Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems

Citation

Begon, M., & Townsend, C. R. (2021). Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems (5th ed.). Wiley.

Chapter Summary

The fifth edition runs to 864 pages and twenty-two chapters, preceded by a preface, a note on the companion website and an introduction titled "Ecology and its Domain", and followed by references and organism and subject indexes. The publisher states that this edition adds several chapters devoted entirely to applied topics and highlights applications throughout the rest, while the book remains "in its essence" an exposition of the science of ecology, on the principle that environmental action can only be as sound as the ecological principles behind it. The order of the chapters moves from the individual organism to populations, to interactions between species, to communities and finally to ecosystems and global change.

Chapters 1–3: Organisms in their Environments: the Evolutionary Backdrop; Conditions; Resources

The first three chapters set the stage at the level of the individual: the evolutionary context in which organisms live, then the environmental conditions that affect them and the resources they use.

Chapters 4–7: Matters of Life and Death; Intraspecific Competition; Movement and Metapopulations; Life History Ecology and Evolution

The population block. Chapter 4, "Matters of Life and Death", opens it; Chapter 5 concerns competition within a species; Chapter 6 adds movement and metapopulations; and Chapter 7 treats life histories as ecology and evolution.

Chapters 8–13: Interspecific Competition; The Nature of Predation; The Population Dynamics of Predation; Decomposers and Detritivores; Parasitism and Disease; Facilitation: Mutualism and Commensalism

The interactions between species, in turn: competition between species (8), predation and its dynamics (9–10), decomposers and detritivores (11), parasitism and disease (12), and positive interactions (13).

Chapters 14–15: Abundance; Pest Control, Harvesting and Conservation

Chapter 14 asks what determines the abundance of populations, and Chapter 15 applies the preceding population and interaction material to pest control, harvesting and conservation, the first of the applied chapters.

Chapters 16–19: Community Modules and the Structure of Ecological Communities; Food Webs; Patterns in Community Composition in Space and Time; Patterns in Biodiversity and their Conservation

The community level. In the sample Chapter 16 the sections are an introduction and three sections on the influence of competition on community structure, the influence of predation on community structure, and plurality in the structuring of communities. Food webs follow (17), then community composition in space and time (18), and biodiversity patterns together with their conservation (19).

Chapters 20–22: The Flux of Energy through Ecosystems; The Flux of Matter through Ecosystems; Ecology in a Changing World

Chapter 20 deals with energy flux. In the sample Chapter 21 the sections run from an introduction through nutrient budgets in terrestrial communities and in aquatic communities to global biogeochemical cycles. Chapter 22, "Ecology in a Changing World", closes the book on the applied note the publisher describes.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–7

• Conditions and resources: the two kinds of environmental factor distinguished in Chapters 2 and 3.
• Intraspecific competition: competition among individuals of one species, Chapter 5.
• Metapopulations and life history: Chapters 6 and 7.

Chapters 8–15

• Interspecific competition, predation, parasitism, mutualism and commensalism: the main interaction types, each with its own chapter or chapters.
• Decomposers and detritivores: the consumer groups treated in Chapter 11.
• Pest control, harvesting and conservation: the applications of Chapter 15.

Chapters 16–22

• Community modules: small sets of interacting species used to understand community structure (Chapter 16).
• Food webs and community patterns: Chapters 17–18.
• Energy and matter flux: Chapters 20–21, with nutrient budgets and global biogeochemical cycles in Chapter 21.
• Ecology in a changing world: Chapter 22.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• One continuous progression. The chapter order follows the hierarchy named in the title: individuals (1–3), populations (4–7), interactions (8–13), then abundance, applications, communities and ecosystems. A reader can see where a topic belongs relative to the rest.
• Applied material. The publisher stresses that the fifth edition adds chapters devoted to applied topics and places examples of applications in the other chapters. Chapter 15 (pest control, harvesting and conservation), the conservation half of Chapter 19 and Chapter 22 make that visible in the contents list.
• Current evidence. The publisher states that the edition incorporates the results of more than a thousand recent studies, and the publisher notes that it is now in full colour.
• Established authors. According to the publisher, the book's earlier editions earned the authors the British Ecological Society's Exceptional Lifetime Achievement Award.

Limitations

• Very large. At 864 pages and twenty-two chapters, the book is more than a single course can use; teachers will need to pick chapters.
• Little public detail on teaching features. The publisher's page lists the contents and describes the approach but gives no information about the exercises or the mathematical level of individual chapters; a reader can judge the level of the writing from the two chapters (16 and 21) that the publisher has released as samples.
• Breadth over depth at the community frontier. A single book covering the whole of ecology gives community-level topics a few chapters (16–19), so readers who want a specialist treatment of coexistence or metacommunities will need a more focused book.

Where It Fits in the Course

The other ecology books in this course are shorter or more specialised. Ghazoul's Ecology: A Very Short Introduction is a brief overview of the discipline. Bowman and Hacker's Ecology, Sher and Molles's Ecology: Concepts and Applications and Relyea's Ecology: The Economy of Nature are textbooks for a first course, each with its own framing: Bowman and Hacker run from the physiology of individuals to the biosphere with running case studies; Sher and Molles teach through a few central concepts backed by field and laboratory studies; Relyea frames topics around adaptation and data analysis. Mittelbach and McGill's Community Ecology is a graduate-level synthesis of the community level alone.

Begon and Townsend is the most comprehensive general text of the group, and the one to use as a reference after a first course or as the main text for a more demanding course. It makes a good companion to Mittelbach and McGill, since its Chapters 16–19 give the community-level overview that the specialist book develops in depth.

How to Use This Book

The book suits students who have completed introductory biology and want a connected treatment of ecological principles; the frontmatter notes that some comfort with graphs, basic algebra and descriptive statistics helps.

A practical plan:

• Core: Chapters 1–3 and 4–5 for the individual and population foundations, then Chapters 8–10 for competition and predation.
• Next: Chapters 12–14 (parasitism, mutualism, abundance) and Chapters 16–19 for communities.
• Applied and ecosystem material: Chapters 15, 19 and 22 for applications, and Chapters 20–21 for energy and matter flux; these can be read independently of the interaction chapters.
• Reference use: Chapters 6–7, 11 and 17–18 can be consulted as needed. The publisher has released Chapters 16 and 21 as samples, which are a quick way to judge the book's style before committing to it.