This text, intended for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in various disciplines, presents basic concepts of ecosystem studies, addresses the key processes that control ecosystem function, offers an integrated view of how the processes that control ecosystem function interact to produce patterns of change and distribution visible in three very different landscapes, and describes the growing dominance of human activity in controlling ecosystem distribution and function. Requires only introductory- level knowledge of the workings of soils, plants, and animal populations and uses minimal scientific jargon.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR