ISSN 1948-6596 dents and scientists embarking on alpine research with an integrative overview on alpine habitats. The book largely fulfils this aim, providing clear descriptions of relevant theories and hypotheses, describing general and broad patterns in alpine habitats across different mountains of the world but at the same time highlighting regional or local deviations from these global trends, and offering significant supplementary information to the text in the form of pictures, plots, graphs and tables. There are some issues that would need more work, such as a better integration of animal as- semblages in alpine habitats (the book mainly fo- cuses on plant communities), or a deeper explana- tion of future climate impacts in alpine biodiver- sity. Also, and although the text flows smoothly, there are some parts of the chapters that are em- bedded without a logical connection to their pre- vious or following parts. One of these parts, for example, is devoted to species richness and the applicability of the theory of island biogeography to the alpine zones of the mountains, which ap- news and update pears between a pure descriptive introduction to the biogeography of the different mountain re- gions and a section on the evolution of alpine or- ganisms. However, these are just minor issues and the book by Nagy and Grabherr is highly recom- mended for its exhaustive and integrative provi- sion of current knowledge on alpine habitats. David Nogues-Bravo Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Cli- mate, Institute of Biology, University of Co- penhagen, Denmark e-mail: dnogues@bio.ku.dk http://www1.bio.ku.dk/english/staff/profile/? id=366546 Edited by Joaquin Hortal book review All islands in a large nutshell Encyclopedia of Islands, by Rosemary G. Gillespie and David A. Clague (eds) Encyclopedias of the Natural World, vol.2, August 2009, 1111 pp. ISBN: 978-0-5202-5649-1 http://www.ucpress.edu/ This beautiful book starts with a very bold claim: “The Encyclopedia of Islands is a comprehensive, complete, and authoritative reference dealing with all of the physical and biological aspects of islands and island habitats” (p. xxix – the first sen- tence of Guide to the Encyclopedia, which opens the book after the contents and contributor list- ings). Similarly, on the book’s website Jonathan Losos is quoted as saying that the book “is a com- prehensive compendium of all topics related to islands and the science conducted on them.” I cannot agree with such hyperbole, which repre- sents a near-unachievable ideal. Nor, it seems, do the authors themselves agree: “The Encyclopedia functions as ingress into a body of research only summarized herein” (p.xxx). Even so, and despite its faults, I do recommend this book to anyone with any sort of interest in islands. At £65 or US$95 the book is expensive for a coffee-table volume, but good value for an aca- demic work of its size and publication quality. So which is it? I am not sure. The back cover (see also “Description” on the website) also suggests confu- sion over the intended role: “This essential, one- stop resource… will introduce island science to a wide audience and spur further research on some of the planet's most fascinating habitats.” The Guide to the Encyclopedia says the book provides “a broad overview of the current state of knowl- edge… intended for students as well as the inter- ested general public” (p. xxix), but later on same page: “The articles… are all intended for the inter- ested general public.” The book is largely jargon- free and technical terms are not over-used; most of those that are used are defined in a 30-page Glossary, with over 900 terms, which is itself a © 2010 the authors; journal compilation © 2010 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 2.2, 2010