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Biological monitoring of marine pollutants
278
Book reviews
the temptation to centre our thinking on the intriguing new models of land bridges and ancient coastpatterns, and regressinto a simplistic geographical determinism, despite the caveats of Collingwood and Childe. This volume helps to offset that danger, and offers a bench-mark against which the practical possibilities in future research may be assessedagainst the developments of recent decades.In part the problems and prospects are examined directly, not leastby the editors, and methodology is an overt theme in many of the papers. But the reader may also draw his own conclusions from what is implicit in the wide range of approaches and attitudes exhibited by the contributors. They present a truly international cross-sectionof current research, acrossa spectrum which includes oceanography, geophysics, geology, palaeobotany, geography, anthropology and archaeology. In all there are 26 papers, drawn from a Symposium held in October 1981 at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Most are adequately illustrated; though the reproduction of the photographs is not outstanding, the line drawings are generally clear. The papers are gathered in four sections. The first, with six papers on ‘ Sea level changes and preservational environments of prehistoric submerged sites ‘, has perhaps the strongest overall bias towards theory, but the discussionsare firmly based in field observations drawn from various parts of the world. In the second section, ‘ Excavations and surveys of submerged and coastal lithic artifact sites ‘, nine papers discussspecific regional casestudies (one from California, one from Scandinavia and the remainder from southern Europe and the Mediterranean), Section three, ‘From Siberia to North America and the adjacent islands’ devotes eight papers to Beringia and other aspects of the prehistoric peopling of the New World, then Section Four contains three on ‘Australia and the Old World’. There are useful bibliographies throughout, generally up to date to 1981. Overall, the 640 pagesgather together in convenient form a range of material which is fairly representative of present knowledge and opinion and which it would certainly require determination to track down in the diverse journals in which the Symposium participants ordinarily publish. This is a useful service, if we are indeed to avoid over-simplified stereotypes in developing a human prehistory of land bridges and continental shelves.As a senior oceanographer and a senior prehistorian, Keunen and Hawkes, have both been known to remark with equal forthrightness, in interdisciplinary matters we tend to believe too much of what the other lot says. . . . I. A. MORRISON
Biological
Monitoring
of Marine
Edited by John Vernberg, Anthony Thurberg and Winona B. Vernberg Academic Press, New York, 1981, xiii+SS9pp,
Pollutants Calabrese, Frederick
P.
E22.80, $34.00
This book, a compilation of 22 papers upon the toxicology and physiological action of synthetic organics, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons and on physiological monitoring, represents the Proceedings of a Symposium on Pollution and Physiology of Marine Organisms, held in Milford, Connecticut, 7-9 November 1980. In the preface, the editors state that ‘there has been considerable laboratory research performed on the
Book reviews
279
physiological effects of pollutants on marine organisms, with a more recent trend towards applying laboratory techniques to field studies. The objective of this volume is to show how these techniques may be used in field-oriented biological monitoring programs, a small number of which are now underway in various parts of the world’. Despite this admirable objective, the papers offered are, with two exceptions, concerned with toxicology and the physiological response to individual pollutants; little effort is made to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the marine environment. As one long engaged in field monitoring studies and the pursuit of meanswhereby laboratory studies may be used in the interpretation of field observations, I do not believe the title of the book is a fair description of the matter under discussionthough the title of the Symposium clearly was. Although the work presented is undoubtedly of a good standard and some papers attempt to meet its aims, it fails from the point of view of the environmental biologist, on grounds best illustrated by the following examples. Some 20 years ago, Holden @final and Proceedings of the Institute of Sewage PuriJication, 1963, Pt 4, 361-368) noted with respect to median tolerance limit determinations that a 50 ?Amortality is an unacceptable risk to fishery interests. It follows that the 30:/, mortality of mullet induced by 200 pg 1-l PCP (pentochlorophenol) in 24 h is just asunacceptable and the inclusion of biochemical data derived from these fish is therefore of little practical interest. On pp. 118, 119, assumptions are made relating to the amount of silver present in the Maine sediments as compared with those of Long Island Sound, but in the absenceof measurementand in particular knowledge of the forms in which Ag is available in the two situations are theseassumptionsjustified? If they are not then the environmental biologist can make little use of such data. The work of Lang et al., p. 165 et seq. is most interesting, but the lowest concentration they used was 50 ppb. In view of the present position taken by the EEC, viz. that the overall limit for dissolved Cd in seawater is 5 pg l- ‘, but that for territorial and coastal waters is 0.05 ug l-r, this is unfortunate. It is unfortunate because in addition to the member states the standards will affect those other nations who wish to invest in the Community, plus those who seethese as worthy standards to aspire to, and the work of Lang et al. stops short of the point where it could inform them as to the wisdom of this decision. Aside from questions relating to the chemical transformations which occur when effluent and other wastescome into contact with seawater and meet through the interactions of currents, the fundamental information required by the environmental manager/ biologist is the concentration or concentrations where zone of tolerance conditions change to incipient poisoning of the communities inhabiting the receiving waters and those, including ourselves, dependent upon them. That contemporary chemistsare preoccupied with measuring ever lower concentrations of many substances,becomesa rather wasteful, pursuit in the absenceof knowledge either of biological activity at these levels or of the chemical forms which confer this activity. At root, biological monitoring provides one of the meanswhereby the environmental manager may function, it is then, by definition, apart of the managementprocessasindeed is the laboratory investigation of toxicology and physiology. Clearly, a confusion of role or operation at an inappropriate level is counterproductive to effective managementand this I fear is what Biological Monitoring of Marine Pollutants doesdespite the inclusion of such excellent work asthat of Vargo and others. E.J.
PERKINS
Book reviews
the temptation to centre our thinking on the intriguing new models of land bridges and ancient coastpatterns, and regressinto a simplistic geographical determinism, despite the caveats of Collingwood and Childe. This volume helps to offset that danger, and offers a bench-mark against which the practical possibilities in future research may be assessedagainst the developments of recent decades.In part the problems and prospects are examined directly, not leastby the editors, and methodology is an overt theme in many of the papers. But the reader may also draw his own conclusions from what is implicit in the wide range of approaches and attitudes exhibited by the contributors. They present a truly international cross-sectionof current research, acrossa spectrum which includes oceanography, geophysics, geology, palaeobotany, geography, anthropology and archaeology. In all there are 26 papers, drawn from a Symposium held in October 1981 at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Most are adequately illustrated; though the reproduction of the photographs is not outstanding, the line drawings are generally clear. The papers are gathered in four sections. The first, with six papers on ‘ Sea level changes and preservational environments of prehistoric submerged sites ‘, has perhaps the strongest overall bias towards theory, but the discussionsare firmly based in field observations drawn from various parts of the world. In the second section, ‘ Excavations and surveys of submerged and coastal lithic artifact sites ‘, nine papers discussspecific regional casestudies (one from California, one from Scandinavia and the remainder from southern Europe and the Mediterranean), Section three, ‘From Siberia to North America and the adjacent islands’ devotes eight papers to Beringia and other aspects of the prehistoric peopling of the New World, then Section Four contains three on ‘Australia and the Old World’. There are useful bibliographies throughout, generally up to date to 1981. Overall, the 640 pagesgather together in convenient form a range of material which is fairly representative of present knowledge and opinion and which it would certainly require determination to track down in the diverse journals in which the Symposium participants ordinarily publish. This is a useful service, if we are indeed to avoid over-simplified stereotypes in developing a human prehistory of land bridges and continental shelves.As a senior oceanographer and a senior prehistorian, Keunen and Hawkes, have both been known to remark with equal forthrightness, in interdisciplinary matters we tend to believe too much of what the other lot says. . . . I. A. MORRISON
Biological
Monitoring
of Marine
Edited by John Vernberg, Anthony Thurberg and Winona B. Vernberg Academic Press, New York, 1981, xiii+SS9pp,
Pollutants Calabrese, Frederick
P.
E22.80, $34.00
This book, a compilation of 22 papers upon the toxicology and physiological action of synthetic organics, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons and on physiological monitoring, represents the Proceedings of a Symposium on Pollution and Physiology of Marine Organisms, held in Milford, Connecticut, 7-9 November 1980. In the preface, the editors state that ‘there has been considerable laboratory research performed on the
Book reviews
279
physiological effects of pollutants on marine organisms, with a more recent trend towards applying laboratory techniques to field studies. The objective of this volume is to show how these techniques may be used in field-oriented biological monitoring programs, a small number of which are now underway in various parts of the world’. Despite this admirable objective, the papers offered are, with two exceptions, concerned with toxicology and the physiological response to individual pollutants; little effort is made to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the marine environment. As one long engaged in field monitoring studies and the pursuit of meanswhereby laboratory studies may be used in the interpretation of field observations, I do not believe the title of the book is a fair description of the matter under discussionthough the title of the Symposium clearly was. Although the work presented is undoubtedly of a good standard and some papers attempt to meet its aims, it fails from the point of view of the environmental biologist, on grounds best illustrated by the following examples. Some 20 years ago, Holden @final and Proceedings of the Institute of Sewage PuriJication, 1963, Pt 4, 361-368) noted with respect to median tolerance limit determinations that a 50 ?Amortality is an unacceptable risk to fishery interests. It follows that the 30:/, mortality of mullet induced by 200 pg 1-l PCP (pentochlorophenol) in 24 h is just asunacceptable and the inclusion of biochemical data derived from these fish is therefore of little practical interest. On pp. 118, 119, assumptions are made relating to the amount of silver present in the Maine sediments as compared with those of Long Island Sound, but in the absenceof measurementand in particular knowledge of the forms in which Ag is available in the two situations are theseassumptionsjustified? If they are not then the environmental biologist can make little use of such data. The work of Lang et al., p. 165 et seq. is most interesting, but the lowest concentration they used was 50 ppb. In view of the present position taken by the EEC, viz. that the overall limit for dissolved Cd in seawater is 5 pg l- ‘, but that for territorial and coastal waters is 0.05 ug l-r, this is unfortunate. It is unfortunate because in addition to the member states the standards will affect those other nations who wish to invest in the Community, plus those who seethese as worthy standards to aspire to, and the work of Lang et al. stops short of the point where it could inform them as to the wisdom of this decision. Aside from questions relating to the chemical transformations which occur when effluent and other wastescome into contact with seawater and meet through the interactions of currents, the fundamental information required by the environmental manager/ biologist is the concentration or concentrations where zone of tolerance conditions change to incipient poisoning of the communities inhabiting the receiving waters and those, including ourselves, dependent upon them. That contemporary chemistsare preoccupied with measuring ever lower concentrations of many substances,becomesa rather wasteful, pursuit in the absenceof knowledge either of biological activity at these levels or of the chemical forms which confer this activity. At root, biological monitoring provides one of the meanswhereby the environmental manager may function, it is then, by definition, apart of the managementprocessasindeed is the laboratory investigation of toxicology and physiology. Clearly, a confusion of role or operation at an inappropriate level is counterproductive to effective managementand this I fear is what Biological Monitoring of Marine Pollutants doesdespite the inclusion of such excellent work asthat of Vargo and others. E.J.
PERKINS