This textbook provides students 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 students with an understanding of the principles governing the relationships between plants, animals, and other living organisms within their environment, and give them skills for critically evaluating public issues related to ecology. Abundant real-life examples illustrate and clarify the text's emphasis on understanding ecological patterns within an evolutionary framework.