The goal of this book is to convey the rich perspectives, principles, and enchantment of ecology to a broad audience of students and lifelong learners. The book is based on the belief that the science of ecology is best understood by examining familiar ecosystems from the natural world and weaving fresh insights and ecological concepts into an ecosystems framework to reveal the patterns, processes, and interactions that are the foundation of sustainable living systems in our biosphere. In the spirit of that teaching philosophy, the core of this book focuses on specific ecosystems that are familiar to most of us (e.g., forests, wetlands, streams, lakes, and the like).
Taken as a whole, the chapters of this text are intended to provide a conceptual framework and an intellectual pathway for understanding and interpreting the ecology of the biosphere using elements of population, community, ecosystem, and landscape ecology. Equipped with this toolkit of ecological literacy, readers and students will hopefully be better prepared to make personal, business, and civic or governmental decisions that are consistent with a healthy and sustainable Earth.
Author Biography:
Christopher S. Cronan is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Biology and Ecology at the University of Maine. The author earned a B.A. in ecology at the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College, and was a Charles Bullard Fellow in Forest Resources at Harvard Forest and Harvard University. He is a former director in the School of Biology and Ecology, served as interim director of the Senator George Mitchell Center, and was founding director of the Graduate Program in Ecology and Environmental Science (EES) at the University of Maine. His research with interdisciplinary teams of scientists included fieldwork in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and his teaching involved courses in ecology, biogeochemistry, general biology, plant physiology, limnology, natural resource policy, plant biology, and field ecology. He published a textbook entitled Ecosystem Biogeochemistry – Element Cycling in the Forest Landscape with Springer NaturePublishing in 2018 and is the author or co-author of 72 peer-reviewed scientific articles in the journals Science, Nature, BioScience, Water Resources Research, Environmental Science and Technology, Ecological Modeling, Landscape Ecology, Tree Physiology, Biogeochemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, Soil Science Society of America Journal, Environmental Management, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, Oecologia, Forest Ecology and Management, Biological Conservation, Environment, Limnology and Oceanography, Landscape and Urban Planning, Applied Geography, Plant and Soil, Journal of Environmental Quality, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Ecological Indicators, and Holarctic Ecology.
