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Ecology: The Economy of Nature cover

Biology

Biology

Ecology: The Economy of Nature

Rick Relyea

An ecology textbook that frames each topic around adaptation and evolution and around how ecologists collect and analyse data. It runs from the physical environment and the adaptations of organisms through populations and species interactions to communities, ecosystems and global change, and includes exercises in working with ecological data.

Prerequisites: Introductory biology; basic algebra and a willingness to interpret graphs and simple models.

Difficulty Level
Intermediate
Academic Level
Undergraduate
ecologypopulationscommunitiesecosystemsadaptationTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Relyea, R. (2025). Ecology: The Economy of Nature (10th ed.). Macmillan Learning.

Chapter Summary

The book has 24 chapters in seven parts, with appendices on reading graphs, statistical tables and answers to the Working with Ecological Data exercises, plus a glossary. The publisher describes it as taking students through the key concepts of an ecology course, with questions that encourage critical thinking about concepts, quantitative tools and figures. Each chapter opens with a case study, and recurring features include Ecology Today boxes, Working with Ecological Data boxes and end-of-chapter Graphing the Data activities. The part and chapter titles below are the publisher's.

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Ecology

The opening chapter, before the first part.

Part I: Climates, Climate Change, and Biomes (Chapters 2–4)

The chapters are Global Climates; Global Climate Change; and Terrestrial and Aquatic Biomes. The tenth edition made the first two stand-alone chapters, so that later discussions of global change have a foundation. Chapter 3 includes a Working with Ecological Data exercise on calculating climate anomalies, an Ecology Today box on Indigenous knowledge and "Two-Eyed Seeing" in understanding climate change, and a problem-solving exercise on the melting polar ice cap.

Part II: Adaptations to Environments (Chapters 5–8)

Evolutionary Ecology; Adaptations to Aquatic Environments; Adaptations to Terrestrial Environments; and Adaptations to Variable Environments cover how organisms are fitted to the conditions in which they live, beginning with the evolutionary background.

Part III: Life Histories, Reproductive Strategies, and Social Behaviors (Chapters 9–11)

Life Histories; Reproductive Strategies; and Social Behaviors treat the individual's schedule of growth and reproduction and the interactions among members of a species.

Part IV: Populations (Chapters 12–14)

Population Distributions; Population Growth and Regulation; and Population Dynamics over Time and Space.

Part V: Species Interactions (Chapters 15–18)

Predation and Herbivory; Parasitism and Infectious Diseases; Competition; and Mutualism, one chapter for each major type of interaction.

Part VI: Communities and Ecosystems (Chapters 19–22)

Community Structure: Biodiversity and Food Webs; Community Succession; Energy Flow in Ecosystems; and Nutrient Cycling in Ecosystems.

Part VII: Global Ecology (Chapters 23–24)

Landscape Ecology and Global Biodiversity; and Conservation of Global Biodiversity.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–11: Environment, adaptation and life history

  • Global climate and climate change: the subject of the stand-alone Chapters 2 and 3.
  • Biomes: the terrestrial and aquatic biomes of Chapter 4.
  • Evolutionary ecology and adaptation: Chapter 5 and the three chapters on aquatic, terrestrial and variable environments.
  • Life histories, reproductive strategies and social behaviors: Chapters 9–11.

Chapters 12–18: Populations and interactions

  • Population distribution, growth, regulation and dynamics: Chapters 12–14.
  • Predation, herbivory, parasitism, competition and mutualism: Chapters 15–18.

Chapters 19–24: Communities, ecosystems and global ecology

  • Biodiversity and food webs, succession: Chapters 19 and 20.
  • Energy flow and nutrient cycling: Chapters 21 and 22.
  • Landscape ecology and conservation of global biodiversity: Chapters 23 and 24.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • Quantitative skills built in. The publisher lists Working with Ecological Data boxes, which teach statistical and data-analysis tools with "Your turn" questions, Graphing the Data activities at the end of each chapter, and an appendix on reading graphs and statistical tables.
  • Climate change placed first. Moving global climates and climate change into their own early chapters (2 and 3), with global-change discussions woven through later chapters and Global Change icons marking them, makes the topic part of the framework instead of a closing topic.
  • Adaptation as a thread. A whole part (Chapters 5–8) is devoted to adaptation to aquatic, terrestrial and variable environments, with evolutionary ecology as its entry point, before the book turns to populations.
  • Updated perspective. The tenth edition adds more research by underrepresented groups in STEM, photographs of researchers, and an emphasis on Indigenous knowledge as a source of long-term ecological observation.

Limitations

  • Late applied content. Conservation appears only in the last chapter, which leaves applied topics to a course's final weeks, although global change is flagged throughout.
  • Length. Twenty-four chapters in seven parts are more than a single semester usually allows, so courses choose among Parts III, V, VI and VII.
  • Populations arrive late. Population ecology does not begin until Chapter 12, after climate, biomes, adaptation and life histories, so a course that wants to study populations early has to reorder the chapters.

Where It Fits in the Course

Relyea is a first-course text that moves from climates and biomes through adaptation and populations to communities and global ecology. Bowman and Hacker's Ecology is the closest comparison. It is also a first-course text, but it begins with organisms and their physical environment and moves upward through seven units; it is a good alternative if the case-study approach appeals, and the two books can be read side by side to see the same topics from different angles. Sher and Molles's Ecology: Concepts and Applications organizes each topic around a few central concepts backed by field and laboratory studies.

Begon and Townsend's Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems is a broader text that suits students who want a connected treatment of principles, conservation and environmental change after an introductory course. Mittelbach and McGill's Community Ecology is a graduate-level synthesis that picks up where Part VI leaves off, and Ghazoul's Ecology: A Very Short Introduction is a short overview that needs no prior study and can serve as a preview.

How to Use This Book

The book is for students in a first ecology course who have taken introductory biology, and are comfortable reading graphs and working with simple models. A practical plan:

  • Core: Chapters 1, 5, 9, 12–13 and 15–19 build the central argument from adaptation through populations and interactions to community structure.
  • Foundation for global change: Chapters 2–4 give the climate and biome background that later chapters draw on; read them before Part VII even if they are taught late.
  • Selective: Chapters 6–8, 10–11, 14, 20–22 and 23–24, depending on the emphasis of the course.

Do the Working with Ecological Data questions as the text reaches them, check answers in the appendix, and finish each chapter with the Graphing the Data activity. Use the opening case study of each chapter as a question to return to after reading.