Evolutionary Ecology (6th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: A good alternative to larger Ecology texts
Review: I used the earlier edition of this book twice for an ecology course that I teach, and my students appreciated the length, price, readability, and content. The rating that I give the book (four stars) is mostly based on their satisfaction. This updated version is very similar to the fifth edition, but has some nice additions, such as a chapter on Phylogeny that mentions Felsenstein's independent contrasts methods. If you are interested in reviewing this book as a possible book for your course, I would first read this brief chapter on phylogeny (16) to get a feel for the brevity of all the topics in ecology that are covered. Because many details are left out (as are many important references), this book cannot be used without supplemental literature. I usually require readings of at least 5 additional papers per chapter in this book. In fact, without supplemental readings and additional material presented in lecture, I would probably only grant two stars to this book. Strengths of the book include: very easy to read, excellent figures, adequate treatment of mathematical models, logical organization, and some nice examples from the literature.