What Is Ecology?

What are some interesting articles and papers about ecology?

• I'm looking for items that would interest non-specialists in the scientific aspects of , outside the popular association of Ecology with and "Green" lifestyles, enterprises and politics.

• Answer:

  If you haven't read it, you might like Why big fierce animals are rare: An ecologist's perspective, by Paul A. Colinvaux (Princeton University Press, 1979). In the preface Colinvaux writes, ECOLOGY is not the science of pollution, nor is it environmental science. Still less is it a science of doom. Colvinaux opens the first chapter (titled "The science that reasons why") with a view of Earth from space. He goes on to describe natural systems very broadly, but often narrowing down to specific examples of animal species, with the patterns and relationships that can be seen between them and their environments. I enjoyed it.