Austral Ecology (2008) 33, 241–242
Book Reviews Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation O. J. Schmitz. Island Press, Washington, USA, 2007, 166 pp. Price US$19.95 (paperback). ISBN 978 1 59726 048 0. According to its author, this engaging book was written to provide an understanding of the fundamental principles of ecological science, their applications and an overview of ecological strategies necessary to conserve the health and functioning of ecosystems. In all respects, this book achieves its objectives in a simple effective way. What I liked about this book – and what makes it different to countless other texts on the subject – is its size. The book is much smaller than other books on the subject but is written in such a cohesive manner that it covers most of the relevant points that larger text books contain. As such, it covers the basic principles that budding ecologists need to understand, while at the same time not overwhelming them with too much detailed information. This is a well-organized text book. Its structure leads the reader from the theoretical to the practical by answering eight key questions in ecology along the way. The questions are answered in 10 well-written chapters. The first chapter deals with the basics of the science of ecology, the chapters that follow outline the key concepts that one must understand to be an ecologist, and the final chapters address various practical applications of ecology and how ecology can influence conservation policy and management. The ecological theories are very well explained and the author uses metaphors effectively. For example, I found the author’s reference to a financial economy when introducing the concept of how an ecological system works as a clever way of simplifying a complicated concept. Another element of the book which works well is the way key concepts in each chapter are put in bold and separated in a text box on many pages. Although this is repetitive (the text is sometimes repeated in the text box and in the body of the chapter), it is a highly effective way to communicate the important concepts that each page contains. I do feel that one major element is missing in this book. In the eight big questions the author outlines at the beginning of the book, one question focuses on the effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity and another assesses the role of the earth’s climate system in determining the distribution of life on earth. However, there is no attempt to link these two questions, despite the fact that this very link is arguably the most serious threat to biodiversity on the planet. The author discussed the ‘indirect effects’ of climate change but only to show that there would be geo© 2008 Ecological Society of Australia
graphical changes to vegetation patterns in Northern America. I was surprised there was no attempt to talk about the current effects of habitat fragmentation on vegetation presence, or how current land use patterns will affect future ‘movements’ of vegetation following a rapidly changing climate. The only other disappointing aspect I found when reading this book was the limited number of examples for almost all of the major ecological theories and concepts covered. For example, when dealing with the concepts of predation and carrying capacity, only one example is given on how these processes affect the ecosystem at large. I have noted already that the book’s small size is good, yet I do not think that a couple more examples for each major theory would have affected the page length greatly. The lack of examples may be problematic for students who have little grasp of the concepts and need examples as a learning mechanism. Another associated problem is the North American focus of almost all examples. It would have been advantageous to have at least one Pacific example to give the content an international perspective. Despite these issues, I would recommend this book to Australasian undergraduate students and consider it to be one of the most succinct and easy-to-read texts on this topic that I have seen. JAMES WATSON Fenner School of Environment and Society Australian National University Canberra, ACT, Australia Email:
[email protected]
Models for Ecological Data: An Introduction J. S. Clark. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2007, xiii + 617 pp. Price AUD $105 (hardback). ISBN 978 0 691 12178 9. In terms of production, size and content, this is an impressive volume. James Clark has compiled literature from a range of sources to describe the mathematical details of ecological models, how to estimate parameters using data, and how to analyse the models. The focus is on population ecology, with little on models of nutrient and energy dynamics, for example. I wish this book had been available during my PhD, because it contains a lot of material (and then some) that I obtained from a large number of publications in ecology, mathematics and statistics. The first two chapters introduce the topics covered in the book and the basic components of the process models that are considered.The following five chapters doi:10.1111/j.1442-9993.2007.01837.x
