Before writing began on the Eighth Edition,
seven distinguished ecologists, all of whom
teach ecology to introductory students, were
commissioned to submit detailed critiques. Based
on their recommendations, and the additional
suggestions of users and non-users, Dr. Orians
revised this content extensively.
PART NINE, ECOLOGY, begins with a new
chapter that describes the scope of ecological
research and discusses recent advances in our
understanding of the broad patterns in the distribution
of life on Earth. The next chapter, also new,
combines Behavior and Behavioral Ecology. It
shows how the decisions that organisms make
during their lives influence both their survival
and reproductive success, and also the dynamics
of populations and the structure of ecological
communities.
The chapter on POPULATION ECOLOGY
has new material that explains how ecologists
are able to mark and follow individual organisms
in the wild to determine their survival and
reproductive success. Following a chapter on
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY, another
new chapter, ECOSYSTEM AND GLOBAL ECOLOGY,
shows how ecologists are expanding the scope
of their studies to encompass the functioning
of the global ecosystem.
This discussion leads naturally to the final
chapter in the book, CONSERVATION BIOLOGY,
which describes how ecologists and conservation
biologists work to reduce the rate at which
species are becoming extinct as a result of
human activities.
