What is the main conflict in The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen?

The Song of the Dodo is David Quammen's journalistic account of the development of the branch of ecology called island biogeography and an examination of how its theories might be applied to modern conservation efforts. Part scientific explanation and part travelogue, Quammen escorts his readers through the sometimes bitter infighting among ecologists and takes them island hopping around the globe to look at real cases of ecosystem decay.