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Everglades, the ecosystem and its restoration
ECOLOGICAL
ENGINEERING ELSEVIER
Ecological Engineering 7 (1996) 159-160
Book review Everglades, The Ecosystem and Its Restoration, S.M. Davis and J.C. Ogden, editors. St. Lucie Press, Delray Beach, FL, 826 pp. This book, at first glance, appears to be a large, multi-author (57) compendium of anything one might want to know about the Everglades, and more! However, as acknowledged in the introduction by the editors, Davis and Ogden, this is neither the first, nor should it be the last, review of information on this large scale, hetergenous landscape. Indeed, some aspects, such as the ecology of wading birds, are poorly known, despite the existence of enough information to generate 5 chapters (22-26) of the book! The book is ordered in five parts, each containing several chapters, dealing with respectively: I. Broad perspective issues in ecological and landscape processes, wetland protection, water control and agriculture; II. Spatially and temporally varying forces driving ecosystems such as peat formation, sea level rise, climate and fire. This part also contains a chapter on model simulation of the natural everglades hydrology; III. Vegetation components, with chapters on general flora of the Everglades, the introduced melaleuca tree, effects of phosphorous enrichment, perphyton and landscape--level vegetation processes; IV. The fauna, starting with small fish and ranging through alligators, snail kites, wading birds and large mammals (white-tailed deer and Florida panthers); and V. Ecosystem restoration with chapters on overall guidelines for large (spatially/temporally) heterogenous landscapes, water policy alternatives. A final synthesis chapter summarizes the recommendations for resetoration made in part V and in other chapters throughout the volume. Parts II through IV also had final synthesis chapters. I found these to be uniformly informative. I think they increased greatly the utility of the book by focussing on the important general contributions of the preceding chapters. I would recommend this format to the editors of any large review volume. Each of the chapters is written in a manner permitting it to be largely understood as a stand-alone contribution; thus, there is necessarily a lot of duplication of material on Everglades age, formation, extent, etc. This too is an advantage since it permits the reader to see virtually the same facts interpreted different by authors. There is satisfactory degree of agreement on the major conclusions emerging from these different interpretations. In general the book presents a cautiously optimistic outlook about the future of the Everglades restoration, despite the presentation of just how complicated and intertwined
160
Book ret:iew
are the natural forces driving the system and the extent of change that has been wrought by the, often opposed, human social and economic interests. The volume should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the past, present, and future of the Everglades. It should certainly be read by anyone involved in research or decision-making with respect to this unique landscape. Richard G. Wiegert Department of Marine Sciences UniL,ersi~ of Georgia Athens, GA 30602, USA
ENGINEERING ELSEVIER
Ecological Engineering 7 (1996) 159-160
Book review Everglades, The Ecosystem and Its Restoration, S.M. Davis and J.C. Ogden, editors. St. Lucie Press, Delray Beach, FL, 826 pp. This book, at first glance, appears to be a large, multi-author (57) compendium of anything one might want to know about the Everglades, and more! However, as acknowledged in the introduction by the editors, Davis and Ogden, this is neither the first, nor should it be the last, review of information on this large scale, hetergenous landscape. Indeed, some aspects, such as the ecology of wading birds, are poorly known, despite the existence of enough information to generate 5 chapters (22-26) of the book! The book is ordered in five parts, each containing several chapters, dealing with respectively: I. Broad perspective issues in ecological and landscape processes, wetland protection, water control and agriculture; II. Spatially and temporally varying forces driving ecosystems such as peat formation, sea level rise, climate and fire. This part also contains a chapter on model simulation of the natural everglades hydrology; III. Vegetation components, with chapters on general flora of the Everglades, the introduced melaleuca tree, effects of phosphorous enrichment, perphyton and landscape--level vegetation processes; IV. The fauna, starting with small fish and ranging through alligators, snail kites, wading birds and large mammals (white-tailed deer and Florida panthers); and V. Ecosystem restoration with chapters on overall guidelines for large (spatially/temporally) heterogenous landscapes, water policy alternatives. A final synthesis chapter summarizes the recommendations for resetoration made in part V and in other chapters throughout the volume. Parts II through IV also had final synthesis chapters. I found these to be uniformly informative. I think they increased greatly the utility of the book by focussing on the important general contributions of the preceding chapters. I would recommend this format to the editors of any large review volume. Each of the chapters is written in a manner permitting it to be largely understood as a stand-alone contribution; thus, there is necessarily a lot of duplication of material on Everglades age, formation, extent, etc. This too is an advantage since it permits the reader to see virtually the same facts interpreted different by authors. There is satisfactory degree of agreement on the major conclusions emerging from these different interpretations. In general the book presents a cautiously optimistic outlook about the future of the Everglades restoration, despite the presentation of just how complicated and intertwined
160
Book ret:iew
are the natural forces driving the system and the extent of change that has been wrought by the, often opposed, human social and economic interests. The volume should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the past, present, and future of the Everglades. It should certainly be read by anyone involved in research or decision-making with respect to this unique landscape. Richard G. Wiegert Department of Marine Sciences UniL,ersi~ of Georgia Athens, GA 30602, USA