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Contents:

1 - What is biodiversity?; 2 - Biodiversity through time; 3 - Mapping biodiversity; 4 - Does biodiversity matter; 5 - Human impacts; 6 - Maintaining biodiversity.

Review:

In the six years since the first edition came out there has been an explosion of interest in biodiversity. Some crucial studies affecting the most fundamental areas have been published e.g. speciation/origination and a host of ideas have been raised. Older questions might have been settled but newer arguments have arisen. The move away from taxonomy (regretable in many ways but understandable) has meant that the more applied text is in vogue. This slim volume filled a useful place first time around and so it's always interesting to see how it has changed to meet the new demands placed on it. The initial impression is of a text that had nearly doubled but has kept much of the structure of the first edition. The opening chapter focusses on the meaning of biodiversity starting with a case study to set the scene and then continuing to look at the various ways in which biodiversity can be defined (and the limitations of this. A summary, set of references and websites completes the chapter (whose layout is followed in subsequent work). Chapter two follows the story of changes in biodiversity through time - a crucial sector that has seen some crucial papers published in the last two years. All the basic material is here but some of the most recent debate is missing. Chapter three looks at the spatial elements of biodiversity and mapping. The reader is intoruced to a range of different regions: hotspots getting a strong mention which is useful considering the interest it has drawn of late. Considering this is a text looking at biodiversity chapter four, with its question of the usefulness of the concept, seems out of place but it is really an extention of the earlier work: we've spent time researching it, can we justify it? The obvious positive answer is backed up with a far wider range of examples than one normally expects. Chapter five looks at human impact focussing more on modern and future impacts than upon the impacts we are finding from past civilisations. The final chapter looks at ways in which we can continue to protect biodiversity through measures such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. A very large range of references not specific to the chapters completes the text.

This is a great step up from the first edition. At nearly twice the length it gets more information in whilst still being readable as an introductory text. The list of references is impressive allowing anyone to follow up the work noted in the text. The layout has been improved and the range of figures increased. Overall, this is a definite purchase for the library: the text has few peers at this level.