Since biodiversity began to be used in the late 1980s as a call-to-arms by conservation biologists, it has emerged as a topic of scientific investigation in its own right. By the 1990s, biodiversity has become a key concept in the biological and environmental sciences.

Biodiversity: A Biology of Numbers and Difference explores the underlying principles of this new research subject: the measurement of biodiversity, its spatial and temporal patterns, and the ways in which its study can and 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.







A landmark text, defining the status of a new and developing science.

An authoritative series of reviews from the leading scientists in the field.

Ideal as a textbook for the many new courses in biodiversity and for courses in ecology and biogeography.