Virtual School of Biodiversity

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Biodiversity Information Network

Virtual Library of Ecology, Biodiversity
and the Environment
Genetics Virtual Library
Online Life Science Dictionary
Google's Web Directory on the Environment
ingenta (for bibliographic searches)

General Web Resources

American Society of International Law (Environment)
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IUCN Global Biodiversity Forum (7-9 May, 1999)
Man and the Biosphere Fauna Database
Marine Conservation Biology Institute
National Biodiversity Network (UK)
National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis
Nature Insight Biodiversity (special section, 11.05.02 - click 'Nature Insight')
Protection of the Environment (Social Science Information Gateway)
Reefbase (Global Reef Monitoring Network)
Research Guide to International Environmental Law on the Internet
Smithsonian Biodiversity Program
Taxonomy Exercise
Taxonomy on the Web
Tree of Life,University of Arizona
Wild World - National Geographic's Ecoregion Index
Willi Hennig Society
World Conservation Monitoring Centre
World Environmental Law
World Resources Institute
WWF's Global Network

For more web resources related to the study of biodiversity, see the VSB Learning Support Centre
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Bibliography
Selected references for students of biodiversity
Basic Texts
General Biodiversity
Biosystematics
How Many Species?
Ecological Diversity
Miscellaneous
Conservation
Extinctions

1. Basic Texts
Gaston KJ (ed) (1996a) Biodiversity: A Biology of Numbers and Difference. Blackwell Science
Gaston KJ & Spicer JI (1998) Biodiversity: an Introduction. Blackwell Science, Oxford
Levin, Simon (ed) (2000) Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. 5 Vols. Academic Press
Reaka-Kudla ML, Wilson DE & Wilson EO (1997) Biodiversity II. Joseph Henry Press [Sequel to Wilson 1988]
Wilson, EO (1992) The Diversity of Life. Allen Lane, The Penguin Press

The Smithsonian Institution's most recent publication: Biodiversity: Connecting with the Tapestry of Life. The report is available online from the
Smithsonian MAB site.

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2. General Biodiversity
Baur B and Schmid B (1966) Spatial and temporal patterns of genetic diversity. IN: Gaston KJ (1966a) p 169.
Begon, M, Harper, JL & Townsend, CR (1996) Ecology. Individuals, Populations and Communities. 3rd Ed. Blackwell Scientific Publications.
Campbell, NA (1993) Biology. (3rd ed.). Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, California, USA. [Section 5. The Evolutionary History of Biological Diversity, pp 500-669.]
Costanza, Robert et al (1997) The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 387, 253-260
Dawkins R (1995) River out of Eden. Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Eldredge, N (ed) (1992) Systematics, Ecology and the Biodiversity Crisis. Columbia University Press.
Gaston KJ (1996b) What is biodiversity? IN: Gaston KJ (ed) (1996a) p 1.
Gaston KJ (1996c) Species richness: measure and measurement. IN Gaston KJ (ed) (1996a), p 77.
Gaston KJ & Wiliams Paul (1966) Spatial patterns in taxonomic diversity. IN: Gaston KJ (ed) (1966a) p 202.
Groombridge B (ed) (1992) Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's Living Resources. World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Chapman & Hall.
Hawksworth, DL (ed) (1995) Biodiversity: Measurement and Estimation. Chapman and Hall.
Huston, MA (1994) Biological Diversity. The coexistance of species on changing landscapes. Cambridge University Press.
Levin, Simon (ed) (2000) Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. 5 Vols. Academic Press
Lovejoy TE (1997) Biodiversity: What is it? IN: Reaka-Kudla ML et al (ed) p 7
Mallet J (1996) The genetics of biological diversity: from varieties to species. IN: Gaston KJ (ed) (1996a), p 13.
May RM (1992) Biodiversity: bottoms up for the oceans. Nature357, 278-79.
May RM (1994) Biological diversity: differences between land and sea. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 343, 105-11.
Meffe, GK & Carroll, CR (1994) Principles of Conservation Biology. Sinauer Associates Inc., Massachusetts, USA. [Chapters 4 & 5]
Pearson LC (1995) The Diversity & Evolution of Plants. CRC Press [Part 1]
Reaka-Kudla ML (1997) The global biodiversity of coral reefs: a comparison with rainforests. IN: Reaka-Kudla et al (ed) (1997) p 83.
Systematics Agenda 2000 (1994) Systematics Agenda 2000: Charting the Biosphere. Technical Report. Systematics Agenda 2000.
UK Steering Group (1995) Biodiversity: The UK Steering Group Report. Volume 1: Meeting the Rio Challenge. HMSO
UK Steering Group (1995) Biodiversity: The UK Steering Group Report. Volume 2: Action Plans. HMSO
Wilson, EO (ed) (1988) Biodiversity. National Academy Press. [Many important papers.]
World Conservation Monitoring Centre (1992) Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's living resources. Chapman and Hall.

Posey, Darrell Addison (Ed) (1999) Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity. A complementary contribution to the global biodiversity assessment. UNEP
Available online (25Mb)

3. Biosystematics
Abbott, LA, Bisby, FA & Rogers, DJ (1985) Taxonomic Analysis in Biology. Computers, Models and Databases. Columbia University Press.
Embley, TM, Hirt, RP & Williams, DM (1995) Biodiversity at the molecular level: the domains, kingdoms and phyla of life. In: Biodiversity: Measurement and Estimation ed DL Hawksworth, pp 21-33. Chapman and Hall.
House of Lords (1991) Systematic Biology Research Select Committee on Science & Technology. HMSO
Jeffrey, C (1977) Biological Nomenclature (2nd. ed.). Edward Arnold.
Margulis, L. & Guerrero, R. (1991) Kingdoms in turmoil. New Scientist, 23rd March 1991: 46-51.
Margulis, L & Schwartz, KV (1988) Five Kingdoms: an Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth. WH Freeman.
Margulis, L, Schwartz, KV & Dolan, M (1994) The Illustrated Five Kingdoms. A Guide to the Diversity of Life on Earth. Harper Collins.
Nash S (1989) The plight of systematists: are they an endangered species? Scientist16:7
Natural Environment Research Council (1992) Evolution & Biodiversity - the New Taxonomy. London.
Patrick R (1997) Systematics: a keystone to understanding biodiversity. IN: Reaka-Kudla MJ et al (ed), p 213.
Quicke, DLJ (1993) Principles and Techniques of Contemporary Taxonomy. Blackie.
Woese, CR (1981) Archaebacteria. Scientific American, 244: 94-106.
Woese, CR, Kandler O & Wheelis ML (1990) Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria and Eucarya. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 87: 4576-4579.

4. How Many Species?
Erwin, TL (1982) Tropical forests: their richness in Coleoptera and other arthropod species. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 36: 74-75. [See also his paper in Wilson, 1988 above]
Hammond, P (1992) Species Inventory. In: Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's Living Resources, by World Conservation Monitoring Centre, pp 17-39. Chapman & Hall.
Hammond, PM (1994) Described and estimated species numbers: an objective assessment of current knowledge. In: Microbial Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function, eds D Allsop, DL Hawksworth & RR Colwell. CAB International.
Hammond, PM (1995) Practical approaches to the estimation of the extent of biodiversity in speciose groups. In: Biodiversity: Measurement and Estimation, ed DL Hawksworth, pp 119-136. Chapman and Hall.
Hodkinson, ID & Casson D (1991) A lesser predeliction for bugs: Hemiptera (Insecta) diversity in tropical forests. Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 43: 101-109.
May, RM (1988) How many species are there on earth? Science, 241: 1441-1449.
May, RM (1990) How many species? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B., 330: 293-304.
May, RM (1992) How many species inhabit the Earth? Scientific American, October 1992: 18-24.
Rosenzweig ML (1995) Species Diversity in Space and Time. Cambridge University Press.
Stork, NE (1988) Insect diversity: facts, fiction and speculation. Biol J Linn Soc. 35: 321-337.
Stork, NE (1991) The composition of the arthtropod fauna of Bornean lowland rain forest trees. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 7: 161-180.
Stork, NE (1993) How many species are there? Biodiversity and Conservation, 2: 215-232.
Stork, NE (1993) Tropical forest dynamics: the faunal components. Plenary lecture for the UBD/RGS “Tropical Rainforest Symposium” in Brunei, 9-13th April, 1993.
Stork, NE (1994) Inventories of biodiversity: more than a question of numbers. In: Systematics and Conservation Evaluation, eds PL Forey, CJ Humphries & RI Vane-Wright, Systematics Association Special Volume No. 50: 82-100. Clarendon Press.

5. Ecological Diversity
Cox, CB & Moore, PD (1985) Biogeography. An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach. (4th ed.). Blackwell Scientific Publications.
Currie, DJ & Paquin, V (1987) Large-scale biogeographical patterns of species richness of trees. Nature, 329: 326-327.
Hecht, J (1995) Biodiversity is a double edged-sword. New Scientist, 15th July, 19.
ICBP (1992) Putting biodiversity on the map: priority areas for global conservation. International Council for Bird Preservation, Cambridge UK. [Now 'Birdlife International']
Magurran AE (1988) Ecological Diversity and Its Measurement. Croom Helm.
Myers, N (1988) Threatend biota: 'hot spots' in tropical forests. The Environmentalists, 8: 187-208.
Myers, N (1990) The biodiversity challenge: expanded hot-spots analysis. The Environmentalists, 10: 243-56.
Whittaker, RH (1975) Communities and Ecosystems. Macmillan. (Contains a classification of biome types.]

6. Miscellaneous
Grassle, JF (1989) Species diversity in deep sea communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 4: 12-15.
Grassle, JF (1991) Deep-sea benthic biodiversity. BioScience, 41: 464-469.
Grassle, JF & Maciolek, NJ (1992) Deep sea species richness: regional and local diversity estimates from quantitative bottom samples. American Naturalist, 139: 313-341.
Hawksworth, DL (1991) The fungal dimension of biodiversity: magnitude, significance, and conservation. Mycol. Res., 95: 641-655.
May, RM (1992) Bottoms up for the oceans. Nature, 357: 278-279.
Morris, SC (1995) A new phylum from the lobster’s lips. Nature, 378: 661-662.
Funch, P & Kristensen, RM (1995) Cycliophora is a new phylum with affinities to Entoprocta and Ectoprocta. Nature, 378: 711-714.
Palmer, D (1995) Out of the mouths of lobsters... New Scientist, 16th December 1995: 17.
Stork, NE (1991) The composition of the arthropod fauna of Bornean lowland rain forest trees. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 7: 161-180.
Stork, NE (1993) Tropical forest dynamics: the faunal components. Plenary lecture for the UBD/RGS “Tropical Rainforest Symposium” in Brunei, 9-13th April, 1993.
Stork, NE (1988) Insect diversity: facts, fiction and speculation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 35: 321-337.

7. Conservation
Butman, CA, Carlton, JT & Palumbi, SR (1995) Whaling effects on deep-sea biodiversity. Conservation Biology, 9: 462-464.
Dobson, AP (1996) Conservation and Biodiversity. Scientific American Library.
Gadgil M (1996) Managing biodiversity. IN: Gaston KJ (ed) (1996a) p 345.
Geist, V (1992) Endangered species and the law. Nature, 357: 274-277.
Gilpin A (1995) Environmental Impact Assessment. Cutting Edge for the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge University Press.
Holmes, B (1995) Tough treaty to police global fisheries. New Scientist, 5th August 1995: 4.
Kim KC & Weaver RD (1994) Biodiversity and Landscapes. Cambridge University Press.
Kunin WE and Lawton John H (1996) Does biodiversity matter? Evaluating the case for conserving species. IN: Gaston KJ (ed) (1996a) p 283.
May, RM (1995) The cheetah controversy. Nature, 374: 309-310.
Meffe, GK & Carroll, CR (1994) Principles of Conservation Biology. Sinauer Associates.
Pearce, F (1995) Storm warning over Brent Spar. New Scientist, 26th August 1995: 4.
Simberloff, DS & Abele, LG (1976) Island biogeography theory and conservation practice. Science, 191: 285-286.
Soule, ME & Wilcox, BA (eds) (1980) Conservation Biology: an Evolutionary Perspective. Sinauer Associates.
Soule ME (ed) (1987) Viable Populations for Conservation. Cambridge University Press.
Task Force on Global Biodiversity (1989) Loss of Biological Diversity: A Global Crisis Requiring International Solutions. National Science Foundation, Washington.
Vane-Wright RI (1996) Identifying priorities for the conservation of biodiversity: systematic biological criteria within a socio-political framework. IN: Gaston KJ (ed) (1996a) p 309.

"On the 15 September 1999, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched Global Environment Outlook 2000 (GEO-2000), the most authoritative assessment ever of the environmental crisis facing humanity". "Our present course is unsustainable - postponing action is no longer an option"

The book is avilable online in many languages.

8. Extinctions
Lawton, JH & May, RM (eds) (1995) Extinction Rates. Oxford University Press.
Mawdsley, NA & Stork, NE (1993) Species extinctions in insects: ecological and biogeographical considerations. Presentation for the 17th Royal Entomological Society Symposium on “Insects in a Changing Environment” 7-10 September 1993.

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