A primer of ecology /

Gotelli succeeds marvelously in rendering the essential mathematical models of ecology readily understandable to undergraduate and graduate students. An ideal complement to major textbooks, this book provides lucid explanations and derivations of the basic models of exponential, logistic, and age-structured population growth, competition, predation, metapopulation dynamics, and island biogeography. Assumptions and predictions are made explicit for each model, whose utility is illustrated by several empirical examples. Model variations (e.g., incorporation of environmental and demographic stochasticity, nonlinear predator-prey isoclines) are described for advanced students. Problems and accompanying solutions at the end of each chapter are excellent instructional aids. (Subject areas not discussed include community ecology, mutualism, dispersal, and migration.) Figures are very comprehensive. Irritations include the misspelling of eminent fisheries biologist John Gulland's name, the lack of derivation of Equation 1.15 (should the probability of extinction equal 1 when instantaneous birth and death rates are equal?), and errors in the explanation of predator-prey isocline dynamics. Otherwise, an extremely useful book that shall be adopted by this reviewer. Undergraduate; graduate. J. A. Hutchings; Dalhousie University