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PurposeTo describe a way of teaching industrial ecology (IE) and to show some tools that may help for the IE teaching.Design/methodology/approachIn the paper, the development of lectures, practical lessons and projects on real industrial ecosystems are described. Also the teaching materials used are described.FindingsThe presented methodology for teaching IE has been a good means for the understanding of the IE concept. Some of the educational tools presented have helped the students to increase their awareness of the distance between IE and the real industrial field, discover that there are a lot of by‐product exchange possibilities between industries, to develop their creativity, to connect the theory to practice in the industrial systems and have encouraged them to try to put the IE ideas into practice. This methodology has been useful for either small or big groups and for people with either the same or very different backgrounds. And it has been observed that the quality of the work is enhanced when the members of the group have different backgrounds.Practical implicationsThe paper shows methodologies and tools that may encourage and help other teachers/professors to use them in their IE lessons. It may also help IE researches to know which real examples and methodologies help students to understand IE concept. This could encourage them to develop projects and research in those directions.Originality/valueThe paper fulfils the need of knowing real experiences in IE teaching and their results. And in special, experiences that have been tested for a long period of time and with a great number of students. All the experiences described in the paper have been created and put into practice by the author.

Annotation, This book discusses the impact of recent advances in the theory of "scaling relationships" and identifies critical issues that must be considered if experimental results are used to understand the temporal and spatial scales of actual ecosystems. The complexity of ecosystems complicates experimental design. How, for example, does a scientist draw boundaries when studying species effects and interactions? Once these boundaries are drawn, how does one treat factors external to that study? Will the failure to consider external factors affect one's ability to extrapolate information across temporal and spatial scales? This volume provides a compilation from a broad range of ecologists with extensive experimental research experience that addresses these and other questions of scaling relations

Provides readers with the concepts and practical tools required to understand the maximum entropy principle, and apply it to an understanding of ecological patterns. The theory developed predicts realistic forms for all metrics of ecology that describe patterns in the distribution, abundance, and energetics of species.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Chapter 1 What is Ecology -- Chapter 2 The History of Ecology -- Chapter 3 Biodiversity -- Chapter 4 Food Chains -- Chapter 5 Environments, Habitats, and Biomes -- Chapter 6 Natural Resources -- Chapter 7 Kinds of Ecology -- Chapter 8 Threats to the Ecosystem -- Chapter 9 Climate Change -- Chapter 10 Solutions -- Glossary -- Index -- Primary Source List -- Websites -- Back Cover

There are two conflicting tendencies in the ecological movement, one a vague, formless, often self-contradictory "deep ecology," & the other a socially oriented "social ecology." Deep ecology has no sense that ecological problems have social origins; it contains the implicit notion that humanity "accurses" the natural world. Social ecology is avowedly rational & humanistic, concerned with social, economic, & political issues, as well as with environmental problems. F. S. J. Ledgister

AbstractThere are currently available a variety of methodologies which aid the improvement of problematic situations which can legitimately claim to be grounded in systems approaches. These have emerged over many years and each methodology has unique features which enable it to be used successfully in particular types of situation. Recently several attempts have been made to structure this set of methodologies. In these contingency theories the nature of the problem and the characteristics of the methodologies are matched in such a way that the strengths and weaknesses of the methodologies are brought out.In this paper this theoretical work is extended by developing a methodology for methodology choice. In this methodology the insights provided by the contingency theories are used to support a set of procedures which enable an informed choice of systems‐based problem‐solving methodology to be made. Two examples of the use of the methodology are given to illustrate its potential as a means of improving the ability of systems theorists to intervene successfully in real‐world issues.

What is ecology? -- Energy flow and nutrient cycles -- Analysis of the environment -- Terrestrial biomes -- Aquatic biomes -- Populations and their regulation -- Communities -- Plants, phytophagous invertebrates and vertebrate herbivores -- Predators and prey -- Pathogens, symbionts and parasites -- Biomass, biodiversity and human influences on the environment -- Appendixes