Ecology : concepts and applications / Manuel C. Molles Jr., University of New Mexico, Anna A. Sher, University of Denver.

About the Authors

Manuel Molles

Manuel C Molles Jr. is an emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico, where he has been a member of the faculty and curator in the Museum of Southwestern Biology since 1975. He received his BS from Humboldt State University and his PhD from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Seeking to broaden his geographic perspective, he has taught and conducted ecological research in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. He was awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship to conduct research on river ecology in Portugal and has held visiting professor appointments in the Department of Zoology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in the Laboratory of Hydrology at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain, and at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station.

Originally trained as a marine ecologist and fisheries biologist, the author worked mainly on river and riparian ecology at the University of New Mexico. His research has covered a wide range of ecological levels, including behavioral ecology, population biology, community ecology, ecosystem ecology, biogeography of stream insects, and the influence of a large-scale climate system (El Niño) on the dynamics of southwestern river and riparian ecosystems. His current research interests focus on the influence of climate change and climatic variability on the dynamics of populations and communities along steep gradients of temperature and moisture in the mountains of the Southwest. Throughout his career, Dr. Molles has attempted to combine research, teaching, and service, involving undergraduate as well as graduate students in his ongoing projects. At the University of New Mexico, he taught a broad range of lower division, upper division, and graduate courses, including Principles of Biology, Evolution and Ecology, Stream Ecology, Limnology and Oceanography, Marine Biology, and Community and Ecosystem Ecology. He has taught courses in Global Change and River Ecology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and General Ecology and Groundwater and Riparian Ecology at the Flathead Lake Biological Station. Dr. Manuel Molles was named Teacher of the Year by the University of New Mexico for 1995–1996 and Potter Chair in Plant Ecology in 2000. In 2014, he received the Eugene P. Odum Award from the Ecological Society of America based on his “ability to relate basic ecological principles to human affairs through teaching, outreach and mentoring activities.”

Anna Sher

Anna A Sher is a full professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Denver, where she has been faculty since 2003. She was a double major in Biology and Art at Earlham College, where she has also taught ecology as a Howard Hughes Fellow, visiting lecturer, and as the co-leader of the Earlham Study Abroad Kenya Program in
1992, 2000, and 2002. She received her PhD from the University of New Mexico, where she also taught botany as a visiting lecturer. As a postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Sher was awarded a Fulbright postdoctoral research fellowship to conduct research on plant interactions in Israel at Ben Gurion University’s Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, and she also studied the ecology of an invasive grass at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Sher’s primary research focus has been on the ecological dynamics associated with the removal of invasive riparian plants. She is known as a leading expert in the ecology of Tamarix, a dominant exotic tree, and she was the lead editor of the first book exclusively on the topic. Her research interests and publications have spanned several areas within ecology, including not only restoration ecology, competition, and invasive species ecology, but also interactions between plants and soil chemistry, mycorrhizae, insect diversity and trophic cascades, ethnobotany, phenology, climate change, and rare species conservation. She is also coauthor of the textbook An Introduction to Conservation Biology, First Edition (Primack and Sher 2016). Dr. Sher has a particular interest in quantitative ecological methods, with her lab specializing in multivariate methods and spatial models at both individual organism and regional scales. She is currently principal investigator of a National Science Foundation award to investigate the human dimension of the restoration of dam- aged ecosystems, and she has been a TEDx speaker on the way ecosystems can teach us how to solve human problems. Above all, Dr. Sher loves to teach and mentor students doing research at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction to ecology : historical foundations and developing frontiers -- Section I: Natural history and evolution. Life on land ; Life in water ; Population genetics and natural selection -- Section II: Adaptations to the environment. Temperature relations ; Water relations ; Energy and nutrient relations ; Social relations -- Section III: Population ecology. Population distribution and abundance ; Population dynamics ; Population growth ; Life histories -- Section IV: Interactions. Species interactions and competition ; Exploitative interactions : predation, herbivory, parasitism, and disease ; Mutualism -- Section V: Communities and ecosystems. Species abundance and diversity ; Species interactions and community structure ; Primary and secondary production ; Nutrient cycling and retention ; Succession and stability -- Section VI: Large-scale ecology. Landscape ecology ; Geographic ecology ; Global ecology -- Appendix A: Investigating the evidence -- Appendix B: Statistical tables.

Ecology: Concepts and Applications by Molles places great emphasis on helping students grasp the main concepts of ecology while keeping the presentation more applied than theoretical. An evolutionary perspective forms the foundation of the entire discussion. The book begins with the natural history of the planet, considers portions of the whole in the middle chapters, and ends with another perspective of the entire planet in the concluding chapter.