Dr Joanna R Freeland's research career in molecular ecology has embraced aspects of evolution, behavioural ecology, population genetics, and conservation genetics

Heather Kirk writes books for young people and adults. Heather has also written newspaper articles, radio scripts, and scholarly criticism. She has won several awards for her work. Her website is at www.heatherkirk.ca.

Stephen Petersen is an independent scholar and recipient of a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Penn Humanities Forum. He has published articles in Art Journal, Art on Paper, Visual Resources, Science in Context, and The Burlington Magazine.

Molecular Ecology, 2nd Edition provides an accessible introduction to the many diverse aspects of this subject. The book takes a logical and progressive approach to uniting examples from a wide range of taxonomic groups. The straightforward writing style offers in depth analysis whilst making often challenging subjects such as population genetics and phylogenetics highly comprehensible to the reader. The first part of the book introduces the essential underpinnings of molecular ecology and gives a review of genetics and discussion of the molecular markers that are most frequently used in ecological research, and a chapter devoted to the newly emerging field of ecological genomics. The second half of the book covers specific applications of molecular ecology, covering phylogeography, behavioural ecology and conservation genetics. The new edition provides a thoroughly up-to-date introduction to the field, emphasising new types of analyses and including current examples and techniques whilst also retaining the information-rich, highly readable style which set the first edition apart. Incorporates both theoretical and applied perspectives Highly accessible, user-friendly approach and presentation Includes self-assessment activities with hypothetical cases based on actual species and realistic data sets Uses case studies to place the theory in context Provides coverage of population genetics, genomics, phylogeography, behavioural ecology and conservation genetics.