Reviews for Ecological Scale: Theory and Application

The average rating for Ecological Scale: Theory and Application based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-03-11 00:00:00 William Jefferson This book appears to go to great lengths to achieve a warm/friendly tone (particularly in the beginning, for example with sections on how weasels are portrayed in literature, children's films, different cultures, etc.) but don't let this fool you - it's a very well researched book with lots of scientific information. Although the book usually maintains this friendly tone (with easy to follow language), it discusses some complex ideas and findings in a well balanced and analytic way. To give a general impression of the style of the book, I compare it to fictional book X on the same topic. Book X may tell you the largest weasels are found in North America and this could mean a,b,c,d. This book presents a chart of weasel measurements, referencing data collected by different researchers in different countries, explains the different measurements that have been used in size determination, includes a detailed discussion, evaluation and analysis on the measurements and methodologies, how the research could be improved in the future, and the ways the results have been interpreted by different people. In this style, the authors discuss the lives of different species of weasels and stoats (how they live in different places, what they eat, how they hunt, how they breed and reproduce, etc.), their evolutionary origins, their anatomies, their population numbers and how these affect the environment around them as well as the different attitudes and actions people have taken to keep the populations under control, etc. I imagine this could be an interesting read (and helpful reference book) for anyone interested in researching these animals (or animals in general), for people interested in general scientific methodologies for researching animals, for people involved in either conservation or "pest control" projects, or for people who, like myself, have no scientific background but are interested in the animals. Because I didn't read the book as a kind of reference book (picking certain topics of interest and only reading through those), but as a whole book, going from beginning to end (since I wasn't really looking for anything in particular), it did at times become a bit tiresome. While I appreciated the careful style of the book and all the information it provided, this style also meant that there was so much information that it got a bit monotonous at times and there were quite a few repetitions throughout the book. But then again, I can understand that it might function better as a reference book. Even so, I personally found many sections very interesting and this made up for some slightly more boring ones :)

Review # 2 was written on 2013-04-05 00:00:00 Pam Neil Not a bad read. Lot of build up of history on the front end that might not have been entirely necessary, but the hurricane coverage was good. Not sure we got resolution on everybody's stories - there were too many to keep track. And I know we didn't ever hear if Juanita Wilson's Puerto Rican families were ok. Could have done a little better job wrapping up everything.