Colin R. Townsend is the Director of the Ecology, Conservation and Biodiversity Research Group at the University of Otago. He has published over 150 ecology papers and books, including the best-selling and award-winning Ecology, 4th Edition, with co-authors Michael Begon and John L. Harper. He is also co-editor of the international journal Freshwater Biology.

Michael Begon is Professor of Ecology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Liverpool. He has authored several books in addition to Ecology and around 150 research articles. His current research interests are focused on the population ecology of pathogens in wildlife populations.

John L. Harper is an award-winning biologist and a leading figure in plant population biology. He has served as a council member of the Fellowship of the Royal Society and received the Darwin Arward in 1990. He is also the author of Population Biology of Plants and a co-author of Ecology.