Ecology

Citation

Bowman, W. D., & Hacker, S. D. (2020). Ecology (5th ed.). Sinauer Associates, an imprint of Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book has 25 chapters: an opening chapter followed by seven units, and an appendix of metric measurements used in ecology. The publisher describes it as an easy-to-read, well-organized first text with a case-study-driven, conceptual approach that highlights applications and data-driven examples, with attention to climate change, invasive species and pollution. The unit and chapter titles below are the publisher's.

Chapter 1: The Web of Life

A single introductory chapter that comes before Unit 1.

Unit 1: Organisms and Their Environment (Chapters 2–5)

The chapters are The Physical Environment; The Biosphere; Coping with Environmental Variation: Temperature and Water; and Coping with Environmental Variation: Energy. The unit starts with the setting (physical environment and the biosphere) and then moves to how organisms deal with variation in temperature, water and energy, so the book begins at the level of the individual.

Unit 2: Evolutionary Ecology (Chapters 6–8)

Evolution and Ecology; Life History; and Behavioral Ecology link ecological patterns to evolutionary explanation and to the choices individuals make.

Unit 3: Populations (Chapters 9–11)

Population Distribution and Abundance; Population Dynamics; and Population Growth and Regulation move from where populations occur to how their numbers change and are limited.

Unit 4: Species Interactions (Chapters 12–15)

The four chapters take interactions one at a time: Predation; Parasitism; Competition; and Mutualism and Commensalism.

Unit 5: Communities (Chapters 16–19)

The Nature of Communities; Change in Communities; Biogeography; and Species Diversity in Communities consider how groups of species are organized, how they change through time, and how species are distributed and diverse across space.

Unit 6: Ecosystems (Chapters 20–22)

Production; Energy Flow and Food Webs; and Nutrient Supply and Cycling treat ecosystems in terms of energy and nutrients.

Unit 7: Applied and Large-Scale Ecology (Chapters 23–25)

Conservation Biology; Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Management; and Global Ecology close the book with applied and large-scale topics.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–8: Individuals and evolution

• Environmental variation: how organisms cope with differences in temperature, water and energy (Chapters 4 and 5).
• Life history: the pattern of an organism's growth, reproduction and survival (Chapter 7).
• Behavioral ecology: the ecological and evolutionary study of behaviour (Chapter 8).

Chapters 9–15: Populations and interactions

• Population dynamics, growth and regulation: the titles of Chapters 10 and 11.
• Predation, parasitism, competition, mutualism and commensalism: the five interactions given a chapter each, the last two sharing Chapter 15.

Chapters 16–25: Communities, ecosystems and applications

• Succession and biogeography: change in communities and the geography of species (Chapters 17 and 18).
• Production, energy flow and nutrient cycling: the ecosystem chapters (20–22).
• Conservation biology, landscape ecology and global ecology: the applied closing unit.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Cases and applications as the organizing device. The Miami University Campus Store's description credits the book with a case-study-driven approach, and the publisher's list of new features includes 15 Case Study Videos narrated by the author, so the material is designed to be anchored in specific stories.
• Support for self-checking. The fifth edition adds Self-Assessment questions at the end of each major section, Learning Objectives for each chapter and Sequenced Images that let students work through complex figures step by step.
• A logical scale-up. The seven units build from individuals to populations, interactions, communities, ecosystems and the planet, which makes the table of contents a workable course outline.
• Attention to current topics. According to the publisher, the edition increases coverage of marine ecology and of microbes, adds a list of Health Connections identifying human-health examples, and replaces roughly a quarter to a half of the photographs.

Limitations

• Length. Twenty-five chapters are more than a single semester usually covers, so readers must choose among units 5–7 in particular.
• Some learning aids need online access. The 15 Case Study Videos are video, so they depend on the eBook or online resources rather than the printed page.
• A first course by design. The publisher presents the text as an introduction to the basics of ecology. Students who want deeper treatment of ecological theory will need a more advanced book.

Where It Fits in the Course

Bowman and Hacker is a first-course text that starts with organisms and their physical environment and builds upward. Relyea's Ecology: The Economy of Nature is the closest comparison: it also moves from the physical environment and the adaptations of organisms to populations, interactions, communities, ecosystems and global change, and it adds data-analysis exercises, which makes it a useful source of extra quantitative practice. Sher and Molles's Ecology: Concepts and Applications is an introduction organized around a small number of central concepts, each backed by field and laboratory studies, and gives another route to the same material.

For readers who finish this book and want more depth, Begon and Townsend's Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems is a broad text moving from organisms through populations and communities to ecosystems, and Mittelbach and McGill's Community Ecology is a graduate-level synthesis built on Unit 5's topics. Ghazoul's Ecology: A Very Short Introduction is a brief overview that needs no prior study and can serve as a preview before this book.

How to Use This Book

The book is intended for students in a first ecology course who have completed introductory biology. A practical plan:

• Core: Chapter 1, then Chapters 4–7 for organisms and evolution, Chapters 9–15 for populations and species interactions, and Chapters 16–17 and 20–22 for communities and ecosystems.
• As needed: Chapters 2–3 as background on the physical environment and biosphere, Chapter 8 if behaviour is part of the course, and Chapters 18–19 for biogeography and diversity.
• Applied finish: Chapters 23–25 give the practical and global context, and can be read earlier alongside the topics they build on.

Read the Learning Objectives before each chapter, answer the Self-Assessment questions at the end of each major section, and watch the Case Study Videos if the eBook is available. Use the case studies as the thread connecting each chapter's concepts.