Biodiversity

While biodiversity is a hot word, the conceptual scientific issues underlying its quantification have received scant attention. What is biodiversity? Is biodiversity just the number of species in an area? If biodiversity is more than this how can it be measured? Are all species of equal weight? Should biodiversity measures include intraspecific genetic variance? Do some species contribute more than others to the biodiversity of an area? Are there useful indicators of areas where biodiversity is high? And, can the extent of biodiversity be estimated by extrapolation? Leading experts in the field of biodiversity studies take up these questions in this Royal Society sponsored book. The contributors draw on examples from a wide range of groups of organisms including bacteria, beetles, birds, fungi, mammals, plants and spiders: palaeobotanical aspects are also considered. Approaches considered include the latest molecular and phylogenetic techniques through to a selection of indicator taxa and aspects of sampling. This text should be of interest to all those concerned with the practical tasks of biodiversity assessments and their interpretation, and also the development of the conceptual scientific base of this fledgling scientific discipline.