Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology
Rating: F Stuart Chapin III, Pamela A Matson and Peter M Vitousek. 2011. Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology 2e. Springer. ISBN 978 1 4419 9502 5 “Humans have directly modified half of the ice-free terrestrial surface and use 40% of terrestrial production. We are causing the sixth major extinction event in the history of life on Earth…” If you’re going to justify any text, that is probably the most focussing! Taken from the back cover information, this quote very much […]
Wetland Ecology
Rating: Paul A Keddy. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation. 2e. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978 0 521 73967 2. Wetlands are rightly recognised as crucial, but often endangered, ecosystems. It follows that anything promoting them is welcomed. There’s also something about a second or subsequent addition that piques the interest. Clearly it was worth the publishing effort (suggesting a good book, in demand) but it also allows the author to update and gives the reader an insight into what has […]
Ecology of Industrial Pollution
Rating: Lesley C Batty and Kevin B Hallberg.(eds). 2010. Ecology of Industrial Pollution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 0 521 73038 9. Some of my first forays into ecology were via the works of the late Tony Bradshaw, one of the pioneers of industrial ecology so it’s with a sense of both interest and nostalgia that I review this latest offering , one of the BESs ecological reviews. A good starting point is to consider what the “industrial” part of […]
Heat Islands
[rating 4.5] Lisa Gartland. 2010. Heat Islands: Understanding and Mitigating Heat in Urban Areas. Earthscan. ISBN 978 1 84971 298 9. Heat islands have been recognised for many years. One of the first instances would be the First Report of the Royal Commission on Pollution, which reported the impact of urban climate on London (although there have been reports linking it back as far as the early 1800s). Of late, they have gathered some controversy, in a few cases the […]
The Limits to Scarcity
Rating: Lyla Mehta (ed). 2010. The Limits to Scarcity: Contesting the Politics of Allocation. Earthscan. ISBN 978 1 88407 542 3. The trouble with scarcity is that it’s taken as value neutral. It helps explain why supply and demand economics works as it does. Scarcity sets the price of something – with a finite supply, price varies to balance the equation. The problem is, scarcity is personal – someone loses out. If that’s a seat at a concert it’s just […]
A Nature Conservation Review
Rating: Derek Ratcliffe (ed). 2011. A Nature Conservation Review: Vol 2. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 0 521 20348 7. It might fairly be asked as to why a review site looking at the most recent publications in ecology should be focussing a text made famous over 30 years ago! This volume (and the companion, Volume 1) formed one of the best reviews of conservation and its criteria ever published in the UK. In 1977 (when they first appeared in […]
The Renewable Revolution
Rating: Sajad Kamal. 2011. The Renewable Revolution. Earthscan. ISBN 978 1 84971 195 1. It must be admitted that any text with a sub-title like ‘how we can fight climate change, prevent energy wars, revitalise the economy and transition to a sustainable future’ is going to have an uphill battle convincing many readers that it’s a serious text. However, these are difficult times and although the signs of climate change etc. were seen by many scientists over 30 years ago […]
Ecosystem Ecology
Rating: David G Raffaelli and Christopher LJ Frid.eds. 2010. Ecosystem Ecology: A New Synthesis. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 0 521 73503 2. This slim text, part of the British Ecological Society’s Ecological Reviews, aims to bring a more system-wide view of ecology to bear on questions of sustainable management and conservation. As such it’s another avenue to explore alongside the burgeoning notions of conservation science which tend to be focussed more on the individual. Since this is a text […]
Ecological and Economic Foundations
Rating: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, ed Pushpam Kumar. 2010 Ecological and Economic foundations. UNEP/Earthscan. ISBN 978 1 84971 212 5 This is one text where context is crucial. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) was set up by the UNEP in 2007. It was started became of the concern that current economics was either not valuing nor not valuing sufficiently, our ecosystem services and, by extension, the biodiversity that keeps it functioning. This perspective would be similar […]
Physical Geography
Rating: Charles Fletcher. 2011. Physical Geology: The Science of the Earth. Wiley. ISBN 978 0 471 22037 4. Perhaps the most interesting idea when first picking up the book is the statement by the author ‘why have another text on physical geology’? Given the volume of material published (not to mention the legion of resources on the net), it appears to be overload. It’s worth exploring this before looking at the contents. The author argues that there are two elements. […]
