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Estuarine ecology
APPLIED
MATHEMATICAL
ECOLOGY
169
the research papers that followed these introductory surveys at the Trieste meeting were published separately in Mathematical Ecology: Proceedings Trieste 1986 (World Scientific Press, Singapore, 1988). Among the 114 figures in the book, at least four compare directly quantitative observations with quantitative predictions of some mathematical model. Such figures are signs of real scientific and practical progress. JOEL E. COHEN Rockefeller University 1230 York Avenue, Box 20, New York, NY 10021-6399, U.S.A.
ESTUARINE
ECOLOGY
Estuarine Ecology. John W. Day, Jr., Charles A.S. Hall, W. Michael Kemp and Alejandro Yaiiez-Arancibia. Wiley, New York, 558 pp. ISBN 0-47106263-4. Although human societies have exploited estuaries for thousands of years, the science of estuarine ecology has only recently blossomed, as pointed out in the preface to this interesting volume. While numerous works on limnology abound for the freshwater scientist, this book, packaged as an introductory text, represents one of the first syntheses of topics describing the complex structure and function of estuaries. The authors acknowledge an intellectual debt to Howard and Eugene Odum, who promoted a “systems perspective” in ecology. Not surprisingly, the book follows a sequence suited to an ecosystem course curriculum. Chapter 1 is an overview, defining the types of ecosystems covered, providing different types of characterizations, and beguilingly introduces the reader (by armchair journeying) to intimate views of three different estuaries. Subsequent chapters examine physical and chemical characteristics, estuarine plants and primary production processes, microbial ecology, various groups of consumer organisms, and finally, discussion of man as a consumer and exploiter/degrader of estuarine ecosystems. The book covers an impressive range of topics within estuarine ecology, but with varying degrees of thoroughness. Chapter 2, for instance, provides a highly qualitative account of geomorphology and physical oceanography, and avoids any mathematical treatment, whereas Chapter 3 is data-rich and makes no bones about introducing stoichiometric and differential equations where appropriate. Chapter 7, on microbial ecology and the fate of organic matter, is very well written but could have benefitted by a discussion of the thermodynamics and electrochemistry that drive decomposition processes. Chapter 12, on estuarine fisheries, discusses at length the use (and abuse) of
170
BOOK
REVIEWS
the logistic equations in fisheries management, yet fails to introduce the equation or to discuss its properties: a student or other naive reader would have no idea what the debate actually centered on. Numerous typographical errors pepper the text (e.g., the “souble-tested cormorant”), and some ambiguously labeled graphs tend to add a minor frustration. On the other hand, the chapters on plants, animals, and microbiota do provide a nice interface between various levels of ecological scale (from individual adaptation up to system-level processes), and are generously illustrated so that the reader, lacking both sampling gear and microscope, can envision the players in the system. For the ecological economist, the last two chapters (on fisheries and anthropogenic degradation of estuaries) will probably have the greatest relevancy. Chapter 12 builds a case for fisheries production being more closely tied to large-scale physical and climatic processes than was previously thought by fisheries managers (although that thinking is changing rapidly), and discusses new approaches to management, including the recognition of inherent uncertainty that any of our predictive management tools must deal with. Chapter 13 provides a brief overview of various human insults on estuarine systems, with a few case studies. Unfortunately, this topic in itself could span an entire book, and so its treatment here leaves the reader with a feeling-of only having scratched the surface of this important issue. Faults notwithstanding, this book is a welcome contribution to the ecological literature, filling a gap that has stood open too long. Even if students of ecological economics may only be interested in the human interactions with estuaries, the text should provide a cogent reference to the key processes and organisms which human activities can affect, directly or indirectly.
Section of
SUSTAINABLE
KARIN LIMBURG University Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Ecologyand Systematics,Cornell
AGRICULTURE
After the Green Revolution: Sustainable Agriculture for Development. R. Conway and Edward B. Barbier. Earthscan Publications, 1990, 205 pp. ISBN l-85383-035-6.
Gordon London,
This is an interesting, useful, yet in some ways seriously flawed book. The interest arises from a growing if still ill-defined concern about the sustainability of current patterns of world agricultural development. The book is
MATHEMATICAL
ECOLOGY
169
the research papers that followed these introductory surveys at the Trieste meeting were published separately in Mathematical Ecology: Proceedings Trieste 1986 (World Scientific Press, Singapore, 1988). Among the 114 figures in the book, at least four compare directly quantitative observations with quantitative predictions of some mathematical model. Such figures are signs of real scientific and practical progress. JOEL E. COHEN Rockefeller University 1230 York Avenue, Box 20, New York, NY 10021-6399, U.S.A.
ESTUARINE
ECOLOGY
Estuarine Ecology. John W. Day, Jr., Charles A.S. Hall, W. Michael Kemp and Alejandro Yaiiez-Arancibia. Wiley, New York, 558 pp. ISBN 0-47106263-4. Although human societies have exploited estuaries for thousands of years, the science of estuarine ecology has only recently blossomed, as pointed out in the preface to this interesting volume. While numerous works on limnology abound for the freshwater scientist, this book, packaged as an introductory text, represents one of the first syntheses of topics describing the complex structure and function of estuaries. The authors acknowledge an intellectual debt to Howard and Eugene Odum, who promoted a “systems perspective” in ecology. Not surprisingly, the book follows a sequence suited to an ecosystem course curriculum. Chapter 1 is an overview, defining the types of ecosystems covered, providing different types of characterizations, and beguilingly introduces the reader (by armchair journeying) to intimate views of three different estuaries. Subsequent chapters examine physical and chemical characteristics, estuarine plants and primary production processes, microbial ecology, various groups of consumer organisms, and finally, discussion of man as a consumer and exploiter/degrader of estuarine ecosystems. The book covers an impressive range of topics within estuarine ecology, but with varying degrees of thoroughness. Chapter 2, for instance, provides a highly qualitative account of geomorphology and physical oceanography, and avoids any mathematical treatment, whereas Chapter 3 is data-rich and makes no bones about introducing stoichiometric and differential equations where appropriate. Chapter 7, on microbial ecology and the fate of organic matter, is very well written but could have benefitted by a discussion of the thermodynamics and electrochemistry that drive decomposition processes. Chapter 12, on estuarine fisheries, discusses at length the use (and abuse) of
170
BOOK
REVIEWS
the logistic equations in fisheries management, yet fails to introduce the equation or to discuss its properties: a student or other naive reader would have no idea what the debate actually centered on. Numerous typographical errors pepper the text (e.g., the “souble-tested cormorant”), and some ambiguously labeled graphs tend to add a minor frustration. On the other hand, the chapters on plants, animals, and microbiota do provide a nice interface between various levels of ecological scale (from individual adaptation up to system-level processes), and are generously illustrated so that the reader, lacking both sampling gear and microscope, can envision the players in the system. For the ecological economist, the last two chapters (on fisheries and anthropogenic degradation of estuaries) will probably have the greatest relevancy. Chapter 12 builds a case for fisheries production being more closely tied to large-scale physical and climatic processes than was previously thought by fisheries managers (although that thinking is changing rapidly), and discusses new approaches to management, including the recognition of inherent uncertainty that any of our predictive management tools must deal with. Chapter 13 provides a brief overview of various human insults on estuarine systems, with a few case studies. Unfortunately, this topic in itself could span an entire book, and so its treatment here leaves the reader with a feeling-of only having scratched the surface of this important issue. Faults notwithstanding, this book is a welcome contribution to the ecological literature, filling a gap that has stood open too long. Even if students of ecological economics may only be interested in the human interactions with estuaries, the text should provide a cogent reference to the key processes and organisms which human activities can affect, directly or indirectly.
Section of
SUSTAINABLE
KARIN LIMBURG University Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Ecologyand Systematics,Cornell
AGRICULTURE
After the Green Revolution: Sustainable Agriculture for Development. R. Conway and Edward B. Barbier. Earthscan Publications, 1990, 205 pp. ISBN l-85383-035-6.
Gordon London,
This is an interesting, useful, yet in some ways seriously flawed book. The interest arises from a growing if still ill-defined concern about the sustainability of current patterns of world agricultural development. The book is