Review: Much has been written about the use of models and statistical methods to develop a subject but less about how these tools can be used across subjects. The focus in this book is to take this approach and demonstrate how it can be used in population ecology. It also ties in demography to a range of scales and illustrates how local events can affect areas beyond their borders.

The book starts with a brief introduction which outlines the tents upon which the text is founded. It might start with the idea that all demography can stem from local births and deaths but it is soon made clear that to this can be added evolutionary biology and temporal variations. It's clear that the aim of the text is to explore the connections and depths in population ecology rather than give a more usual expository account. Chapter two takes a fundamental look at the most basic of population ideas - birth and death - and how this affects the idea of population renewal. Models are presented which represent both deterministic and stochastic processes, building up form a simple model to more complex and accurate ones. The important point here is that most of the usual ecological variables are missing; the aim is to examine just the key dynamics. Chapter three starts to add to this basic picture by considering that any given population will be subject to external forces in emigration and immigration. In addition to these population interchanges there is also the question of numbers to be considered. As chapter four explores, populations change in consort with others - the notion of synchronicity. Here, we look at the ways in which true synchronicity can be understood and some of the factors behind it. Chapter five describes one of the newer ideas in ecology - that large-scale populations may become self-organised i.e. operate outside the constructs of the individual populations. Chapter six outlines another perspective on populations: that they are made from individuals of differing ages, vital rates etc. The implication of this is that the more simple models of demography may not always be accurate (just as in human demography, birth rate is not as accurate as age-specific birth rate). Chapter seven focusses on biodiversity and the impact of population structure upon it. Community is determined in terms of interactions between species which means that in a small community a single species loss may trigger more events and that reintroduction may not always succeed. Habitat loss could be characterised as an increase in heterogeneity which is the perspective taken in chapter 8. If we take this with the previous chapter then one implication is that habitat loss might create a greater range of problems than one might expect. Furthermore, as seen in chapter 9, species harvesting might also affect the viability of the species (and if we think of recent work on fish stocks, these ideas gain in relevance). Chapter 10 returns to more fundamental ecological ideas considering the role played by unequal distribution of resources to population numbers. The central argument is that population size and distribution will be determined by location of resources. Chapter 11 looks at games theory. Whilst this might seem unusual at first, the basic idea is that it is individuals who interact, not species, and that their interaction can be subject to game theory i.e. population dynamics has a behavioural perspective. Chapter 12 adds a further dimension in evolution arguing that life histories can change in much the same way as species. A final chapter highlights the key points brought out in the book.

As can be seen from the overview of the text, above, this is a challenging book seeking to add to the variety of ideas in population ecology and not present a basic overview. It follows that this is for the more advanced undergraduate audience which already has some understanding of the mathematics of population dynamics. It requires a good understanding of mathematical and statistical concepts. However, the reward for working on this text is an enrichment of understanding and an appreciation of the ways in which this increasingly popular topic is going.