The new fourth edition of Ecology maintains its focus on providing an easy-to-read and well-organized text for instructors and students to explore the basics of ecology. This edition also continues with an increasing emphasis on enhancing student quantitative and problem-solving skills. A new Hone Your Problem-Solving Skills series has been added to the set of review questions at the end of each chapter. The questions expose students to hypothetical situations or existing data sets, and allow them to work through data analysis and interpretation to better understand ecological concepts. New for this edition, additional Analyzing Data exercises have been added to the Companion Website. These exercises enable students to enhance their essential skills sets, such as performing calculations, making graphs, designing experiments, and interpreting results. Recognizing the increasing evidence and effects of climate change on ecological systems, additional Climate Change Connections have been added. These vignettes help students appreciate the many consequences of global climate change on the distributions and functions of organisms as well as the ecosystems they depend on. Finally, the authors also revised and strengthened key pedagogical features of Ecology.

For Students

Companion Website

The Ecology Companion Website offers students a wealth of study and review material. Access to the site is included with each new copy of the textbook. The Companion Website includes:

- Chapter Outlines and Summaries
- Hands-On Problem Solving Exercises that provide practical experience working with experimental data and interpreting results from simulations and models.
- Analyzing Data Exercises--companions to the in-book exercises that give students extra practice with quantitative skills.
- Climate Change Connections explore the links between the ecological concepts and climate change.
- Web Extensions expand on the coverage of selected topics introduced in the textbook.
- Online Quizzes are a great way for students to check their comprehension of the material covered in each chapter (instructor registration required).
- Web Stats Review--a brief statistics primer for ecology
- Flashcards, Suggested Readings, and Glossary

For Instructors

(All instructor resources are available to adopting instructors online. Instructor registration is required.)

Instructor's Resource Library

The Ecology Instructor's Resource Library includes a variety of resources to aid instructors in course planning, lecture development, and student assessment. The IRL includes:

- Figures & Tables: All of the textbook's figures (including photos) and tables are provided as JPEGs, both with and without balloon captions, optimized for use in presentations. Complex figures are provided in both whole and split versions.
- PowerPoint Resources: Three different PowerPoint presentations are provided for each chapter of the textbook:
* Figures: All figures and tables from each chapter, with titles and full captions.
* Lecture: A complete lecture outline, including selected figures.
* Hands-On Problems: Instructor versions of all Hands-On Problems are provided in ready-to use presentations.
- Hands-On Problem-Solving Exercises: In addition to the instructor versions mentioned above, the student versions of the exercises from the Companion Website, with answers, are included in Microsoft Word format.
- Answers to Analyzing Data Exercises: Complete answers for all of the online Analyzing Data companion exercises.

Test Bank

The Ecology, Fourth Edition, Test Bank includes a thorough set of questions for each chapter. All important concepts are covered, and additional quantitative questions have been added for the fourth edition. Each question is referenced to a specific chapter heading and concept number, and is categorized according to Bloom's Taxonomy. All of the questions from the Companion Website online quizzes are also included. The Test Bank is provided in three formats:

- Microsoft Word (by chapter)
- Diploma (software included): Diploma is a powerful, easy-to- use exam creation program that lets you quickly assemble exams using any combination of publisher-provided questions and your own questions.
- Blackboard: Question bank files ready to import into your Blackboard course.

Online Quizzing

The Companion Website includes an online quiz for each chapter of the textbook. Via the instructor's website, these quizzes can be assigned or opened for use by students as self-quizzes. Custom quizzes can be created using any combination of publisher-provided questions and instructor-created questions. Quiz results are stored in an online gradebook and can be exported.

William D. Bowman is Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Mountain Research Station, and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.

Sally D. Hacker is Professor at Oregon State University, Corvallis, where she has been a faculty member since 2004.

Michael L. Cain, having opted to change careers and focus full-time on writing, is currently affiliated with Bowdoin College

1. Introduction: The Web of Life

UNIT 1. Organisms and Their Environment

2. The Physical Environment
3. The Biosphere
4. Coping with Environmental Variation: Temperature and Water
5. Coping with Environmental Variation: Energy

UNIT 2. Evolutionary Ecology

6. Evolution and Ecology
7. Life History
8. Behavioral Ecology

UNIT 3. Populations

9. Population Distribution and Abundance
10. Population Growth and Regulation
11. Population Dynamics

UNIT 4. Interactions among Organisms

12. Competition
13. Predation and Herbivory
14. Parasitism
15. Mutualism and Commensalism

UNIT 5. Communities

16. The Nature of Communities
17. Change in Communities
18. Biogeography
19. Species Diversity in Communities

UNIT 6. Ecosystems

20. Production
21. Energy Flow and Food Webs
22. Nutrient Supply and Cycling

UNIT 7. Applied and Large-scale Ecology

23. Conservation Biology
24. Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Management
25. Global Ecology