It's accessible to students, and it provides a bunch of basic principles that you can then illustrate with examples from the book or those you've found on your own.
All this being said, I still use this book. It's accessible to students, and it provides a bunch of basic principles that you can then illustrate with examples from the book or those you've found on your own.
February 3, 2017
this ecology book gives a lot of different and good examples. It is easy to read and follow. So far, I like it for a science book. I usually dread any kind of college science course
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April 9, 2013awesome
July 13, 2013
Very easy to follow text with good conceptual flow.
June 11, 2021
Oh boi if you want a fun time read this book, nothing pales in comparison compared to this masterpiece
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews