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Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions. Daniel Simberloff and Marcel Rejmánek. 2011. University of California Press, ISBN 9780520264212. 792 p. $95.00 (hardcover).- Few topics related to the environment are as big in the public discourse as the current dialogue on climate change. However, the attention being garnered by new articles and public discussions on invasive species is beginning to run a close second. While most people can understand the potential problems related to human-induced climate change (assuming they believe the data), fewer have an awareness and comprehension of the issues related to invasive species. My students and I work on invasive species, which are increasingly spreading into the streams of Southern California. Here, the invasives clearly threaten and even eliminate native populations. Yet several years ago, after I made a public presentation on our data, a highly trained scientist (non-biologist) told me that he did not really care if he saw invasive or native species when he went on a local hike; so long as there was diversity, he was indifferent as to whether they were locals or invaders. Fortunately, knowledge on this topic has expanded rapidly and information and education for the general public has increased dramatically in the last ten years. The new Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions, edited by Simberloff and Rejmánek, is an important resource that should be included in every high school and college library.
This 792-page encyclopedia is quite different from the majority of other science and ecology books on my shelf. The editors make it clear from the beginning that this project was not meant to be a resource for primary research, nor was it meant to be a textbook. The goal was to "provide a broad overview of the current state of knowledge with respect to the patterns and processes of invasion, the theories associated with invasion, and particular accounts of organisms that have become invasive" (p. xxi). The encyclopedia entries have been written by a virtual "Who's who" list of 197 scientists and experts in the field of invasion biology from around the world.
Flipping open the book, one might find an entry on a specific invasive taxon, e.g., the Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinas) or the Nile Perch (Lates niloticus). Initially, one might assume that this is just a...