A Primer of Ecology

By Nicholas J. Gotelli

Book Overview

A Primer of Ecology, Fourth Edition, presents a concise but detailed exposition of the most common mathematical models in population and community ecology. It is intended to demystify ecological models and the mathematics behind them by deriving the models from first principles. The book may be used as a self-teaching tutorial by students, as a primary textbook, or as a supplemental text to a general ecology textbook.

The Primer explains in detail basic concepts of exponential and logistic population growth, age-structured demography, metapopulation dynamics, competition, predation, island biogeography, succession, and, in a chapter new to this edition, species richness. Each chapter is carefully graded from simple material that is appropriate for beginning undergraduates to advanced material, which is suited for upper-division undergraduates and beginning graduate students. Advanced topics include environmental and demographic stochasticity, discrete population growth and chaos, stage-structured demography, intraguild predation, nonlinear predator-prey isoclines, and passive sampling. Each chapter follows the same structure: model presentation and predictions, model assumptions, model variations, empirical examples, and problems.

Essential equations are highlighted for students' use. Intermediate algebraic "expressions" are also illustrated so that students see where the equations came from. New terms are introduced in the text in boldface type to alert students to novel concepts. The Primer contains more mathematical detail than many ecology textbooks, but avoids jargon and mathematical terminology that can intimidate students. Both simple and advanced problems are included, followed by fully worked solutions so that students can gain confidence and a better understanding of the models. Citations are kept to a minimum.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878933182
• ISBN13: 9780878933181
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Sinauer Associates Is an Imprint of Oxford Un
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Great First Approach on Ecology

This book is a must for people starting to study ecology. It's short, very well written and clear, concise, not oversimplifying, and it's very nice to read. It has real life examples too. It's true it doesn't go very deep, but it gives you the perfect fundation to go deeper after it, reading Begon for example, which is a good book but gives for granted a lot of concepts. Anyone can read this book, because it starts fron absolut zero, which is the very best of it.

A practical handbook

This is the best practical manual for quick understanding of topic such as growth rate, life history table, etc.

Easy to read and understand

Unlike some other texts, this book is easy to read and understand. Gives a great overview of ecological models.

Excelent book

This book is an excelent work on population biology, it includes the basic elements to study the dynamics of population in nature, I recomend it.

Gotelli's work is one of the best Ecology books out there!!!

I had to read Gotelli's A Primer of Ecology for my Ecology class at Brown University. I thought that it was by far the most comprehensive and easily read book used in that class. The mathematical models were always backed up with empirical evidence to several models in the field. A definate must read for all ecologists!