A Consumer’s Guide to Archaeological Science
Rating: Mary E Malainey. 2012. A Consumer’s guide to Archaeological Science. Springer. ISBN 978 1 4419 5703 0 The increasing complexity of environmental science requires an equally increased sophistication in the use of techniques and an understanding of the limitations. I think it would be fair to say that there are few archaeologists trained in environmental archaeology (and, analogously, the same would apply to most sciences/scientists). Each has their speciality but there is a need to know at least how […]
Science and Public Reason
Rating: Sheila Jasanoff. 2012. Science and Public Reason. Earthscan. ISBN 978 0 415 52486 5. It is doubtful if there has ever been a time when the discourse between the public, government and science has been more strained and yet more needed. One only has to look at the recent arguments over climate change and carbon taxes to see how complex issues are being played out in the public arena. Part of the response to this has been the increase […]
Who Speaks for the Climate?
Rating: Boykoff MT. 2011. Who speaks for the climate? Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0978 0 521 13305 0 If we look back about 40 years ago, it was possible to teach environmental science with the one of two books available (and get a good understanding) and the guide to UK conservation groups was a slim publication. Both aspects have now been expanded to an extent inconceivable at the time. This is not to say that things should return to the […]
Global Environmental Issues
Rating: Harris F. (ed). 2012. Global Environmental Issues. 2e. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978 0 470 68469 6. Texts examining a range of global issues have a long and distinguished history in environmental publishing. Although the real growth of these compilation books came with the 1970s/1980s (notionally under the guise of cultural ecology) there were notable exceptions before that (of which the best would be “Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth” in 1956. By now, there are thousands of […]
Biodiversity in Agriculture
Rating: Gepts P, Famula TR, Bettinger RL, Brush SB, Damania AB, McGuire PE and Qualset CO. (eds). 2012. Biodiversity in Agriculture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 0 521 17087 1. Many years ago when interest in environmental science started one of our key texts was Ucko and Dimbleby’s “Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals”. This was a set of conference proceedings whose basic tenet was to examine how we came to have our modern set of plants and […]
Effective Learning in the Life Sciences
Rating: David J Adams. (ed). 2011. Effective Learning in the Life Sciences: how students can reach their full potential. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978 0 470 66157 4. The whole idea of re-vamping this site was to include areas that overlapped (intersected!) and that added a range of new ideas and discourses to ecology. Here we have one of the first in this new system, a product of collaboration within the UK Centre for Bioscience at the Higher Education Academy. The aim […]
Practical Field Ecology
Rating: C Philip Wheater, James R Bell and Penny A Cook. 2011. Practical Field Ecology: A project guide. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978 0 470 69429 9. Thinking back years (probably more than I should admit to!), I remember that despite all the interest ecology could engender in students in class, it was out in the field that the real work took place. Working in woodlands, ponds, streams and even on the sides of mountains in blinding snow it was there […]
Applied Urban Ecology
Rating: Matthias Richter and Ulrike Weiland. (eds). 2012. Applied Urban Ecology. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978 1 4443 3340 4. Given that urban areas frequently degrade ecosystem processes and that, as urban areas expand this problem will only get worse, it follows that we need to consider ways to improve existing conditions. The aim of this text is to show how it might be done. It is very clear that tackling urban ecological problems is not the same as doing the same […]
Urban Ecology
Rating: Kevin J Gaston. (ed). 20120. Urban Ecology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 0 521 74349 5. Since, as the author asserts, this is the ‘urban century’ it follows that urban ecology should be a flourishing sub-discipline. It might be that ‘real’ ecologists study ‘real’ i.e. wild places but the increasing impact of the human population and the general growth of urbanisation makes this problematic on two levels. Firstly, we cannot appreciate the impact of urban areas unless we can […]
Community Ecology
Rating: Peter J Morin. 2011. Community Ecology 2e. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978 1 4051 2411 9. Whereas much ecology teaching is focussed on single populations, community ecology (interactions of two or more species) is gaining ground especially as we need to look at more complex interactions. Although it sounds a legitimate area of study, community ecology is not universally accepted and although this is the second edition (the first being published in 1999) it should still be regarded as a relative […]
