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Environmental chemistry of the elements
The Science of the Total Environment, 19 (1981) 195--204 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam -- Printed in The Netherlands
195
Book R e n e w s
Environmental Chemistry of the Elements, by H. J. M. Bowen, Academic Press, London, 1979, 333 pp. Price: £17.00. In the same way as there is a "Who is w h o " for people, this b o o k is the "Which is where" of the chemical elements in our environment. Whether one needs to k n o w the whereabouts of the elements in the geosphere or the biosphere, the composition of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the soils, the protean aspects of the living matter (here I am unable to enumerate all the phylae from bacteria to vertebrates, but every group of living organism gets its distinct consideration), all this and more is contained in this volume. The information is contained mainly in a number of tables, well organized, albeit sometimes so c r o w d e d that they are difficult to read. Y o u m a y look up the scandium c o n t e n t of marine mollusca among the 500 or so analogous entries o f Table 6.3; or the median ranges of tungsten in soils in Table 4.4 (typically, this table alone is d o c u m e n t e d by n o t less than 36 references); or the elemental composition of tropospheric aerosols, etc. Within this "static" part of the compilation, the dynamics, the roles, the function and the interaction of the environment with all these elements are continuously imbedded. The biospheric and elemental cycles; the uptake and the excretion of elements by organisms; the essentiality, deficiencies and toxicities of the elements; the chemical forms and functions of the elements, are all thoroughly discussed in the respective chapters. The biological fractionation of stable isotopes and the radionucleides in the environment are also considered in separate chapters. The concluding chapter "Environmental effects of human activities", is a brief sketch of air, water and soil pollution. This short section of 20 pages cannot contain all the known or needed detail, b u t this is n o t the purpose. Specialists have been warned in the F o r e w o r d that . . . "their subject has been condensed and oversimplified, b u t they should recall the limitations of time and space". It m a y even be excused, that some references (only some belonging to this last chapter) are n o t always up to date. For instance, only the second edition of Stem's Air Pollution is mentioned, n o t the recent five-volume edition. To avoid the misunderstanding of this rather isolated instance, I made frequency/time c o u n t of all the 960 references used througho u t the volume. A b o u t 60 per cent date from the decade comprised between 1971--1979; only 30 per cent from 1961--1970 and 8 per cent from 1951-1960; the small remainder being historic. As Professor Bowen stated in the Preface, his aim was rather a critical and n o t an encyclopaedic coverage. One can only wonder a b o u t the number of references, data, review articles, books, etc. from which the 960 q u o t e d references have been selected. 0048-9697/81/0000--0000/$02.50 @1981 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company
196
All along this wealth of factual information, Professor Bowen's own critical remarks, e.g. on collecting and cleaning biological material, analytical errors, experession of r e s u l t s . . , are written based on a first-hand knowledge Of the subject matter and may be considered very useful. The book is aimed at post-graduate workers in research problems of inorganic biochemistry. It should be of interest to environmental chemists as well as biochemists, ecologists and health physicists.
Br$tigny-sur-Orge (France)
Michel Benarie
Atmospheric Motion and Air Pollution, by Richard A. Dobbins, Wiley-Interscience, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1979, 323 pp. Price: US $31.15. This textbook is of primary interest to senior students in the biomedical, civil, environmental and mechanical engineering fields, as well as to students from various pure science programs. The goal of this text is to provide these students with a fundamental level of technical knowledge and the background necessary to comprehend the articles that appear in specialized scientific journals. The presentation of the material is structured to fit the background of most students of engineering and the hard sciences, requiring four semesters of college-level calculus and one semester each of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and chemistry. In the text, there is a moderate reliance on multivariable calculus, partial differential equations and on vector notation. This course may be considered as an introduction to the elements of geophysical fluid mechanics which is the subject of the first six chapters. Chapter 1 deals with aerostatics and atmospheric stability, topics leading to and including the concept of geostrophic flow in Chapter 2. The dynamics of vorticity is described in Chapter 3 and the large-scale wind-pressure systems in Chapter 4. Thermal radiation and the atmospheric structure and chemistry is the topic of Chapter 5. The Reynolds equations and the neutral and convective boundary layers form Chapter 6. The second half of the book deals with formation and transport of pollutants in the lower atmosphere. Coverage of Chapters 7 to 12 includes plume rise, the community air pollutants, aerosol characteristics and properties, the dispersion of the contaminants in a turbulent flow, the theoretical methods used i n practice to calculate the dispersion of pollutants and their limitations, comparisons of theoretical predictions and observations of pollutant concentrations, longrange transport, the climatology of the atmospheric boundary layer in the continental U.S.A., the carbon dioxide build-up, the greenhouse effect, secular temperature trends a n d climatic impact, chemical threats to the stratospheric ozone and the potential impact on health, long-range sulfate transport and acid precipitation, and the atmospheric aerosol and visibility impairment. The text provides a balanced development between the theoretical back-
195
Book R e n e w s
Environmental Chemistry of the Elements, by H. J. M. Bowen, Academic Press, London, 1979, 333 pp. Price: £17.00. In the same way as there is a "Who is w h o " for people, this b o o k is the "Which is where" of the chemical elements in our environment. Whether one needs to k n o w the whereabouts of the elements in the geosphere or the biosphere, the composition of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the soils, the protean aspects of the living matter (here I am unable to enumerate all the phylae from bacteria to vertebrates, but every group of living organism gets its distinct consideration), all this and more is contained in this volume. The information is contained mainly in a number of tables, well organized, albeit sometimes so c r o w d e d that they are difficult to read. Y o u m a y look up the scandium c o n t e n t of marine mollusca among the 500 or so analogous entries o f Table 6.3; or the median ranges of tungsten in soils in Table 4.4 (typically, this table alone is d o c u m e n t e d by n o t less than 36 references); or the elemental composition of tropospheric aerosols, etc. Within this "static" part of the compilation, the dynamics, the roles, the function and the interaction of the environment with all these elements are continuously imbedded. The biospheric and elemental cycles; the uptake and the excretion of elements by organisms; the essentiality, deficiencies and toxicities of the elements; the chemical forms and functions of the elements, are all thoroughly discussed in the respective chapters. The biological fractionation of stable isotopes and the radionucleides in the environment are also considered in separate chapters. The concluding chapter "Environmental effects of human activities", is a brief sketch of air, water and soil pollution. This short section of 20 pages cannot contain all the known or needed detail, b u t this is n o t the purpose. Specialists have been warned in the F o r e w o r d that . . . "their subject has been condensed and oversimplified, b u t they should recall the limitations of time and space". It m a y even be excused, that some references (only some belonging to this last chapter) are n o t always up to date. For instance, only the second edition of Stem's Air Pollution is mentioned, n o t the recent five-volume edition. To avoid the misunderstanding of this rather isolated instance, I made frequency/time c o u n t of all the 960 references used througho u t the volume. A b o u t 60 per cent date from the decade comprised between 1971--1979; only 30 per cent from 1961--1970 and 8 per cent from 1951-1960; the small remainder being historic. As Professor Bowen stated in the Preface, his aim was rather a critical and n o t an encyclopaedic coverage. One can only wonder a b o u t the number of references, data, review articles, books, etc. from which the 960 q u o t e d references have been selected. 0048-9697/81/0000--0000/$02.50 @1981 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company
196
All along this wealth of factual information, Professor Bowen's own critical remarks, e.g. on collecting and cleaning biological material, analytical errors, experession of r e s u l t s . . , are written based on a first-hand knowledge Of the subject matter and may be considered very useful. The book is aimed at post-graduate workers in research problems of inorganic biochemistry. It should be of interest to environmental chemists as well as biochemists, ecologists and health physicists.
Br$tigny-sur-Orge (France)
Michel Benarie
Atmospheric Motion and Air Pollution, by Richard A. Dobbins, Wiley-Interscience, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1979, 323 pp. Price: US $31.15. This textbook is of primary interest to senior students in the biomedical, civil, environmental and mechanical engineering fields, as well as to students from various pure science programs. The goal of this text is to provide these students with a fundamental level of technical knowledge and the background necessary to comprehend the articles that appear in specialized scientific journals. The presentation of the material is structured to fit the background of most students of engineering and the hard sciences, requiring four semesters of college-level calculus and one semester each of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and chemistry. In the text, there is a moderate reliance on multivariable calculus, partial differential equations and on vector notation. This course may be considered as an introduction to the elements of geophysical fluid mechanics which is the subject of the first six chapters. Chapter 1 deals with aerostatics and atmospheric stability, topics leading to and including the concept of geostrophic flow in Chapter 2. The dynamics of vorticity is described in Chapter 3 and the large-scale wind-pressure systems in Chapter 4. Thermal radiation and the atmospheric structure and chemistry is the topic of Chapter 5. The Reynolds equations and the neutral and convective boundary layers form Chapter 6. The second half of the book deals with formation and transport of pollutants in the lower atmosphere. Coverage of Chapters 7 to 12 includes plume rise, the community air pollutants, aerosol characteristics and properties, the dispersion of the contaminants in a turbulent flow, the theoretical methods used i n practice to calculate the dispersion of pollutants and their limitations, comparisons of theoretical predictions and observations of pollutant concentrations, longrange transport, the climatology of the atmospheric boundary layer in the continental U.S.A., the carbon dioxide build-up, the greenhouse effect, secular temperature trends a n d climatic impact, chemical threats to the stratospheric ozone and the potential impact on health, long-range sulfate transport and acid precipitation, and the atmospheric aerosol and visibility impairment. The text provides a balanced development between the theoretical back-