Whether or not life will remain on the planet is a very important issue, to put it mildly, and here Hunter (conservation biology, U. of Maine, Orano) and Hunter (environmental and forest biology, State U. of New York) are careful to make their undergraduate readership fully aware of how much the conservation of biodiversity matters. Through accessible text, color illustrations and photographs and very helpful maps they explain just how important biodiversity is, the threats to it through global changes and extinction, the work of maintaining biodiversity by protecting ecosystems and managing them properly, managing populations and preserving living specimens, and handling the human factor in terms of social factors, economics, and politics. They include a glossary, a number of case studies and examples, and a very honest narrative of what it takes to produce a well-written textbook like this. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)