Island Biogeography : Ecology, Evolution and Conservation

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, well-organised and highly-readable
Review: This book is an excellent and much-needed textbook of Island Biogeography. The approach taken by Dr. Whittaker blends detail and overview, and the book is well-organised, informative and interesting. He says at the beginning of the book that he hopes to "provide access for students of differing backgrounds and disciplines to the full array of island biogeographical themes and issues." I think this book does just that.

The book starts by stressing the importance of islands as arenas for the study of the natural world: 'natural laboratories' in which the complexity of nature may be simplified, enabling the development and testing of theories of general importance. Dr. Whittaker then moves from the general and long-term (beginning with the physical and biological properties of islands themselves) to the more specific and shorter-term (including island evolution, species richness and endemism, and island theories). He finishes by applying the theories and insights gained from work on islands to present-day conservation issues.

There is sufficient detail to give the reader a fair understanding of the issues addressed, but never so much that the text gets dull or bogged. Throughout, the book is well-referenced, with appropriate and informative references, and provides plenty of encouragement for the reader to delve further into the literature. Considerable clarity is achieved, even when discussing complicated and contentious issues, and on many occasions Dr. Whittaker demonstrates his considerable ability to be insightful and pertinent. He maintains a fair and balanced outlook, even when he addresses opinions and authors that oppose his own work. There is also an air of pragmatism to his arguments that others would do well to emulate. This is borne out, for instance, in his treatment of the SLOSS (single large or several small nature reserves) debate, and in the way he manages to reconcile a number of dichotomies in the literature by noting that various apparently-conflicting theories actually represent different points along continua. As might be expected from the background of the author, Chapters 7 and 8, which deal with island ecological theory, are particularly impressive: erudite and authoritative, while still being interesting and highly readable. These chapters deal with areas in which Dr. Whittaker is well known for his professional contribution (in which he has published papers of considerable international repute).

Overall, I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in island biogeography. Written primarily as a textbook for undergraduate students, it will provide very sound reading for students encountering the subject for the first time. It will be all the more useful for the fact that (to my knowledge), there is no other textbook written within the last 20 years that covers an equivalent subject area. But it will also interest experts in the field, who may well learn something from it, as well as finding it a useful reference for related literature. It will be a good addition to any science-related library, as well as to the personal collections of students of relevant subjects.