Preface
William D. Bowman
University of Colorado
Sally D. Hacker
Oregon State University
Ecology is at the heart of understanding our world—it serves as the glue that brings together information from a multitude of different scientific disciplines, and it integrates this information in a way that informs us about how nature works.
As our environment continues to change because of fossil fuel burning, agriculture, resource extraction, and pollution, it becomes increasingly critical that we understand the repercussions of these changes through an ecological perspective. Stewardship of ecosystem goods and services that humanity requires—food, clean air, clean water, and many others—is important to understand through the lens of ecological knowledge. Our goal with this book is to present that ecological knowledge in the best way possible to promote ecological literacy in students with diverse backgrounds and career goals.Advances in ecology occur regularly, facilitated by technological and computational breakthroughs, as well as creative experimental approaches. This continued advancement, along with the diversity of subjects that form its basis, makes ecology a potentially daunting and complicated subject to learn. We set out to introduce our readers to the beauty of nature and importance of ecology and provide content in a way that engages students without overwhelming them in the process. To achieve these goals, the book's two core principles of “Learning Comes First” and “Less Is More” guided our every step.
Core Principles Guiding Ecology, Sixth Edition
Enabling effective learning is our primary goal and motivation in writing the Sixth Edition of Ecology. The structure and content of our chapters are designed primarily to be motivating to read and easy to comprehend. For example, to introduce the content and capture student interest, each chapter begins with an engaging story (a “Case Study,” as described more fully later about an important ecological topic or interesting real-life problem.
Once one is drawn in by the Case Study, the “storyline” that it initiates is maintained throughout the rest of the chapter. We use a narrative writing style to link the sections of the chapter to one another, thus helping the reader keep the big picture in mind. The sections of the chapter are organized around a small number of Key Concepts (also described more thoroughly later) that are carefully selected to summarize current knowledge and provide students with a clear overview of the subject at hand. Additionally, our Learning Objectives help students focus on the main concepts that they should take away from their reading. When designing the art, pedagogy comes first. Many people are visual learners, so we worked hard to ensure that each figure “tells a story” that can be understood on its own.In addition, we follow a “less is more” philosophy to help us achieve our primary goal of student learning. We are guided by the principle that if we cover less material but present it in a narrative style, students will increase their reading comprehension. Hence, our chapters are relatively short, and they are built around a small number of Key Concepts and Learning Objectives (typically, three to five each). This approach required some difficult choices, but it has enabled us to focus on teaching students what is currently known about ecology without burdening them with excessive detail.
We also recognize that many instructors are choosing to “flip” their instructional style, with an emphasis on hands-on activities during classroom time and a greater reliance on student learning of core material outside of the classroom. In previous editions, Ecology has consistently served this purpose well with its clear, easy-to-read, and well-organized presentation of material, coupled with several of its quantitative active learning features such as the Analyzing Data, Hone Your Problem-Solving Skills, and Hands-On Problem Solving exercises. In this edition, we have expanded our offering with all-new Oxford Insight courseware.
Oxford Insight courseware is an online instructional tool that provides an e-book version of the textbook as well as digital resources that facilitate student engagement and evaluation. Oxford Insight hosts a rich tapestry of fascinating videos, interactive exercises, and formative and summative assessments, all while bringing the hallmark quantitative features to life in a dynamic digital environment. Oxford Insight gets students reading and interacting with the core content prior to attending lecture, so class time can be spent in small and large group interactions, rather than simply on review of the textbook content. (For more information on Oxford Insight, see “Digital Resources for Ecology, Sixth Edition.”)New to Ecology, Sixth Edition
In addition to the new Oxford Insight courseware, and to keep the book to a manageable length, we have updated, replaced, revised, and, in some cases, cut sections of the book with each new edition. In the Sixth Edition, particular attention was given to updating content on climate change: the causes, the ecological responses, and the projected impacts. In addition, new examples are included incorporating current issues, such as the impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on the volume of bird songs or the effects of warming on non-native dune grass species interactions.
Examples of more extensive revisions include reorganization of portions of the Life History, Population Distribution and Abundance, and Population Dynamics chapters and updating examples on optimal foraging in the Behavioral Ecology chapter and on the design of nature reserves in the Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Management chapter. In addition, three new Climate Change Connection vignettes are included such that all chapters have at least one example of this feature.
Hallmark Features
In addition to the changes we just described, we have revised and strengthened the key pedagogical features of Ecology, introduced in previous editions:
Pedagogical Excellence
Students taking their first course in ecology are exposed to a great deal of material.
To help them manage this content, each chapter of Ecology is organized around a small number of Key Concepts and Learning Objectives that provide up-to-date summaries of fundamental ecological principles.Links to Ecological Applications
Many students taking introductory ecology are interested in use-inspired aspects of ecology. Thus, ecological applications (including conservation biology) are featured and woven into each chapter, helping to capture and retain student interest.
Links to Evolution
Evolution is a central, unifying theme of all biology, and its connections with ecology are strong. Thus, we incorporate evolution throughout the book and make it the focus of some chapters. For example, Chapter 6 (Evolution and Ecology) explores the ecology of evolution both at the population level and as observed in the sweeping history of life on Earth. Other topics in evolutionary ecology are explored in Chapter 7 (Life History) and in Chapter 8 (Behavioral Ecology).
Case Studies
Each chapter opens with an interesting vignette—a Case Study. By presenting an engaging story or interesting application, the Case Study captures the reader's attention while introducing the topic of the chapter. Later, the reader is brought full circle with the corresponding “Case Study Revisited” section at chapter's end. Each Case Study relates to multiple levels of ecological hierarchy, thereby providing a nice lead-in to the Connections in Nature feature, described next.
Connections in Nature
In most ecology textbooks, connections among levels of the ecological hierarchy are discussed briefly, perhaps only in the opening chapter. As a result, many opportunities are missed to highlight the fact that events in natural systems really are interconnected. To facilitate the concept of how events in nature are interconnected, each chapter of Ecology closes with a section that discusses how the material covered in that chapter affects and is affected by interactions at other levels of the ecological hierarchy.
Where appropriate, these interconnections are also emphasized in the main body of the text.Climate Change Connections
Recognizing the increasing evidence for and effects of climate change on ecological systems, Climate Change Connection examples are included for each chapter topic of the book. These vignettes help students appreciate the many consequences of global climate change on the distributions and functions of organisms as well as the ecosystems in which they depend.
Ecological Inquiry
Our understanding of ecology is constantly changing due to new observations, experiments, and models. All chapters of the book emphasize the active, inquirybased nature of what is known about ecology. This occurs throughout the narrative and is further highlighted by the quantitative and applied Analyzing Data exercises, Hone Your Problem-Solving Skills exercises, and Figure Legend Questions described later.
Analyzing Data Exercises
Our understanding of ecology is constantly changing due to new observations, experiments, and models. Thus, all chapters of the book emphasize active, inquiry-based exercises. Toward that end, we have included Analyzing Data exercises in each chapter of the book. These exercises give students extra practice with essential skills, such as performing calculations, making graphs, designing experiments, and interpreting results.
Hone Your Problem-Solving Skills
The Hone Your Problem-Solving Skills exercises in each chapter expose students to hypothetical situations or existing data sets and allow them to work through data analysis and interpretation to better understand key ecological concepts and relate these concepts to real-life situations.
Figure Legend Questions
Each chapter includes 3-6 Figure Legend Questions that appear in the end of the legend. These questions encourage students to grapple with the concepts of the figure to increase learning comprehension. The questions range from testing whether students understand the axes or other simple aspects of the figure to
asking students to develop or evaluate hypotheses.
Ecological Toolkits
Nearly half of the chapters include an Ecological Toolkit, a box inset in the chapters that describes ecological “tools” such as experimental design, remote sensing, mark-recapture techniques, stable isotope analysis, DNA fingerprinting, or calculating of species-area curves.
Ecology Is a Work in Progress
This book, like the field of ecology, does not consist of a set of unchanging ideas or a fixed amount of information. Instead, the book has developed and changed over time as we respond to new discoveries and new ways learning. We would love to hear from you—what you like about the book, what you do not like, and any questions or suggestions you may have for how we can improve the learning experience. You can send your comments and suggestions to the senior author at william.bowman@colorado.edu.
Accessible Color Content
Every opportunity has been taken to ensure that the content herein is fully accessible to those who have difficulty perceiving color. Exceptions are cases where the colors provided are expressly required because of the purpose of the illustration.
Acknowledgments
We wish to express our gratitude to the staff at Oxford University Press, with whom we worked closely during the writing, revision, and production of the Sixth Edition. Jason Noe expertly oversaw the entire revision from start to finish, with assistance from Sarah D'Arienzo and Jessica McLaughlin. Production Editors Stephanie Nisbet and Johannah Walkowicz organized and managed the project workflow and scheduling and provided editorial assistance. Wendy Walker and Lou Doucette provided expert copyediting and ensured consistency and clarity throughout the book. Elizabeth Morales provided the beautiful illustrations. Production Specialist Donna DiCarlo created the wonderful new cover. Photo Editor Mark Siddall provided excellent choices for instructive and interesting images. Permissions Supervisor Cailen Swain diligently tracked down original sources for permissions, and Media Production Editors Karissa Venne, Sarah D'Arienzo, and Lauren Thompson oversaw the revision of the digital resources.
And finally, we'd like to thank some of the many people who helped us turn our ideas into a book in print and digital formats. We are grateful to our colleagues who generously critiqued one or more chapters over the lifetime of the book; their names follow. We also wish to thank the hundreds of people we contacted while researching this book for their guidance and generous gifts of time and expertise.
William D. Bowman
william.bowman@colorado. edu
Sally D. Hacker
sally.hacker@oregonstate.edu