Review: The continuing interest in ecology and environmental science has been spread most recently by the demands of the UK National Curriculum in general and sustainability education in particular. Such trends have been seen elsewhere and so there is a need for a book which covers the very basics accurately but in sufficient overview to make it easy to comprehend. This text, produced by the Open University, is one attempt to provide the basic material.

As with most Open University study books there is a wealth of detail beyond the title. It comes with a DVD that contains much of the multimedia material used in the books' examples. There are numerous asides which deal with the art of studying and writing which are aimed at helping the student with fewer resources to conventional learning (which is where the OU made its mark years ago). We start with a brief introduction to both 'environment' and study with the aim of getting the reader to consider both as important. Chapter two moves on to ecosystems with some examples and also some idea of the key principles needed to understand how ecosystems function. Here we see one of the key approaches to the text. The book doesn't try to be comprehensive in any way: it seeks to provide the key points needed to understands ecological ideas particularly those that make the headlines daily. Chapter three continues this with an examination of agriculture but with many basic ecological concepts added. Chapter four examines how and why ecosystems change with the emphasis on agriculture. There's also a very useful discussion on the exact nature of "natural" as in natural history - particularly important in somewhere like Britain.The next move is to populations with the emphasis on the basic concepts - food pyramids, energy flow etc. as well as population interactions. Later on the topic moves towards biodiversity and a consideration of the needs of conservation. Chapter six focusses on resource use and impact by-passing the older measures and concentrating on ecofootprint. This might reduce the complexity of the topic but it does allow the reader to concentrate on what is important. Chapter seven follows on from this theme by using the ecofootprint as a measure of sustainability. A final chapter brings together both environmental themes from the preceding chapters and some ways of communicating ideas. There is an accompanying DVD with numerous articles and multimedia clips which make this a self-contained study book.

This is not the standard basic ecology text. It attempts to do two things. Firstly, it attempts to introduce the beginner to some of the more important concepts needed to make headway in an ecological or environmental studies programme. Secondly, it aims to help the student prepare for study and communication. Whilst the former is fair, the book really shines in the latter. There is constant emphasis on how to study/read/write (with excellent backup from the DVD) which would be invaluable to the more mature student just returning to study but just as useful for the school-student trying to research environmental matters and learn some study skills in the process. This is another first-rate job from the OU. It deserves to be on every library shelf.