Thanks to all who responded with suggestions of books to use in my on-line ecology class. Here are the responses I received:
---------- You may try out Introductory Ecology by Peter Cotsgreave and Irwin Forseth. I had this textbook for my undergraduate ecology course and thought it did a nice job covering the basics of the field. ----------- I was looking for the same thing for an Intro Ecology course for non-majors next semester. I settled on “Ecology: Concepts & Applications” by Manuel C. Molles Jr. (5th Ed. – McGraw Hill). It’s still a bit longer than I wanted, but the only shorter one I found was Miller & Spoolman “Essentials of Ecology” (Brooks/Cole) which is more Environmental Science (human impacts), than Ecology. ----------- McGraw sells some of their books as ebooks for a lower price and they will also build custom books with only the chapters that you select. ----------- "A Primer of Ecological Principles," by Richard J. Vogl. It's out of print (1978?), but you could copy it and donate a modest sum to him, perhaps. ----------- One good one that may suit your needs is: The Message of Ecology (by C.J. Krebs). It was re-released late last year. My only problem with it is the price. I've been teaching a summer course in general ecology & I'm using another book by Krebs: The Ecological World View (Univ. Calif Press). It's written at a Freshman/Sophomore level without many of the math. equations. The students seem to appreciate the straight-forward language and the illustrations. ----------- Have you looked at "The Ecological World View" by Charles Kerbs (Univ. California Press)? It is not small but it is listed at $70 (paperback) on Amazon. ----------- I suggest "Our Biosphere" from Ramon Margalef. You can find the latest iteration in the Book Series Excellence in Ecology. Link below with summary: http://www.int-res.com/book-series/excellence-in-ecology/ee10/ Professor Margalef was one of the founders of the science of Ecology in Europe. In addition to the huge books in Ecology and Limnology he wrote, he also published smaller books ideal for introductory type courses. He was a great communicator, even as emeritus professor (that's when I attended his seminars at the University of Barcelona). "Our Biosphere" helped me navigate the science of Ecology all the way through grad school. In Amazon, it sells for $20. ----------- The Nature Conservancy publishes a book called: Designing Field Studies for Biodiversity Conservation that is a cheap paperback and has a nice approach to concepts relevant to field ecology. At the very least you could borrow some chapters from it as it has some great and really simple exercises that you can just walk right out into your back yard and do in order to start to give you a perspective on how field studies differ from labs and such. That of course is a huge bonus with an online course.. I'm a beginning grad student with prior field experience but not a lot of study design experience so that is the perspective this comes from. It has made me see the bigger picture in a very easily accessible way. ----------- A fine intro Ecology text is Ricklefs "The Economy of Nature". It's more community-based than some others, but for a small text it covers the basics pretty well. I have the second edition, but there appears to be a fifth with updated data analysis... at the price they're selling it for, I might just pick up a copy myself. while you'd be hard-pressed to find a 'new' copy for under $98, the resellers on Amazon have both new (dozens) and used (100's) copies ranging from $28 to $3! here's a link: http://tinyurl.com/ms9nb4
