This book provides readers with a popular modular organization and an easy-to-read writing style that explains the basics of ecology. The authors have updated the Fifth Edition to reflect the current emphasis on the physical environment, global environmental change, and adaptation/evolution. As a result, there are new chapters, a new structure, and new topics found in the table of contents. These changes provide readers with an understanding of the principles governing the relationships between plants, animals, and other living organisms within their environment, and give them skills to critically evaluating public issues related to ecology. Abundant real-life examples illustrate and clarify the book's emphasis on understanding ecological patterns within an evolutionary framework.