A Primer of Ecology

A Primer of Ecology presents a concise but detailed exposition of the most common mathematical models in population and community ecology. It is intended to demystify ecological models and the mathematics behind them by deriving the models from first principals. The book may be used as a self-teaching tutorial by students, as a primary textbook, or as a supplemental text to a general ecology textbook. The 10 chapters of the Primer explain in detail basic concepts of exponential and logistic population growth, age-structured demography, metapopulation dynamics, competition, predation, disease ecology, island biogeography, ecological succession, and biodiversity measurement. Advanced topics include demographic and environmental stochasticity, population regulation, discrete population growth and chaos, stage-structured demography, biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships, intra-guild predation, vector-borne disease dynamics, and Markov transition matrix models.o Essential equations are highlighted for students' use. Intermediate algebraic “expressions” are also illustrated so that students can see where the equations come from. New terms are introduced in the text in boldface type to alert students to novel concepts. The Primer contains more mathematical detail than many ecology texts but avoids jargon and mathematical terminology that can intimidate students. Both simple and advanced problems are included, followed by fully worked solutions so that students can gain confidence and a better understanding of the models. Citations are kept to a minimum.o In this fifth edition, most of the figures have been updated and now include underlying R code, available to readers at a permanent website that includes interactive graphics interfaces for exploring the parameters of the models. The fifth edition also includes a new chapter on disease ecology, with examples drawn from Zika virus and COVID-19 outbreaks.