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Ecotoxicology: The study of pollutants in ecosystems
Book reviews
93
Ecotoxicology: The Study of Pollutants in Ecosystems. By F. Moriarty. 1983. Academic Press, London. 233pp. ISBN 0 12 506760 7. Price: £19.50; US$32-50. The author of this book is one of the leading British experts in this field and has worked for many years at a government research station. He explains in his Preface that the title is a blend of'ecological concepts and of toxicology itself' and believes that some scientists have failed to understand the effects of toxic substances in the environment because they have not combined these two approaches. With this in mind his first two chapters describe the principles and characteristics of populations, communities (primarily animal but with some reference to plants) and the genetical aspects which must be borne in mind when discussing ecotoxicology. In the second half, there are three chapters dealing with the effects of toxic substances on individual organisms, the prediction of ecological effects, and monitoring. Finally Chapter 8 is an essay in which Dr Moriarty tries to bring together the issues which he feels are of particular importance. This last section includes a number of fascinating points, perhaps in some cases controversial, but likely to be of great interest to ecologists who are not specialists in toxicology. For instance, he says the prediction of ecological effects by pollutants is unlikely to be very precise in the foreseeable future, and although predictions may be correct for some species, there will always be others which will differ in their response. In general terms one's concern should be with those species which are at the extreme ends of the distribution for predicted values and not those close to the mode. He also points out that many ecological changes caused by pollutants probably go undetected because they are not obvious to a casual observer. Because levels are very low, it should not be assumed that such chemicals are having no effect on some parts of the environment. The reason, Dr Moriarty says, is because some current monitoring methods are too insensitive to record any but serious changes. This very useful book will make a lot of people, both toxicologists and ecologists, rethink some of their ideas about pollutants in the environm e n t - - a n d it has the advantage of being understandable to the general reader as well as to the specialist. The author points out that the book is really more a collection of essays than a text book, and in this sense one hopes that it will be very widely read by everyone interested in what is happening to our environment in the long term. E.D.
93
Ecotoxicology: The Study of Pollutants in Ecosystems. By F. Moriarty. 1983. Academic Press, London. 233pp. ISBN 0 12 506760 7. Price: £19.50; US$32-50. The author of this book is one of the leading British experts in this field and has worked for many years at a government research station. He explains in his Preface that the title is a blend of'ecological concepts and of toxicology itself' and believes that some scientists have failed to understand the effects of toxic substances in the environment because they have not combined these two approaches. With this in mind his first two chapters describe the principles and characteristics of populations, communities (primarily animal but with some reference to plants) and the genetical aspects which must be borne in mind when discussing ecotoxicology. In the second half, there are three chapters dealing with the effects of toxic substances on individual organisms, the prediction of ecological effects, and monitoring. Finally Chapter 8 is an essay in which Dr Moriarty tries to bring together the issues which he feels are of particular importance. This last section includes a number of fascinating points, perhaps in some cases controversial, but likely to be of great interest to ecologists who are not specialists in toxicology. For instance, he says the prediction of ecological effects by pollutants is unlikely to be very precise in the foreseeable future, and although predictions may be correct for some species, there will always be others which will differ in their response. In general terms one's concern should be with those species which are at the extreme ends of the distribution for predicted values and not those close to the mode. He also points out that many ecological changes caused by pollutants probably go undetected because they are not obvious to a casual observer. Because levels are very low, it should not be assumed that such chemicals are having no effect on some parts of the environment. The reason, Dr Moriarty says, is because some current monitoring methods are too insensitive to record any but serious changes. This very useful book will make a lot of people, both toxicologists and ecologists, rethink some of their ideas about pollutants in the environm e n t - - a n d it has the advantage of being understandable to the general reader as well as to the specialist. The author points out that the book is really more a collection of essays than a text book, and in this sense one hopes that it will be very widely read by everyone interested in what is happening to our environment in the long term. E.D.