Encyclopedia of Ecology from ScienceDirect

Ecology is the science of the interrelations between living organisms and their environments. These interrelations are complex, varied, and hierarchical. As such, it is a broad and diverse discipline that covers topics from natural selection to population dynamics to biogeochemistry to ecosystem health and sustainability. Our aim in this compendium is to aggregate, in one major reference work, a thorough overview that does justice to this diversity and, at the same time, makes connections between the topics. The result is the five-volume work before you, containing over 530 expertly authored entries. The entries together form a comprehensive picture of the science of ecology and its major subdisciplines.

Individually, the entries are succinct, informative, state-of-the-art reviews for use as research references or teaching aids. The Encyclopedia of Ecology covers many facets of this wide-ranging and far-reaching field including:

1. Behavioral ecology
2. Ecological engineering 
3. Ecological informatics
4. Ecological modeling 
5. Ecological processes
6. Ecosystems
7. Ecotoxicology
8. Evolutionary ecology
9. General ecology 
10. Global ecology
11. Human ecology
12. Population dynamics
13. Systems ecology

The encyclopedia is based on a broad and inclusive view of ecology with an emphasis on holistic perspectives. Holism arises because organisms are irreducible from each other and their environments. Therefore, tone and tendency in ecology is toward the holistic range along the continuum of holism–reductionism in science.

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