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Acidification in tropical countries
138
BOOK REVIEWS
to an aluminium-based buffering system. The book ends with a very useful six page summary, followed by detailed appendices, listing information on hydrological fluxes, soil profiles and micromorphology, soil water relations, fluxes of solutes and fungal species recorded. Not content with all these detailed measurements, the raw data are provided on a microfiche in the back of the book. I strongly recommend this very useful publication to research workers concerned with air pollution and forest ecosystems, but with the warning that The Netherlands represents a very special situation, with ammonium ions dominating the acidification process, despite increasing recognition of their having some importance elsewhere. J.N.B. B E L L
Department of Pure and Applied Biology Imperial College Silwood Park Ascot Berkshire, SL5 7PY Gt. Britain
ACIDIFICATION
Acidification in Tropical Countries, by H. Rodhe and R. Herrera (Editors). SCOPE 36, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, West Sussex, Great Britain, 1988, xviii÷405 pp., hardcover, £65.00, ISBN: 0 471 918709. Over the last decade books on "acid rain" in its widest sense have appeared at an almost exponentially increasing rate, covering every conceivable aspect of the topic. However, in all cases the content of these publications is restricted to the developed world, mainly North America and western/northern Europe. This is particularly unfortunate at a time when many developing countries in the tropics are industrialising at an unprecedented pace, with every sign that they may inflict serious damage on the environment, failing to recognise the expensive lessons learned as a result of uncontrolled emissions elsewhere in the world. As such, the timely publication of this book must be warmly welcomed, as the first attempt to provide an overview of air pollution in tropical countries and the potential for environmental damage to take place. As with other SCOPE publications, Report No. 36 is a multi-author work, produced under the direction of an expert steering committee. It consists of an initial chapter providing a synthesis of information on acidification and regional air pollution in the tropics on the basis of the material in the rest of the book. This is followed by a further five chapters, covering the atmospheric sulphur and nitrogen cycles, and effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and corrosion
BOOK REVIEWS
139
of materials. The final five chapters cover individual case-studies on acidification in Venezuela, south-eastern Brazil, Nigeria, south-western China, and tropical Australia, respectively. They represent the final outcome of seven such studies initiated in 1984 and reported at a workshop in Venezuela two years later. For reasons which are not clear, two of the case studies - for India and Bangladesh - were not completed and thus are not included in the book. This is particularly unfortunate in the case of India as this country has severe air pollution in various locations, which is reflected in a large number of publications on damage to vegetation, with official recognition of such problems being reflected in a co-ordinated national research effort. Considerable emphasis is placed throughout the book on natural emissions of sulphur and nitrogen compounds and their cycling in the environment. At the present time anthropogenic emissions of these substances on a global scale are extremely heterogeneous, largely being restricted to temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Nevertheless, besides growing emissions from industrial, transportation, and domestic sources in many tropical regions, such places have their own special air pollution characteristics, notably arising from biomass burning and from wind-blown dusts in arid locations. Overall, this book highlights an appalling lack of information on air pollution in tropical countries, with the possible exception of China, although a number of international monitoring activities, such as the Global Precipitation Chemistry Project, have provided valuable data at a limited number of scattered locations. Consequently each chapter draws heavily on experience in temperate zones in an attempt to assess the vulnerability of tropical ecosystems to acidification. This inevitably results in a rather large amount of repetition of basic information, but this permits each chapter to stand on its own. Despite the lack of hard data, it is quite clear that many tropical soils, water bodies, and terrestrial ecosystems are highly sensitive to acidification and that uncontrolled industrialisation is likely to inflict severe damage upon them. Indeed, in the case of both Brazil and China, it is apparent that such damage has already taken place. My only criticism of this book is that, despite useful recommendations being made on research into air pollution effects in tropical areas, the existence of the literature on this subject, notably from India and China, receives scant recognition. Nevertheless, I recommend this book highly for anybody interested in air pollution problems in the developing world. I suspect that it will remain the definitive volume on this subject for some years to come, and its subject matter will form the basis for many monitoring and research programmes as awareness of environmental issues develops in tropical regions. J.N.B. B E L L
Imperial College at Silwood Park Ascot Berkshire SL5 7PY Great Britain
BOOK REVIEWS
to an aluminium-based buffering system. The book ends with a very useful six page summary, followed by detailed appendices, listing information on hydrological fluxes, soil profiles and micromorphology, soil water relations, fluxes of solutes and fungal species recorded. Not content with all these detailed measurements, the raw data are provided on a microfiche in the back of the book. I strongly recommend this very useful publication to research workers concerned with air pollution and forest ecosystems, but with the warning that The Netherlands represents a very special situation, with ammonium ions dominating the acidification process, despite increasing recognition of their having some importance elsewhere. J.N.B. B E L L
Department of Pure and Applied Biology Imperial College Silwood Park Ascot Berkshire, SL5 7PY Gt. Britain
ACIDIFICATION
Acidification in Tropical Countries, by H. Rodhe and R. Herrera (Editors). SCOPE 36, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, West Sussex, Great Britain, 1988, xviii÷405 pp., hardcover, £65.00, ISBN: 0 471 918709. Over the last decade books on "acid rain" in its widest sense have appeared at an almost exponentially increasing rate, covering every conceivable aspect of the topic. However, in all cases the content of these publications is restricted to the developed world, mainly North America and western/northern Europe. This is particularly unfortunate at a time when many developing countries in the tropics are industrialising at an unprecedented pace, with every sign that they may inflict serious damage on the environment, failing to recognise the expensive lessons learned as a result of uncontrolled emissions elsewhere in the world. As such, the timely publication of this book must be warmly welcomed, as the first attempt to provide an overview of air pollution in tropical countries and the potential for environmental damage to take place. As with other SCOPE publications, Report No. 36 is a multi-author work, produced under the direction of an expert steering committee. It consists of an initial chapter providing a synthesis of information on acidification and regional air pollution in the tropics on the basis of the material in the rest of the book. This is followed by a further five chapters, covering the atmospheric sulphur and nitrogen cycles, and effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and corrosion
BOOK REVIEWS
139
of materials. The final five chapters cover individual case-studies on acidification in Venezuela, south-eastern Brazil, Nigeria, south-western China, and tropical Australia, respectively. They represent the final outcome of seven such studies initiated in 1984 and reported at a workshop in Venezuela two years later. For reasons which are not clear, two of the case studies - for India and Bangladesh - were not completed and thus are not included in the book. This is particularly unfortunate in the case of India as this country has severe air pollution in various locations, which is reflected in a large number of publications on damage to vegetation, with official recognition of such problems being reflected in a co-ordinated national research effort. Considerable emphasis is placed throughout the book on natural emissions of sulphur and nitrogen compounds and their cycling in the environment. At the present time anthropogenic emissions of these substances on a global scale are extremely heterogeneous, largely being restricted to temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Nevertheless, besides growing emissions from industrial, transportation, and domestic sources in many tropical regions, such places have their own special air pollution characteristics, notably arising from biomass burning and from wind-blown dusts in arid locations. Overall, this book highlights an appalling lack of information on air pollution in tropical countries, with the possible exception of China, although a number of international monitoring activities, such as the Global Precipitation Chemistry Project, have provided valuable data at a limited number of scattered locations. Consequently each chapter draws heavily on experience in temperate zones in an attempt to assess the vulnerability of tropical ecosystems to acidification. This inevitably results in a rather large amount of repetition of basic information, but this permits each chapter to stand on its own. Despite the lack of hard data, it is quite clear that many tropical soils, water bodies, and terrestrial ecosystems are highly sensitive to acidification and that uncontrolled industrialisation is likely to inflict severe damage upon them. Indeed, in the case of both Brazil and China, it is apparent that such damage has already taken place. My only criticism of this book is that, despite useful recommendations being made on research into air pollution effects in tropical areas, the existence of the literature on this subject, notably from India and China, receives scant recognition. Nevertheless, I recommend this book highly for anybody interested in air pollution problems in the developing world. I suspect that it will remain the definitive volume on this subject for some years to come, and its subject matter will form the basis for many monitoring and research programmes as awareness of environmental issues develops in tropical regions. J.N.B. B E L L
Imperial College at Silwood Park Ascot Berkshire SL5 7PY Great Britain