Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Entropy and Diversity
  • Cited by 41
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      April 2021
      April 2021
      ISBN:
      9781108963558
      9781108832700
      9781108965576
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108963558
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.83kg, 458 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.69kg, 458 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Mathematics, Life Sciences, Logic, Categories and Sets, Quantitative Biology, Biostatistics and Mathematical Modeling
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Mathematics, Life Sciences, Logic, Categories and Sets, Quantitative Biology, Biostatistics and Mathematical Modeling
    Information

    Book description

    The global biodiversity crisis is one of humanity's most urgent problems, but even quantifying biological diversity is a difficult mathematical and conceptual challenge. This book brings new mathematical rigour to the ongoing debate. It was born of research in category theory, is given strength by information theory, and is fed by the ancient field of functional equations. It applies the power of the axiomatic method to a biological problem of pressing concern, but it also presents new theorems that stand up as mathematics in their own right, independently of any application. The question 'what is diversity?' has surprising mathematical depth, and this book covers a wide breadth of mathematics, from functional equations to geometric measure theory, from probability theory to number theory. Despite this range, the mathematical prerequisites are few: the main narrative thread of this book requires no more than an undergraduate course in analysis.

    Reviews

    ‘The book shows that the theory of diversity measurement is fertile soil for new mathematics, just as much as the neighboring but far more thoroughly worked field of information theory.’

    Hirokazu Nishimura Source: ZB Math Reviews

    ‘Each new mathematical concept is introduced from fundamental principles, in a lucid, engaging style, keeping the core biological application in the foreground … Leinster provides us with the tools to clearly assess what we are losing, so that we may focus better on what we can save.'

    Benjamin Allen Source: The Quarterly Review of Biology

    ‘The book is a welcome addition to the theory of biodiversity in that it covers the topics of entropy and diversity in a mathematically rigorous yet fairly accessible way … Recommended.’

    M. Bona Source: Choice Magazine

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents
    References

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.