This book is the latest in Oxford University Press's Techniques in Ecology and Conservation series (TECS) that synthesizes methods and ideas in various disciplines of ecology, allowing the comparison of various techniques widely dispersed in the literature, as well as illustrating others that may be less familiar.

The idea that conservation (or indeed science as a whole) should not be conducted in isolation pervades the whole book, and this is explicitly stated in the Introduction. Conservation needs to be increasingly relevant to the people it affects directly as well as the funding agencies and NGOs that support it, and produce verifiable results. It is important to define attainable and measurable objectives and design conservation strategies accordingly. The book then takes a sweep through forest ecology, from the grand scale of estimating global forest cover down to examining reproduction in individual flowers. Chapter 2 details methods of obtaining and analysing aerial photographs and satellite images in order to examine the extent and change of forest types and areas. A brief overview of geographical information systems (GIS) follows. Chapter 3 then considers the inventory of forests and the design of robust sampling methods, plots and transects. An introduction to the analysis of tree distributions and spatial patterns, species richness and diversity, floristic composition and vegetation classification completes this enumeration of forest composition. Chapter 4 considers factors that affect tree population dynamics and techniques to measure these. It then considers how to set up a successful permanent sample plot and includes correct formulae for examining tree growth and mortality. Chapter 5 examines how forest dynamics can be modelled in order to test ideas that are impractical to verify in reality due to the large areas and long timescales involved. Basic population models are augmented by discussions of life tables, matrix models, gap models, viability analyses and various individual-based models including SORTIE and its progeny. Chapter 6 then focuses on methods to investigate breeding systems, pollination, phenology, and seed production and dispersal. A final section on genetic analysis provides a good introduction to the forthcoming TECS book on molecular methods in conservation. Chapter 7 considers how forests act as habitats for other organisms and details how to enumerate the physical structure of forests including edge effects. The book concludes with a return to conservation policy, forest management and people. It encourages an approach to conservation that uses all sources of information, including science that is evidence-based but also adaptive and responsive to policy or environmental changes and to errors of management or science. It returns to the idea that conservation should be able to demonstrate the fruits of its efforts, and this is only possible if objectives, hypotheses and changes in biodiversity can be rigorously tested and proven. The sad testament of many biodiversity monitoring and conservation programmes (and many scientific investigations in general) is that much money is wasted due to bad planning, inadequate design and lack of statistical power. In conservation, where money is in such short supply, it is imperative that it is used as efficiently as possible. Scientists must ensure that research is conducted as rigorously as possible and that the results are easily understandable by non-scientists.

The book is clearly and concisely written, and provides a thorough summary of key areas of forest ecology and critiques the various methods used. It details the majority of useful techniques, and provides extensive references to the literature where examples and further critiques can be found. It encourages each reader to think carefully about which methods are applicable to their specific situation. It is especially good at pointing out typical pitfalls in details that trip up many workers, such as the problem of differing intercensus intervals in plot censuses, how pot experiments are biased due to pot size and lack of root competition and good experimental design and statistical analysis. It will also be useful to researchers and conservationists based in countries with less access to resources than those in Europe and North America, firstly because it is part of the gratis book scheme (www.nhbs.com/Conservation/gratis-books.php) and secondly because it details locations of much free and/or open-source software that is often much better than expensive commercially available software (but fails to mention R, a widely-used free open-source statistical software program: http://www.R-project.org), as well as sources of free data, such as satellite images. Overall, this is an ambitious and rigorous work that should be read by more than the intended readership.