Peter Stiling is a professor of biology at the University of South Florida at Tampa. He has taught classes in ecology, environmental science, and community ecology, and in 1995 he received a teaching award in recognition of classroom excellence in these areas. Dr. Soling obtained his Ph.D. from University College, Cardiff, Wales, and completed postdoctoral research at Florida State University. It was while he was teaching ecology at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad that the idea for this book was conceived. Dr. Stiling's research interests include plant-insect relationships, parasite-host relationships, biological control, restoration ecology, and the effects of elevated CO2 levels on native communities. He has published many scientific papers in journals such as Ecology, Oikos, and Oecologia and was an editor for Oecologia. His field research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Nature Conservancy.