World Atlas of Biodiversity: Earth's Living Resources in the 21st Century [Hardcover]

Brian Groombridge (Author), Martin D. Jenkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2002

The World Atlas of Biodiversity is an updated edition of Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's Living Resources, originally published in 1992 and reissued in 2000 as Global Biodiversity: Earth's living resources in the 21st Century. This 2002 edition, totally redesigned and updated, includes new data and graphics, additional photos, and additional material on food issues and biodiversity, as well as an entirely new chapter on protected areas and other conservation issues.
World Atlas of Biodiversity addresses the remarkable growth in concern at all levels for living things and the environment, and increased appreciation of the links between the state of ecosystems and the state of humankind. Building on a wealth of research and analysis by the conservation community worldwide, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible view of key global issues in biodiversity. It outlines some of the broad ecological relationships between humans and the rest of the material world and summarizes information on the health of the planet. Opening with an outline of some fundamental aspects of material cycles and energy flow in the biosphere, the book goes on to discuss the expansion of this diversity through geological time and the pattern of its distribution over the surface of the Earth, and trends in the condition of the main ecosystem types and the species integral to them.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Published to coincide with the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, this work provides an overview of the current state of global diversity, a source of growing concern in past years. The authors, both staff members of the World Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme, focus on the diversity of living organisms, their populations, and major aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem types. Opening with a discussion of material cycles and energy flow, the text goes on to examine diversity through geological time, species extinction, and the increasing human impact on the environment. A large portion of the work focuses on the three basic biome types: terrestrial, marine, and inland waters. The maps include marine turtle diversity, forest distribution, and flowering plant family diversity, while appendixes include the phyla of living organisms, recent vertebrate extinctions, and biodiversity at the country level. Despite its numerous attractive tables, charts, graphs, and color photographs, this work is most appropriate for researchers and college students of ecology/environmental studies. General readers would find the maps and tables useful, but much of the other data may be too technical. Special and academic libraries will find that this resource nicely complements the five-volume Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, edited by Simon Levin.
Eva Lautemann, Georgia Perimeter Coll. Lib., Clarkston
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

A revision and updating of Global Diversity: Earth's Living Resources in the 21st Century (World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 2000), this atlas was published to coincide with the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg. It is meant to provide "a comprehensive and accessible view of key global issues in biodiversity." Filled with an amazing breadth of textual information, the volume is arranged into eight thematic chapters. The first four of these cover the biosphere, the phylogenetic tree, the changes in biodiversity on a geological timescale, and human needs and impacts. The next three chapters deal with issues in terrestrial, marine, and inland water biodiversity, and the final chapter addresses global management responses.

Information is delivered in the form of essays, tables, figures, color photographs, and elegant maps that require thoughtful study to feel the impact of what they contain. The two map pairs that contain some of the most important information in the book are those that show possible future scenarios of biodiversity change as identified by two different models. These maps are less than one-fourth the size of other maps, so lose some of their visual strength while containing powerful ideas.

The appendixes are an eclectic group. Appendix 1 lists the phyla of living organisms. Appendixes 2 and 3 contain descriptions of the origins and current statuses of plant and domestic livestock species important for human consumption. Appendix 4 is a 16-page listing of recent vertebrate extinctions. The index is detailed, and index headings include map pages in boldface type.

The preface states that this is "a resource pack and a survival kit for the future." It also could have said that the volume is probably one of the highest value-for-price books on the environment currently in print. Every academic and large public library should purchase it. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (September 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520236688
• ISBN-13: 978-0520236684
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,981,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great encyclopedia, but why page-spliting graphics?, April 25, 2007

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cambro "cambro31" (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: World Atlas of Biodiversity: Earth's Living Resources in the 21st Century (Hardcover)

This is a great reference book that is richly illustrated with high-quality graphics. I'm not sure why the editors/authors decied to arrange many of these graphics so that they span the page split, a characteristic that obscures some detail and makes the examination of data-rich maps difficult.

Overlooking this limitation, there is relatively little to complain about. I like the standard layout of the map-based information and it appears to be relatively complete. I recommend this book for educators and for those wishing to have a geographically-oriented overview of the biosphere.