Ecology: Theories and Applications

I am a junior-high student who is interested in envirnomental science and plan to study ecology in college. This book was helpful for learning about some of the big ideas in ecology, the problems that scientists are studying and why they matter. I think it is an outstanding book for someone who wants to see the big picture, but be prepared to read carefully and maybe read again some chapters. The bibliography was helpful for tracking the original sources of experiments and studies that the author mentiones in the book, too.

This was my text book when taking Ecology and Peter Stiling the author of the book was my instructor. It is written EXACTLY word for word as he lectures. I understood everything in the book and in class but I'm afraid some of the topics aren't explained as completely as they could be. I was left not understanding certain things, from being to end that is and much of the text needs to be explained in more depth by an instructor. It is probably because most of the text involves statistics. Great INTRODUCTORY Text but definitely requires an instructor.

What you have in the previous review is a perfect example of the type of students prevalent in the US higher education system today.... crying, "Give us Science Lite!" Heaven forfend that you should have to apply a formula in what is perhaps the most QUANTITATIVE of all the biological sciences, ecology!! Now having vented, let me say that Stiling's book is certainly not the perfect introductory text- in fact I find it LACKING in detail in some respects- but it isn't a bad choice at all for the introduction of interested students to the study of life on the planet we inhabit.