Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their natural environment. The environment of an organism includes physical properties, which can be described as the sum of factors such as sunlight, climate, and geology, and ecosystem (including other organisms that share the habitat). This field of study is vital to human life.We, like all other animals, depend on the Earth for food, water, and shelter. Global warming is the big issue, since human health, food, and safety are all put at risk by this development. This book provides the most current issues and developments in this vital area of study.

CONTENTS: Troublesome Toxins:Time to Re-Think Plant-Herbivore Interactions in Vertebrate Ecology; Diversity and Abundance of Photosynthetic Sponges in Temperate Western Australia; Competitive Assembly of South Pacific Ant Communities; Livestock Grazing Intensity Affects Abundance of Common Shrews (Sorex araneus) in Two Meadows in Denmark; Supplementary Feeding Affects the Breeding Behaviour of Male European Treefrogs (Hyla arborea); Fish Communities in Coastal Freshwater Ecosystems:The Role of the Physical and Chemical Setting; Local and Regional Factors Influence the Structure of Treehole Metacommunities; Visual Ecology of the Australian Lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri); Foraging Under Uniform Risk from Different Types of Predators; Contrast Enhancement of Stimulus Intermittency in a Primary Olfactory Network and its Behavioral Significance; The Extent of Population Genetic Subdivision Differs among Four Co-distributed Shark Species in the Indo-Australian Archipelago; Escape to Alcatraz:Evolutionary History of Slender Salamanders (Batrachoseps) on the Islands of San Francisco Bay; Genetic Variation in the Invasive Avian Parasite, Philornis downsi (Diptera, Muscidae) on the Galápagos Archipelago; Responses of Five Small Mammal Species to Micro-scale Variations in Vegetation Structure in Secondary Atlantic Forest Remnants, Brazil; Index