Ecology in Action

This undergraduate textbook enables students to develop a strong grasp of key ecological concepts, a deep understanding of the origins and evolution of scientific knowledge, and an appreciation of their real-world applications. The pedagogically rich and engaging second edition is filled with diverse resources that support active learning.

Providing students with a solid understanding of core ecological concepts while explaining how ecologists raise and answer real-world questions, this second edition weaves together classic and cutting-edge case studies to bring the subject to life. It is fully updated throughout, including two chapters devoted to climate change ecology, along with extensive coverage of disease ecology, and has been designed specifically to equip students with the tools to analyze and interpret real data. Each chapter emphasizes the linkage between observations, ideas, questions, hypotheses, predictions, results, and conclusions. Additional summary sections describe the development and evolution of research programs in each of ecology''s core areas, providing students with essential context. Integrated discussion questions, along with end-of-chapter questions, encourage active learning. These are supported by online resources including tutorials that teach students to use the R programming language for statistical analyses of data presented in the text.