Measuring Biological Diversity
1. Edition November 2003
264 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
This accessible and timely book provides a comprehensive overview
of how to measure biodiversity. The book highlights new
developments, including innovative approaches to measuring
taxonomic distinctness and estimating species richness, and
evaluates these alongside traditional methods such as species
abundance distributions, and diversity and evenness statistics.
* Helps the reader quantify and interpret patterns of ecological
diversity, focusing on the measurement and estimation of species
richness and abundance.
* Explores the concept of ecological diversity, bringing new
perspectives to a field beset by contradictory views and
advice.
* Discussion spans issues such as the meaning of community in the
context of ecological diversity, scales of diversity and
distribution of diversity among taxa
* Highlights advances in measurement paying particular attention
to new techniques such as species richness estimation, application
of measures of diversity to conservation and environmental
management and addressing sampling issues
* Includes worked examples of key methods in helping people to
understand the techniques and use available computer packages more
effectively
Chapter 1. Introduction: measurement of (biological) diversity 1
Chapter 2. The commonness, and rarity, of species 18
Chapter 3. How many species? 72
Chapter 4. An index of diversity 100
Chapter 5. Comparative studies of diversity 131
Chapter 6. Diversity in space (and time) 162
Chapter 7. No prospect of an end 185
References 194
Worked Examples 216
Index 248
from scouring second-hand bookshops; it was a text that was
borrowed from libraries and disappeared...Anne Magurran, while
providing an invaluable practical handbook, also explains
difficulties in a very readable style...But this book is not just
recommended to working ecologists - it is essential." Tony
Andrew, University of Ulster, Times Higher Education Supplement,
March 2004
"To ecologists and conservation biologists who work with
biodiversity, for more than a decade the name 'Magurran' has meant
an essential little book on measuring biodiversity Ecological
Diversity and Its Measurement, 1988.
Now Anne Magurran has written a thorough update Measuring
Biological Diversity, considerably expanded to cover important
new developments in the field, including richness estimation, new
relative abundance models, and new ways to compare assemblage
composition. Throughout, examples from the primary literature are
used to illustrate concepts and methods and key methods are
presented as worked examples in an appendix. And as before, the new
book shines with a blessedly welcome readability, excellent
scholarship and plain good sense. Magurran does not shrink from
making tough judgments and recommendations that go against
'tradition' in this field.
I expect the 'new Magurran' to become an essential reference on
researchers' bookshelves and required reading for advanced students
in biodiversity studies. " Professor Robert Colwell, University
of Connecticut.
"The book provides a useful and in-depth review of statistical
and measurement issues related to biological diversity...It will be
a useful reference book and educational tool for years to come for
those interested in the measurement of biological diversity."
Ecology, December 2004
"This is obviously a finely-crafted book...It will be an
indispensable guide for any researcher engaged in measuring species
diversity or in comparing the richness of different species
assemblages. It is, above all, a practical book, clearly laid out,
with concise descriptions and worked examples." African Journal
of Aquatic Science, June 2005
