BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: FRONTIERS IN MEASUREMENT AND ASSESSMENT

Robert M. May: Foreword
1: Anne E. Magurran and Brian J. McGill: Challenges and Opportunities in Biodiversity Assessment
PART I - BASIC MEASUREMENT ISSUES
2: Scott A. Bonar, Jeffery S. Fehmi, and Norman Mercado-Silva: An Overview of Sampling Issues in Species Diversity and Abundance Surveys
3: Stephen T. Buckland, Angelika Studeny, Anne E. Magurran and Stuart E. Newson: Biodiversity Monitoring: the Relevance of Detectability
PART II - DIVERSITY
4: Nicholas J. Gotelli and Robert K. Colwell: Estimating Species Richness
5: Brian A. Maurer and Brian J. McGill: Measurement of Species Diversity
6: Lou Jost, Anne Chao, and Robin L. Chazdon: Compositional Similarity and Beta Diversity
7: Anne E. Magurran: Measuring Biological Diversity in Time (and Space)
PART III - DISTRIBUTION
8: Anne E. Magurran and Peter A. Henderson: Commonness and Rarity
9: Brian J. McGill: Species Abundance Distributions
10: Sean R. Connolly and Maria Dornelas: Fitting and Empirical Evaluation of Models for Species Abundance Distributions
11: Kevin J. Gaston and Fangliang He: Species Occurrence and Occupancy
12: Brian J. McGill: Measuring the Spatial Structure of Biodiversity
PART IV - ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF DIVERSITY
13: Evan Weiher: A Primer of Trait Diversity
14: Mark Vellend, William K. Cornwell, Karen Magnuson-Ford, and Arne Ø. Mooers: Measuring Phylogenetic Biodiversity
15: Melanie Culver, Robert Fitak and Hans-Werner Herrmann: Genetic Methods for Biodiversity Assessment
PART V - APPLICATIONS
16: Lise Øvreås and Thomas P. Curtis: Microbial Diversity and Ecology
17: Maria Dornelas, Candan Soykan, and Karl Inne Ugland: Biodiversity and Disturbance
18: Steven L. Chown and Melodie A. McGeoch: Measuring Biodiversity in Managed Landscapes
19: Peter J. Wagner and S. Kathleen Lyons: Estimating Extinction with the Fossil Record
20: Michael L. Rosenzweig, John Donoghue II, Yue Max Li and Chi Yuan: Estimating Species Density
PART VI - CONCLUSIONS
21: Brian J. McGill and Anne E. Magurran: Conclusions
References
Index

•Provides an up-to-date, authoritative review of the methods of measuring biological diversity, together with their application
•Incorporates the latest developments in methodology and provides a consensus for best practice
•Contributions from leading researchers in the field who have been actively involved in developing the approaches discussed
•Describes an agenda for future research
•Discusses practical applications in the context of managed landscapes, disturbed habitats, and areas of conservation interest
Biological Diversity provides an up to date, authoritative review of the methods of measuring and assessing biological diversity, together with their application. The book's emphasis is on quantifying the variety, abundance, and occurrence of taxa, and on providing objective and clear guidance for both scientists and managers. This is a fast-moving field and one that is the focus of intense research interest. However the rapid development of new methods, the inconsistent and sometimes confusing application of old ones, and the lack of consensus in the literature about the best approach, means that there is a real need for a current synthesis.

Biological Diversity covers fundamental measurement issues such as sampling, re-examines familiar diversity metrics (including species richness, diversity statistics, and estimates of spatial and temporal turnover), discusses species abundance distributions and how best to fit them, explores species occurrence and the spatial structure of biodiversity, and investigates alternative approaches used to assess trait, phylogenetic, and genetic diversity. The final section of the book turns to a selection of contemporary challenges such as measuring microbial diversity, evaluating the impact of disturbance, assessing biodiversity in managed landscapes, measuring diversity in the imperfect fossil record, and using species density estimates in management and conservation.


Readership: This accessible text is suitable for graduate students, professional researchers, and practitioners in the fields of ecology and conservation biology. It will be essential reading for all researchers working on biological diversity and of relevance and use to environmental managers.