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Wörterbücher der Biologie. Ökologie
Book reviews
191
plants. Nevertheless it should appeal widely to ecologists and geneticists as the author emphasises that the most direct way of understanding the nature of successful colonising phenotypes is by taking the whole organism as the unit of selection. He points out that the ecobehavioural phenotype should be looked at in relation to four major environmental components--weather, resources, other organisms and habitats. This approach makes the account much more interesting to those readers who are not specialists in Drosophila genetics and also explains the origin of the book. It is a follow-up to a workshop in 1981 at La Trobe University, Australia, on 'Populations, Habitats and Colonizing Strategies', attended by geneticists, ecologists, anthropologists and prehistorians. The text also concerns problems of biological control and wildlife conservation at a theoretical level and the many new ideas should stimulate work on colonising strategies in different species. From the wildlife conservation point of view I was especially interested in Chapter 9 on Generalists and Specialists. On the other hand, Chapter 8, on Habitat Selection, which perhaps one might have expected to be one of the longest, takes a limited, rather specialised approach. Each chapter has a useful summary. Chapter 12 is a Discussion with Conclusions, which ends with nine points for future study, and there is also an Appendix on the study of quantitative traits. E.D.
Managing Wetlands and Their Birds. A Manual of Wetland and Waterfowl Management. Edited by D.A. Scott. International Waterfowl Research Bureau, Slimbridge, 1982. 368 pp. Price: £6-00.
Detailed studies on the management of major habitat types for specific purposes are rather rare in conservation literature. Nevertheless there is a growing body of useful practical and theoretical information which needs to be brought together. For birds the situation is brighter, there being so many keen ornithologists and several progressive organisations concerned with the management of their particular biotopes. This volume is a compilation of papers from specialists in different countries read at the Third Technical Meeting on Western Palearctic Migratory Bird
192
Book reviews
Management at Miinster, FRG. Wetlands are probably under greater threat than any other major biotope in Europe and without adequate management the status of some of the less common species of wildfowl may be threatened. The book opens with a useful essay, by two members of the Editorial Committee, on some of the main practical and theoretical points which wetland managers should bear in mind. Then follow 43 separate contributions under seven headings which deal with management, creation of artificial nesting sites, farming for wildfowl and crop damage, predation, environmental contamination, introductions and restocking, regulation of shooting, and effects of disturbance. The ingenuity of some wetland managers is remarkable and the success of their work even more so. It also seems to be a characteristic of management for birds that common sense and experience produce excellent results, as very little of the reported work is based on quantitative scientific experiment. There is also much of value in this book for the nature reserve manager who is not primarily concerned with birds and one hopes it will be widely read. When the time comes to up-date it, I hope the IWRB will persuade a single author to put all the available information together in a properly integrated whole so that it is better structured ecologically than the present multi-author volume.
E.D. W6rterbiicher der Biologie. Okologie, 2nd edition. By Matthias Schaefer ~nd Wolf gang Tischler, Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1983. 354 pp. Price: Not given. The first edition (1975) of this excellent dictionary of ecological terms (compiled by Professor Tischler) has now been more than doubled in size by the joint authorship of Professors Schaefer and Tischler, and is really a new book. Although the main text is in German the equivalent English terms are included with each definition. The last 41 pages of the book also include an 'Englisch-Deutsches Register', which is a list of the English terms in alphabetical order alongside the German equivalents. This has a two-way value--for German ecologists who read English papers, and vice-versa. It should be widely used in the international community of research ecologists where these two languages are of particular importance.
191
plants. Nevertheless it should appeal widely to ecologists and geneticists as the author emphasises that the most direct way of understanding the nature of successful colonising phenotypes is by taking the whole organism as the unit of selection. He points out that the ecobehavioural phenotype should be looked at in relation to four major environmental components--weather, resources, other organisms and habitats. This approach makes the account much more interesting to those readers who are not specialists in Drosophila genetics and also explains the origin of the book. It is a follow-up to a workshop in 1981 at La Trobe University, Australia, on 'Populations, Habitats and Colonizing Strategies', attended by geneticists, ecologists, anthropologists and prehistorians. The text also concerns problems of biological control and wildlife conservation at a theoretical level and the many new ideas should stimulate work on colonising strategies in different species. From the wildlife conservation point of view I was especially interested in Chapter 9 on Generalists and Specialists. On the other hand, Chapter 8, on Habitat Selection, which perhaps one might have expected to be one of the longest, takes a limited, rather specialised approach. Each chapter has a useful summary. Chapter 12 is a Discussion with Conclusions, which ends with nine points for future study, and there is also an Appendix on the study of quantitative traits. E.D.
Managing Wetlands and Their Birds. A Manual of Wetland and Waterfowl Management. Edited by D.A. Scott. International Waterfowl Research Bureau, Slimbridge, 1982. 368 pp. Price: £6-00.
Detailed studies on the management of major habitat types for specific purposes are rather rare in conservation literature. Nevertheless there is a growing body of useful practical and theoretical information which needs to be brought together. For birds the situation is brighter, there being so many keen ornithologists and several progressive organisations concerned with the management of their particular biotopes. This volume is a compilation of papers from specialists in different countries read at the Third Technical Meeting on Western Palearctic Migratory Bird
192
Book reviews
Management at Miinster, FRG. Wetlands are probably under greater threat than any other major biotope in Europe and without adequate management the status of some of the less common species of wildfowl may be threatened. The book opens with a useful essay, by two members of the Editorial Committee, on some of the main practical and theoretical points which wetland managers should bear in mind. Then follow 43 separate contributions under seven headings which deal with management, creation of artificial nesting sites, farming for wildfowl and crop damage, predation, environmental contamination, introductions and restocking, regulation of shooting, and effects of disturbance. The ingenuity of some wetland managers is remarkable and the success of their work even more so. It also seems to be a characteristic of management for birds that common sense and experience produce excellent results, as very little of the reported work is based on quantitative scientific experiment. There is also much of value in this book for the nature reserve manager who is not primarily concerned with birds and one hopes it will be widely read. When the time comes to up-date it, I hope the IWRB will persuade a single author to put all the available information together in a properly integrated whole so that it is better structured ecologically than the present multi-author volume.
E.D. W6rterbiicher der Biologie. Okologie, 2nd edition. By Matthias Schaefer ~nd Wolf gang Tischler, Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1983. 354 pp. Price: Not given. The first edition (1975) of this excellent dictionary of ecological terms (compiled by Professor Tischler) has now been more than doubled in size by the joint authorship of Professors Schaefer and Tischler, and is really a new book. Although the main text is in German the equivalent English terms are included with each definition. The last 41 pages of the book also include an 'Englisch-Deutsches Register', which is a list of the English terms in alphabetical order alongside the German equivalents. This has a two-way value--for German ecologists who read English papers, and vice-versa. It should be widely used in the international community of research ecologists where these two languages are of particular importance.