This book highlights the importance to ecological studies of incorporating humans and their effects on ecosystems. In Humans as Components of Ecosystems, leading experts from a variety of disciplines address a number of important issues, including: The prominent role of humans in the function of ecosystems on Earth; Why humans have been ignored in ecological studies; approaches taken by social scientists, historians, geographers, economists, and anthropologists in the study of human activities; the emergence of a new ecological paradigm accommodating human activities; methods for studying subtle human effects, and human-populated ecosystems; future research and training required to include humans effectively as components of ecological systems.