Publisher's Synopsis
Since it began to be used in the late ′80s as a call to arms by conservation biologists, biodiversity has emerged as a topic of scientific investigation in its own right. In the ′90s it has become one of the key concepts in the biological and environmental sciences. Biodiversity: A Biology of Numbers and Difference explores the underlying principles of this new subject of research: the measurement of biodiversity, its spatial and temporal patterns, and the ways in which its study should inform conservation biology. No one doubts the central importance of biodiversity in ecology but its scientific basis has required appraisal and clarification. With this book, the study of biodiversity takes an important step forward. No one doubts the central importance of biodiversity in ecology but its scientific basis has required appraisal and clarification. With this book, the study of biodiversity takes an important step forward.
