- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford (15 April 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0199543208
- ISBN-13: 978-0199543205
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.8 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
793,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #86 in Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Ecology > Plant Ecology
- #91 in Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Botany & Plant Sciences > Ecology
- See Complete Table of Contents
Wytham Woods : Oxford's Ecological Laboratory
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Product Description
Review
An interesting history of a famous site that gives an appreciation of what went on (and is going on) behind the published papers. A good bedtime read. (Peter Thomas, Bulletin of the British Ecological Society )
For ecologists it really is an important book, not just for the backward look to past seminal research but also for the summaries of research currently being conducted in Wytham and about its future management. (Amazon )
This delightful book on such an iconic and historic site should be essential reading for any student of ecology. (Biological Conservation )
For ecologists it really is an important book, not just for the backward look to past seminal research but also for the summaries of research currently being conducted in Wytham and about its future management. (Thomas Huxley, BRISC )
For ecologists it really is an important book, not just for the backward look to past seminal research but also for the summaries of research currently being conducted in Wytham and about its future management. (Amazon )
This delightful book on such an iconic and historic site should be essential reading for any student of ecology. (Biological Conservation )
For ecologists it really is an important book, not just for the backward look to past seminal research but also for the summaries of research currently being conducted in Wytham and about its future management. (Thomas Huxley, BRISC )
Product Description
For the first time, this book tells the Wytham story in a way that is accessible to both scientist and general reader alike. It provides a fascinating overview of what the Woods are like, their history, composition (both plant and animal), and how their wildlife has changed over time. This iconic location has been the subject of a series of continuous ecological research programmes dating back to the 1920s, a level of continuity of research effort that is extremely rare. Hence there is a strong emphasis on the significance of the scientific research that has been done there and how this has contributed to ecological thinking elsewhere.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Bought this for my dad's birthday as he's known the woods for half a century, has a zoological background and now lives nearby.
It is no exaggeration that he spent most of the following week reading and re-reading the book! It proved to be the best present I'd bought for a long while, and not too expensive either.
Personally, I particularly liked the sections on the personalities who've been involved with the woods over the course of the C20th, complete with photos and interesting personal anecdotes.
It is no exaggeration that he spent most of the following week reading and re-reading the book! It proved to be the best present I'd bought for a long while, and not too expensive either.
Personally, I particularly liked the sections on the personalities who've been involved with the woods over the course of the C20th, complete with photos and interesting personal anecdotes.
Format:Hardcover
Thrilled with this book as it is all about the work mt husband was doing and he is mentioned many times in it
Format:Hardcover
Going for a walk in the woods, we may naively think we are looking at nature, but in reality, as Chris Perrins writes in the introduction of this book: "Wytham Woods is like a book which records the activities of people over many centuries." This forest just outside Oxford, like all other forests in Europe, is most definitely not what grew naturally after the ice of the last Ice Age receded. Humans planted and cut trees, erected fences to keep animals in or out, and used the woods for a variety of purposes, including, in the last five decades, for ecological research. As climate change forces us to rethink our relationship to nature, this is exactly what makes Wytham Woods so interesting: While it has always been woodland, it is a silent witness of human interaction with nature, from the arrival of agriculture through to the symptoms of climate change.
Therefore, it is quite appropriate that a proper book should record what we know about this metaphorical book of interactions between humans and nature. This one is pitched at a very academic level (as is obvious from the prohibitive price of the hardback), so the editors have invited experts to review various aspects of the research conducted at Wytham Woods. However, some parts are also readable and interesting to the lay person who may just come to it from a "local interest" perspective. The introduction, detailing the history of this patch of land (which Raymond ffennel, ne Schumacher, donated to Oxford University after the death of his only child) is very accessible, as is chapter 3 on land use changes over time. There are, inevitably, chapters regarding the trees and the flowers of the forest, which I skipped, as I'm not much of a botanist.
What I found very endearing was the section on the badgers of Wytham Woods - apparently the land has the highest recorded population density of badgers in the world, and also the best-studied badger population in the world. At its peak, the badger count was 46 animals per square km, and the latest figure is 37 adults per square km. I learned that biologists are puzzled by the fact that badgers live in groups, even though the benefit of doing so isn't immediately obvious (they hunt earth worms, which doesn't exactly require a team effort, and since the disappearance of wolves, their biggest natural enemy is the motor car, against which, again, groups don't help much). More than once the badgers made me think of human behaviour.
Climate change research, including the ongoing partnership program between the Earthwatch Institute and HSBC, which is now also open to volunteers from the general public, is confined to the last, rather short chapter. The wealth of data already recorded on the plants and animals of Wytham Woods, as detailed in the previous chapters of the book is a big asset for climate change research. Quite how climate change will affect the forest and its inhabitants isn't clear yet, but researchers have a good knowledge base to start finding out what's going on, and this book is a great introduction to this scientific treasure.
Therefore, it is quite appropriate that a proper book should record what we know about this metaphorical book of interactions between humans and nature. This one is pitched at a very academic level (as is obvious from the prohibitive price of the hardback), so the editors have invited experts to review various aspects of the research conducted at Wytham Woods. However, some parts are also readable and interesting to the lay person who may just come to it from a "local interest" perspective. The introduction, detailing the history of this patch of land (which Raymond ffennel, ne Schumacher, donated to Oxford University after the death of his only child) is very accessible, as is chapter 3 on land use changes over time. There are, inevitably, chapters regarding the trees and the flowers of the forest, which I skipped, as I'm not much of a botanist.
What I found very endearing was the section on the badgers of Wytham Woods - apparently the land has the highest recorded population density of badgers in the world, and also the best-studied badger population in the world. At its peak, the badger count was 46 animals per square km, and the latest figure is 37 adults per square km. I learned that biologists are puzzled by the fact that badgers live in groups, even though the benefit of doing so isn't immediately obvious (they hunt earth worms, which doesn't exactly require a team effort, and since the disappearance of wolves, their biggest natural enemy is the motor car, against which, again, groups don't help much). More than once the badgers made me think of human behaviour.
Climate change research, including the ongoing partnership program between the Earthwatch Institute and HSBC, which is now also open to volunteers from the general public, is confined to the last, rather short chapter. The wealth of data already recorded on the plants and animals of Wytham Woods, as detailed in the previous chapters of the book is a big asset for climate change research. Quite how climate change will affect the forest and its inhabitants isn't clear yet, but researchers have a good knowledge base to start finding out what's going on, and this book is a great introduction to this scientific treasure.
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