Quantitative Ecology: A New Unified Approach

Opinión de Paul Bankole, Assistant Professor of Biology, Anderson University on 8/18/26

Exhaustividad clasificación: 5 ver menos

The book remarkably covered a broad range of quantitative ecology topics. I liked the fact that the authors attempt to elaborately break down the
conceptual meaning of models and their assumptions. For instance, the authors made great clarification of ways by which model limitations
influence the differences between mathematical results and biological reality.

Precisión de contenido clasificación: 5

The book presents conventional ecological models as unquestionable truths, which is highly commendable. The authors also demonstrated a strong
command of mathematical ecology with respect to model assumptions and limitations. Additionally, the book addressed computational errors, which
could serve as a launchpad for students learning computational ecology. The information on virus biology and human diseases was well-presented
and detailed.

Relevancia / Longevidad clasificación: 5

The book is quite durable and relevant, considering the mathematical foundation it covered. At the core, I see no way where key quantitative ecology
concepts like the predator-prey models, competition, and mutualism would become obsolete.

Claridad clasificación: 5

I see this as one of the book's strongest features. The language used is clear and simple for students' learning experience. The discussion of bacterial
growth, for example, provides an intuitive biological context before developing the computational model. It is quite interesting to note the technical
details on eigenvectors and eigenvalues were explained using visual and conceptual analogies.

Consistencia clasificación: 5

The book's consistency is never in doubt, with the progression from single-species systems to multispecies interactions. It is also worthy and
commendable to note the regularity in the formulas and equations used in the book.

Modularidad clasificación: 5

The modular structure is excellent. The authors have done an incredible job by structuring the chapters into numerous subsections, making it
possible for instructors as well as students to navigate. For example, Chapter 15 separates disease modeling into terminology, SIR flowcharts,
equations, analysis, applications, and ethics. The photos, graphs, and drawings used in the book complemented the thorough explanation of some
key concepts.

Organización / Estructura / Flujo clasificación: 5

The table of contents clearly communicates this progression and provides extensive subsection-level navigation. The book outlined the topics from
simple to complex models, which is particularly appropriate for quantitative ecology instruction

Interfaz clasificación: 5

The interface is very beautiful. The book's design and cover are quite attractive. The figures, photos used and drawings are very clear

Errores gramaticales clasificación: 5

The book is generally readable. Hence, I did not notice any grammatical blunder in the book. One obvious typo occurred in the preface: "I then them
further still, and put them into printable form..."

Relevancia cultural clasificación: 5

I didn't notice any cultural insensitivity in the book because the authors made frantic efforts to place ecology in a broad human and historical context. The opening discussion espouses the ancient quantitative problems and recognizes humans as an important component of ecological systems.

The book has considerable merit and could serve as a valuable open educational resource for quantitative ecology, mathematical biology, population biology, ecological modeling, and related courses. However, I strongly recommend the inclusion of pedagogical resources such as learning objectives at the beginning of every chapter and key terms and definitions, chapter summaries, applied problems using authentic ecological datasets, programming exercises in R, and suggested readings for further study.

Opinión de Parna Ghosh, Graduate Student, Oklahoma State University on 10/7/24

Exhaustividad clasificación: 5 ver menos

The book covers all basic ecology topics in reasonable detail and through appropriate illustrations.

Precisión de contenido clasificación: 5

The content is accurate and appropriate for this discipline.

Relevancia / Longevidad clasificación: 5

Includes classic examples as well as anecdotes from day-to-day lives, making the content relatable and easy to understand.

Claridad clasificación: 5

The text is clear and easy to read, and technical terms are used wherever appropriate.

Consistencia clasificación: 5

The terminology used is consistent throughout the book.

Modularidad clasificación: 5

The book contains information on diverse ecology topics organized into chapters that are comprised of sections. Depending on the focus topic of the chapter, the sections provide relevant information that relate to the overarching theme of the chapter.

Organización / Estructura / Flujo clasificación: 5

The content is presented logically through clear language and diagrams and pictures.

Interfaz clasificación: 5

Worked smoothly for me in the pdf format.

Errores gramaticales clasificación: 5

There is hardly any grammatical errors.

Relevancia cultural clasificación: 5

The text is not culturally insensitive per se. Most of the early research in ecology were done and published by a demographic which is currently changing and diversifying.

I found the book comprehensive and covering the basic concepts in ecology. The classic examples in ecology are accurately described and there are plenty examples that a reader can relate to from everyday life. The topics are organized in well-structured chapters.

Opinión de Turner DeBlieux, PhD Student, Indiana University - Bloomington on 5/18/21

Exhaustividad clasificación: 4 ver menos

I find this book to be comprehensive, but perhaps tries to be *too* comprehensive. It often addresses history or anecdotes in ways that are a bit distracting. These are always related to ecology, and the topic at hand, but sometimes break up relevant information in ways that make it more difficult to process. On the other hand, the book does very well at explaining (especially mathematical) material that is often hard to find interpretable resources for.

Precisión de contenido clasificación: 5

I don't find many errors (and none glaring) in the accuracy of the information presented, however there is some simplification that is maybe overgeneral or at least not ideally descriptive, which I find acceptable for the target audience of the book.

Relevancia / Longevidad clasificación: 5

I find the topics covered to be up-to-date and relevant, but unlikely to become obsolete in the near future.

Claridad clasificación: 4

The text is clear, and never inaccessible, but occasionally lacks a clear point.

Consistencia clasificación: 5

The framework and terminology are clear and consistent.

Modularidad clasificación: 5

Reorganization by subunit is, I think, perhaps where this book would shine.

Organización / Estructura / Flujo clasificación: 4

Chapters are presented in a logical clear fashion, though I find sometimes the material does not flow the way I'd like it to. This may work for others, though.

Interfaz clasificación: 5

I found no interface issues

Errores gramaticales clasificación: 5

I found no grammatical errors

Relevancia cultural clasificación: 5

I do not find any cultural insensitivity in this book.

I feel the book starts a bit too general, or perhaps unfocused, on the topic at hand. As an example, there is some discussion of the scale of ecology and theory that addresses the Universe - a bit far-ranging. Starting in Chapter 3, I feel the book hits its stride and gives a good and complete perspective of Quantitative Ecology for the target audience.

Opinión de Vanessa Newman, Adjunct Faculty, Rogue Community College on 1/15/21

Exhaustividad clasificación: 5 ver menos

This textbook covers a wide range of ecological systems and mathematical formulas. Even though the focus of the textbook is quantitative ecology, it still would benefit from an overview of general or less quantitative ecology at the start of each new section. For example, on page 102 when it talks about mutualism with humans, it makes understanding the calculations more motivating. Also, asking whether humans' relationships with machines is mutualism or not was a great way to encourage critical thinking and extrapolation of the concepts to other subjects of study. The marble on the saddle is a great use of a visual example too. Chapter 15 was my favorite and did a great job of explaining infectious diseases and how we try to predict their growth, consequences, and demise.

Precisión de contenido clasificación: 5

I cannot comment on the accuracy of the equations as that is not my area of expertise. But the information on viruses and biology and human disease (portals of entry and exit) were accurate. Chapter 15 is excellent and well-presented. I am not sure if Figure 9.12 shows a fire-bellied toad though. His belly is the wrong color. The chapters on disease were excellent!

Relevancia / Longevidad clasificación: 5

I like the use of workplace examples that allow the reader to relate the material to requirements of their profession like on p. 65 and 66 where the example takes the reader through how to answer a supervisor's question about population. I also liked the example of pollination mutualism because it shows how even the natural world has built-in imperfections. Raindrops on rooftops is also a relatable image and situation for students to understand. And my favorite would be the cavitation of the Pistol Crab.

Claridad clasificación: 5

p. 69 Good examples like the car driving down the road to exemplify the delay in feedback between stimulus and response. Also, P. 15 Great quote: “If you have a complex natural system you don't understand, and you construct a computer model incorporating everything you can about that natural system, you now have two systems you don't understand. |after Chris Payola, UMN” The language that is used is informal and relatable for students most of the time.

Consistencia clasificación: 5

Having to jump back and forth between figures and explanations is clunky but would work better if you had two monitors. All formulas were presented in a clear and consistent fashion.

Modularidad clasificación: 5

I think the textbook has done a good job of breaking up formulas by having examples, figures, and photographs also available. There are lots of great visual examples that are beautiful and effective. There is also enough variety between types of graphs, line drawings, photos, etc. Figure 12.4 is a beautiful one. The chapters are broken down into smaller sections that are numbered accordingly in a system that is easy to understand. It is easy to refer back to earlier figures.

Organización / Estructura / Flujo clasificación: 5

Nice pictures like page like 11.7 (Mandlebrot) 4.1 on page 34 and figure 9.9 on page 106. These give the mathematical formulas life and relevancy. Figure 9.13 showing camouflage is effective. The visual examples are fantastic.
I thought the organization was intuitive and kept the flow conversational and intersting.

Interfaz clasificación: 5

Having to jump back and forth between figures and explanations is clunky but would work better if you had two monitors. In figure 9.8, the Heron picture threw me off. I was expecting a figure of a dog given the example but then the Heron example was given below so it eventually made sense. Figure 12.1 is fun but a little grainy. P. 195 has an overlapping word in the first paragraph of the harvesting intensity formula.

Errores gramaticales clasificación: 4

There are some missing words, extra words, misplaced words, and incorrect spacing after punctuation. Here is an example on Page V early on in the book: “some textbooks assume believe there is enough inevitable formality in the mathematics and computer code already, and we wish to make up for that.” Another one occurs on page 70: “No! The rest of this chapter will walk you through how to it.” It is missing the word, "do." On page 105, it would be better to say that the Stonefish is shown on the lower right instead of "right."
P. 238 "Largely because of thjis,

Relevancia cultural clasificación: 5

Hard to assess this category as the examples are of flowers, insects, and animals but the examples are broad and effective. Many different examples are provided with pictures. Perhaps plants and examples from other cultures could be added.

P. 7 Love this: “A large part of science turns out to be serendipity(luck and chance|) capitalizing on chance and
doing something with it.”
Figure 7.7 was interesting too. I did not know that Marie Curie had won the Nobel prize twice.
P. 212 The need to exercise might actually be a behavior modification meant to spread a disease! Fun!

Opinión de Andrea Bierema, Academic Specialist, Michigan State University on 11/19/19

Exhaustividad clasificación: 4 ver menos

The book begins with an overview of ecology and mathematical modeling. It provides many examples throughout. I marked it down to four because the majority of the text focuses on the population and community levels with little content at the ecosystem level. On the other hand, it is highly comprehensive within population and community ecology and includes human ecology.

Precisión de contenido clasificación: 5

I did not notice any inaccurate content and it incorporates many examples.

Relevancia / Longevidad clasificación: 5

Many of the main concepts and examples are relatively classic and likely will not become obsolete anytime soon. Newer examples could easily be incorporated. It provides coding that are relevant for R but the examples could be updated if a different program becomes widely used. Much of the text provides conceptual descriptions of the codes so that would not have to be updated if a different program were to be used.

Claridad clasificación: 5

With a quantitative biology textbook, it is easy to get caught up on the technical jargon, but this textbook fully explains the concepts without much jargon, making it relatively easy to understand. Any jargon used is limited to the essential terminology and is well explained.

Consistencia clasificación: 5

Many of the equations build on previous ones in the book, making it consistent. I did not notice any inconsistent use of terms or framework.

Modularidad clasificación: 5

Most sections of a chapter are just a few pages long- given that the text is fairly large, this is not very long. The table of contents is also clickable, so it is easy for students to go to just the assigned sections. Many of the equations build on chapter 3 (a basic population model) and chapter 4 (modeling a single population), so it is difficult to teach later equations without these chapters, but this is standard in ecology. Many of the later chapters are understandable if just linked with chapters 3 and 4. A few chapters are more conceptual rather than quantitative, and they could serve as stand-alone chapters.

Organización / Estructura / Flujo clasificación: 5

The text starts with basic background on ecology and modeling. The quantitative piece begins with basic models and becomes more complex throughout the book. Population ecology is described before community ecology, which is the norm.

Interfaz clasificación: 5

It is a PDF document and I did not have any issues with reading it on my PC. The preface explains that the authors chose the particular text size so that it formatted well with mobile devices and computers and can still be printed. The sampled links are not broken.

Errores gramaticales clasificación: 5

The only grammatical error I noticed was one in the preface. Otherwise, I did not notice any issues.

Relevancia cultural clasificación: 3

The text is not culturally insensitive by any means. I reduced the score because many of the examples are from the United States, except for some classic international examples. The majority of pictured humans are white.

This textbook provides a thorough yet easily followed description of quantitative ecology. Some of the chapters are suitable for an introductory organismal biology course while much of it may be better suited for an upper-level ecology course.