Continuing our weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:
Conservation Biogeography
by Richard J Ladle and Robert J Whittaker
What?
An authoritative key volume for students and researchers in this developing field.
Why?
The authors of Conservation Biogeography are both associated with the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford where the nascent field was formally defined in 2005. They state their aim in the preface as “[…]to expand the scope and agenda of conservation biogeography, to identify critical gaps and weaknesses, and to provide an introduction to the toolbox of concepts and methods – and thereby to produce a broad-based text for university courses and programmes.”
After defining the field, the chapters work their way through the impact of social values on conservation, biodiversity mapping and its processes, planning considerations, island biogeography, invasions and homogeneity, and the volume ends with discussions on the future prospects and challenges associated with the biogeographical approach to global conservation management.
Who?
Richard J. Ladle was the founding Director of Oxford University’s MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management. Since 2009 he has been working in Brazil as an international conservation consultant and science writer. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Alagoas, teaching and doing research on diverse and interdisciplinary aspects of conservation, biogeography and ecology.
Robert J. Whittaker is the current Academic Director of the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, and holds the title of Professor of Biogeography in the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. He is a founding member and past President (2009–2010) of the International Biogeography Society. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biogeography. He has a long-standing interest in island biogeography, patterns and processes controlling diversity, and the application of biogeography to conservation.
