- An authoritative graduate textbook of ecological development ('eco-devo') set in the context of diverse natural systems
- Explores how niche construction contributes to ecological interactions and evolutionary dynamics
- Includes detailed case studies showing how regulatory mechanisms lead to plastic eco-devo responses
- Ideal graduate seminar course material
Over the past decade, advances in both molecular developmental biology and evolutionary ecology have made possible a new understanding of organisms as dynamic systems interacting with their environments. This innovative book synthesizes a wealth of recent research findings to examine how environments influence phenotypic expression in individual organisms (ecological development or 'eco-devo'), and how organisms in turn alter their environments (niche construction). A key argument explored throughout Organism & Environment is that ecological interactions as well as natural selection are shaped by these dual organism-environment effects. This synthesis is particularly timely as biologists seek a unified contemporary framework in which to investigate the developmental outcomes, ecological success, and evolutionary prospects of organisms in rapidly changing environments.
Organism & Environment is an advanced text suitable for graduate level students taking seminar courses in ecology, evolution, and developmental biology, as well as academics and researchers in these fields.

对国内的大多数从事生态研究的学者和研究生而言，数学方法的选择是他们在研究中所面临的最大的难题之一，因此在实验设计阶段因没有充分考虑不同方法对数据的要求，导致最后的试验结果无法做较为深入的分析，这也是国内生态学者的研究成果在国外期刊发表比较难以发表的主要原因之一。本书以目前生态学研究中最为重要的空间分析为主题，系统地介绍了目前生态学中常用的数学方法，因为作者是生态学家而非数学家，因此从生态学的角度对这些数学方法的介绍更容易被生态学家所理解和接受。本书是迄今为止并不多见的对生态学中常用的空间分析方法进行系统、全面、深入浅出介绍的专著，正如本书的名字所示，本书完全可以作为一本生态学家的指南。无疑本书的翻译出版将有利于推进空间分析方法在生态学中更为科学、有效地应用。

本书介绍了理解环境问题所需的生态学基本原理，并在应用生态学的框架下，探讨了栖息地破坏、酸沉降以及人类新疾病的出现等环境问题。该书将生态学、进化、保护生物学与环境变化有机地联系起来，特别是将人口的发展变化、环境经济与政策等内容引入到书中。书中内容丰富生动，并提供了大量的案例，插图设计精美，各章之后有简要总结、进一步阅读材料和有关因特网址以便深入学习。
本书适合作为高等院校环境生态学课程或重点介绍生态学原理的环境科学课程的教材，并可供环境、生物领域的教师、科技人员参考。