Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Colin Townsend, John Harper and Michael Begon. 2000 Essentials of Ecology Blackwell Science; ISBN: 0 632 04348 2; pages: xvii + 552 £24.95

Contents

1 - Ecology and how to deal with it; 2 - The ecology of evolution; 3 - Physical conditions and availability of resources; 4 - Conditions and resources as forces shaping the world's communities; 5 - Birth, death and movement; 6 - Interspecific competition; 7 - Organisms as habitats; 8 - Predation, grazing and disease; 9 - Population processes - the big picture; 10 - Patterns in species richness; 11 - Flux of energy and matter through ecosystems; 12 - Sustainability - exploitation and agriculture; 13 - Pollution; 14 - Conservation.

Summary

See description of this table.

Age range
Presentation/style
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Overall ranking

Review

The initial reaction is to see this at a (mere?) 552 pages as son of Ecology 3E. However this is to completely misunderstand the nature of the text. What the authors have done is more than reduce the amount of words, they have re-cast it into a new format introductory text aimed at the first year university students and, by implication, at higher senior school students and their teachers.

The first impression is of the Ecology text (copious use of sidebars, summaries and questions) but with a far better use of colour. There is nothing wrong with this - the Ecology text still stands out for its comprehensiveness and clarity. In this shortened edition much more use has been made of several common textbook devices e.g. boxes ("history", "quantitative" and "eco-concerns) and introductory text with the inclusion of the "unanswered question" sidebar - a novel feature to highlight areas of ignorance. At the end of chapters there is a series of "web questions" to enable students to explore ideas in more detail. The Ecology perspective of organism, community, ecosystem has been replaced in this text by a four-fold division. The first part takes a historical view of ecology, ecological theory and evolution. As such it continues the practice of similar introductory texts in putting faces to names and ideas but the focus on evolution as the over-arching feature of change is both novel and welcome. Part two looks at the abiotic environment but from the view of "conditions and resources" again putting a new spin on familiar territory. Part three, subtitled "individuals, populations, communities and ecosystems" is the closest the book comes to a more traditional ecological text. In this part, the chapters on organisms as habitats (i.e. parasites and mutualists) and the flux of energy and matter (biogeochemical cycles) are welcome foci on areas usually subsumed in other topics. The final part, applied ecology, covers more standard areas in sustainability, pollution and conservation.

Overall, this is a very pleasing initial text. It continues with the notion of academic rigour favoured by Ecology 3E but puts a far more user-friendly approach to it. The focus of the use (as against acquisition) of ecological knowledge makes this text far more relevant to the tyro whilst the vastly improved layout and use of colour grabs the attention. This is one text that should be in every school and college library. Given the range of items these authors are producing (texts, CD Roms and websites) one wonders what area of basic ecology is left for them to write about!