Preface - Part 2

Digest

Book Features

• website to accompany book: www.blackwellpublishing.com/begon contains:
• artwork
• glossary
• interactive mathematical models
• links to ecology websites
• Authors published Essentials of Ecology to be a shorter textbook for those who will not study ecology again
• 4th edition has been reduced 15% in size
• John Harper, one of the 3 authors, is no longer participating in the 4th edition, he retired
• each chapter contains summary
• Textbook contains marginal notes as signposts that go along with the flow of the textbook and can also be read on their own. They can be used as a check for comprehension of the main section.
• First edition was very large in an attempt to "overcome the opposition of all competing textbooks."
• Ecology is a meeting-ground for: naturalists, experimentalists, field biologists and mathematical modelers. All ecologists should combine all these facets.
• Results from around 800 studies have been newly incorporated into the 4th edition of this texbook. most of which were published since the third edition.
• Different chapters of this book contain different proportions of:
• descriptive natural history
• physiology
• behavior
• laboratory and field experimentation
• field monitoring and censusing
• mathematical modeling

Questions

1. What are the features of this book?
2. What is unique about this book and differentiates it from others?
3. What is the specific take and direction of this book?
4. To whom is this book directed?
5. Does this book use knowledge from ecology to position itself?