Biology
Ecology - From Individuals to Ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006, 752pp, 4th ed.
Begon, Townsend, and Harper's Ecology has long been regarded as the definitive introductory textbook on all aspects of ecology. This new edition provides a comprehensive treatment of the subject, from the first principles of ecology to the current state of the field, and aims to improve students' preparedness to address the environmental problems of the new millennium.
Table of contents
| Introduction : ecology and its domain | ||
| 1 | Organisms in their environments : the evolutionary backdrop | 3 |
| 2 | Conditions | 30 |
| 3 | Resources | 58 |
| 4 | Life, death and life histories | 89 |
| 5 | Intraspecific competition | 132 |
| 6 | Dispersal, dormancy and metapopulations | 163 |
| 7 | Ecological applications at the level of organisms and single-species populations : restoration, biosecurity and conservation | 186 |
| 8 | Interspecific competition | 227 |
| 9 | The nature of predation | 266 |
| 10 | The population dynamics of predation | 297 |
| 11 | Decomposers and detritivores | 326 |
| 12 | Parasitism and disease | 347 |
| 13 | Symbiosis and mutualism | 381 |
| 14 | Abundance | 410 |
| 15 | Ecological applications at the level of population interactions : pest control and harvest management | 439 |
| 16 | The nature of the community : patterns in space and time | 469 |
| 17 | The flux of energy through ecosystems | 499 |
| 18 | The flux of matter through ecosystems | 525 |
| 19 | The influence of population interactions on community structure | 550 |
| 20 | Food webs | 578 |
| 21 | Patterns in species richness | 602 |
| 22 | Ecological applications at the level of communities and ecosystems : management based on the theory of succession, food webs, ecosystem functioning and biodiversity | 633 |