F I S H and F I S H E R I E S , 2007, 8, 281–283
Book Reviews
How to do ecology – a concise handbook Edited By Richard Karban and Mikaela Huntzinger Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2006 ISBN: 0-691-12577-5; GBP 10.95, USD 16.95 (Paperback) 168 pp., 10 line illustrations, 4 tables. I was asked to review How to do ecology – a concise handbook, from the viewpoint of someone still at the training stage of the science. Having read the book I feel I have benefited as it contains a great deal of useful information for ecologists at the start of their careers. In fact much of what it has to say would also be of use to more seasoned professionals who may regret perhaps not having put some of its advice into practice in the past. The first six chapters offer sound advice to students before and during their undergraduate degrees, as well as advice directed at the postgraduate wanting to develop and communicate their science. Being a handy pocket size the book is easy to take into the field where many investigations are carried out and unfortunately too many mistakes made. The first chapter starts right at the beginning of the process of ecological investigation with picking a question. Many undergraduates perhaps do not see the importance of choosing the right questions for their long-term career. All through this book the importance of having goals and of planning your research is emphasized. Getting started with a project can be difficult and the authors offer advice on how to choose what to investigate. The next chapter deals with how you should carry out your project and three methods are outlined: observation of patterns (natural history); manipulative experiments both in the field and in the lab and model building. The pros and cons of each approach are outlined but the conclusion, not surprisingly, is that employing all three will allow you to arrive at better conclusions. Of course researchers employ these techniques to test hypotheses and the details of this process are Ó 2007 The Author Journal compilation Ó 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
outlined in chapter 3. The process of experimental design is dealt with using simple real world examples that should convey the importance of devising meaningful treatments and controls that use truly independent replicates. Chapter 4 deals with the part of the whole process that many ecology students, myself included like least, the statistical analysis of your data. The paramount importance however of considering which statistics you will use in your experiments to test your hypotheses is made clear. It may be painful to some but the sooner the necessity and importance of statistics to their work is grasped the better it will be. However, the authors do rightly point out that so many things in ecology are not simply yes/no answers and that the size of biological effects should be noted even if not strictly statistically significant. Chapter 5 covers something very rarely treated in ecology textbooks and that is the reality of dealing with other people and it does this very well. Science is not carried out in a bubble and as the authors say, is a social endeavour. You have to work with other people and deal with their views. Effective communication is crucial. Students should pick a good supervisor, seek advantageous collaborations and attend meetings. Once you have your results they need to be communicated to the rest of the world and chapter 6 deals with the publication of results and presentation of findings at conferences both orally and using posters. The book finishes with a conclusion chapter that brings together all the topics covered in the previous six. As the book says, many rules about doing ecology are left unstated and are left for the students to find out by themselves, and this book aims to point these out. The writing is not too technical and examples are given of how the authors themselves approach aspects of research, thus lending a more personal, helpful style. It is like having a friendly tutor to carry around with you. This is an American book and so written with the North American system in
281
FISH and FISHERIES, 2007, 8, 281–283
mind but I do not think ecologists in other countries would find this confusing in any way as the principles are the same. Perhaps, the book could do with more figures and perhaps in colour to make it more appealing, but this would only put the price up. Overall, this is an inexpensive and well-written book that contains information useful to all ecology students, and perhaps even their supervisors.
David Baines Departments of Geology and Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. E-mail:
[email protected]
Coral Reef Conservation. Volume 13 in the Series ‘Conservation Biology’ Edited by Isabelle M. Coˆte´ and John D. Reynolds, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006 ISBN13: 9780521855365 (Hardback); ISBN10: 521855365 (Hardback); ISBN13: 9780521671453 (Paperback); ISBN10: 0521671450 (Paperback); GBP 75.00 (Hardback); GBP 38.00 (Paperback); 588 pp, 84 line diagrams, 70 half-tones, 16 colour plates, 29 tables. Index. Coral Reef Conservation is the 13th instalment in Cambridge University Press’ ‘Conservation Biology’ series and has been produced under the joint editorship of Isabelle Coˆte´ and John Reynolds. The origin of this volume was the December 2004 London symposium and workshop on coral reef conservation sponsored by The Zoological Society and The Fisheries Conservation Foundation. That event was timed to coincide with the UK launch of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network’s Coral Reefs of the World Report (2004). The 18 chapters of the book therefore have their origin in, and are a development over the intervening 2 year period of, the papers presented at that event. The stated purpose of collecting these papers together was to provide a summary of the then current state of knowledge on reef conservation. A full index of the chapters is available through the publisher’s website, but the following overview will give an indication of the genuine merits of this volume. The chapters have been naturally divided according to three themes covering (broadly speaking) the 282
present state of coral reefs worldwide, the anthropogenic threats to coral reefs generated by human exploitation of these ecosystems, and conservation strategies for the future. The first part therefore seeks to give an overview of the current status of coral reefs, and incorporates a helpful re-write of the executive summary to the above-mentioned Coral Reefs of the World Report, an update on the health of Jamaica’s oft-described reefs, and an analysis of the relationships between mangroves, sea-grass beds and coral reefs. The information on Jamaica is particularly interesting as it reports that populations of Diadema antillarum seem to be recovering and coral cover increasing even though fisheries pressure remains high. However, it is Corcoran and Hain’s chapter on cold water coral reefs which could be the most important to readers as it demystifies these less frequently analysed habitats, helping those who focus on shallow warm water reefs to maintain clear distinctions between the two formations in research and published output. Having such knowledge will surely become more important as cold water coral reef ecosystems figure more and more on the international environmental agenda. The second part of Coral Reef Conservation considers the anthropogenic impacts upon shallow warm water coral reefs brought about (principally) by their exploitation, with in-depth and up-to-date chapters reviewing the effects of the live fish trade, climate change, tourism and establishing sustainable reef fisheries. It is in this part that more explicit reference could have, perhaps, been made to pollution particularly from land-based sources, even though there is some discussion of this in the last part of the book. This does not, however, detract from the overall value of the book. The final part of the book then focuses on conservation of shallow warm water reefs in the future, with eight chapters on such issues as how environmental impact assessment can control threats to coral reefs from coastal development, a quantitative study reinforcing the importance of community support for marine protected areas, and proposals for reef management on a global scale. Coral Reef Conservation covers many of the issues on which researchers and students need to be freely conversant, and in a level of detail which will satisfy those who wish to enhance their understanding of the subject beyond that available through the general commentaries to be found in textbooks,
Ó 2007 The Author Journal compilation Ó 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, F I S H and F I S H E R I E S , 8, 281–283
