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Productivity of the ocean: Present and past
BOOK REVIEWS
include numerous references to features illustrated in the plates of fossils. Eighty-six pages of text are distributed among 14 well-written chapters, which are followed by 73 pages of appendices and figure explanations. The text is informative, written in an engaging way, and serves as a very good summary of most aspects of graptology. However, I wonder if the level of presentation is not one notch above what may be ideal for a text written for the non-professional without much previous background in the subject, but it fits admirably university students, also at the graduate level, as well as paleontologists who are not graptolite specialists. Two unusual chapters in the Appendix are a list with global coverage of collecting localities and short biographies of 10 prominent graptolite workers. In the latter section one misses Rudolph Ruedemann, who for half a century was the undisputed leader of North American graptolite research and whose voluminous studies form the basis of much current research. Although quite attractive, this is not a perfect book. Perhaps scores of misspellings of person and place names will, not irritate the average reader, but there are factual errors and a number of peculiar statements. For instance, Tremadoc is listed as a system in text-fig. 1. The.~island of Gotland is mentioned as an occurrence of, typical black graptolite shale (p. 17): this is certainly~news because I am not aware of a single exposure of this facies in this carbonate island. Scandinavia is referred to the Pacific Province in the Lower Ordovician (p. 35) and Holmograptus, which is best known from the Baltic region, is listed as restricted to this province (p. 35). If not a misprint, this is a new and puzzling interpretation because Scandinavia (except central Norway) has previously always been considered a key part of the Atlantic Province. The world-renowned Lower Paleozoic fish specialist Erik Stensi6, a die-hard Swede, will certainly turn round in his grave by being referred to as a Norwegian paleontologist (p. 64). Eurypterids are not the largest arthropods known (p. 95); some recent decapods are reported to attain a larger size. The chapter on collecting localities in the USA should have.been read by someone familiar with current local conditions to avoid several mistakes and outdated information.
351
For instance, Pratt's Syncline, Stonelick Lake, Porterfield Quarry, and Wytheville (p. 111-113) have not been productive localities for years. The Normanskill Shale is not a formation in Arkansas (p. 112) but in eastern New York some 1800 km away. Very remote, and for other reasons inaccessible, localities in Yukon Territory (incorrectly listed as part of the USA), Idaho, and Texas are mentioned but the many outstanding Ordovician sections in Mohawk Valley, New York, which are as easily accessible and productive today as in Ruedemann's time a century ago, are omitted without explanation. The 10 biographies of well-known graptolite workers are informative and interesting. Contrary to the text (p. 144) Carl Wiman was quite well-known outside graptolite research circles as a vertebrate paleontologist and stratigrapher. The chert fauna described by Roman Kozlowski from the Holy Cross Mountains (p. 146) is not of Upper Cambrian but Lower Ordovician (Tremadocian) age. Despite these imperfections, I rank this as an excellent book that is strongly recommended to anyone interested in graptolites and general paleobiology. Unfortunately, its hefty price will cut down sales to both amateurs and other nonspecialists but every well-managed geology library should order a copy. STIG M. BERGSTR~)M (Columbus, OH)
Productivity of the Ocean: Present and Past. Edited by W.H. Berger, V.S. Smetacek and G. Wefer. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK 1989. A Dahlem Workshop Report, Life Sciences Research Rep. 44. xiii + 471 pp. ISBN 0-47192246- 3. The book Productivity of the Ocean." present and past is one of the good Dahlem workshop reports, which gives an up to date view on the various problems related with ocean primary productivity and global changes in the past. The structure of the Dahlem workshops in Berlin (G), with multiauthor prepared papers, treating different subjects, and supplemented by workshop reports, ensures a discussion on the present day level of knowledge. The book is divided into four sections, each
352
with four or five papers prepared in advance and each with a group-report. These sections have, however, no titles, which raises some confusion how to deal with of them separately. The first paper "Ocean productivity and paleoproductivity", is a well informative overview how productivity changed through time and how it can be reconstructed from biogenic signals in the sediments. Except schemes and formulae of transfer of organic matter, originating from primary production, data are given of primary production (PP) and new production (NP) levels for the world ocean. Additionally the export production and its episodicity, the transit flux, the benthic respiration and burial and preservation are tackled. Interesting are the data and views on palaeoproductivity, showing that the carbon system of the ocean is~in close correspondence with the pCO2 changes in the atmosphere through geological time. This does not prove, according to the authors, that their model correctly describes the mechanisms controlling atmospheric pCO2. The paper on "Food web structure and loss rate" contains most recent information on new production results, also as related to the presence of grazing herbivores. For low copepode grazing in the euphoric surface layer, the nutrient concentrations decrease rather rapidly, while at high copepode grazing these nutrient concentrations decrease more slowly and remain stabilized at a certain level. This shows that food web structures are of essential impact to the cycle of elements in the productive zone. It would have been interesting to have seen the bifurcation model, as presented under the title "Hydrodynamical singularities as controls of recycled versus export production in oceans", being applied to the data presented by the other papers, but due to the structure of the Dahlem workshop, this has to be left to the reader. However, the above-mentioned authors might come up later with some nice (even conflicting) results. As it stands now, t h e model is a start, being descriptive, however not yet arriving at a synthesis. The question "Is the downward dissolved organic matter (DOM) flux important in carbon transport" has fascinated the workshop, since the problem is mentioned in different papers. The
BOOK REVIEWS
hypothesis is almost exclusively based on one article of Sugimura and Suzuki of 1988 in Marine Chemistry. It seems that an almost 80 years old discussion is reviving. Already POtter introduced it in 1909, and it has regularly been repeated by other authors, who found more carbon than others due to their DOC (dissolved organic carbon) [analysis. Piitter also thought that due to the large pool of DOM] this should be a source of food for fish, but this was again disproved by Krogh in 1930. Sugimura and Suzuki found higher DOM in surface layers, and a good correlation with the oxygen depletion (AOU=apparent oxygen utilization) from top to the deep ocean. (By the way they also correlated DOC+ DON with AOU, which is incorrect, since DOC already represents compounds containing nitrogen). They suggested this might be a causal correlation, and thus being the reason for vertical transport of DOM to deeper waters. This hypothesis is worked out here again, however, without a sufficient critical view. Seeing the T (temperature)and S (salinity) data of the Sugimura and Suzuki paper, there is surely no mixing between top layers and deep waters. The deep waters originate from other regions, being transported to the region of sampling. DOM of this deep water might thus also have the same origin, being produced in that (remote) surface source region. Whether the surface DOM concentrations are higher or not, due to different analytical techniques and detection of ranges of molecular sizes of DOM, this has no impact on a "possible" vertical transport, unless DOM of the surface waters is partly adsorbed to sinking particles and thus additionally contributing to the oxidation of these sinking particles at deeper waters. However, this has not been mentioned and is also without quantitative proof. Another point is whether part of the surface DOM is not dead but partly consisting of living sub-micro organisms (0.2 Ixm-0.8 Ixm) which may partly pass 0.4 p.m filters. A study of F. Schut at the Universities of Groningen (NL) and Alaska (USA) gives opening to such a possibility. Then DOM in surface layers should indeed contain the large-size molecules (of these living organisms), as detected by Sugimura and Suzuki. Anyway DOM
BOOK REVIEWS
353
is still fascinating the scientific world and even DOM as food might be rediscussed. Coinciding with the major topic of the workshop are also the other well prepared paper on "New production: history, methods, problems", and the group report on "Export productivity from the photic zone". Related topics are "Regional extremes in particulate matter composition and flux: effects on the chemistry of the ocean interior", "Particle flux in the ocean: effect of episodic production", "How much shelf production reaches the deep sea", processes related to the benthic systems and finally a number of topics on paleoproductivity also related to atmospheric COE, based on ocean modeling. In summary, the different groups have successfully tried, by presenting a wealth of information, to understand the basis of global and regional facets of primary production as related with time and thus with (natural) global changes. Global maps of ocean productivity are presented as an appendix. A number of figures lack sufficient labelling of the curves like e.g. in fig. 1, p. 3, and what is the depth in fig. 3, p. 55. A glossary of acronyms would also have been very useful, in order to avoid that some terms are differently defined throughout the book. Although this book cannot be considered as a handbook, it should certainly be standard available for all scientists being involved with the productivity of the oceans and its impact on possible global changes, as to paleobiologists and paleogeologists. It will sharpen their scientific views in this matter. The price is £65, which should make libraries the major clients. E.K. D U U R S M A (Monaco)
Spores of the Pteridophyta. Surface, Wall Structure, and Diversity Based on Electron Microscope Studies. A.F. Tryon and B. Lugardon. Springer, Berlin, 1991. Hardcover. X + 6 4 8 pp. Price DM 188.-ISBN 3-540-97218-8.
Spores of the Pteridophyta has been long awaited by palynologists and palaeopalynologists alike, with the anticipation that this publication ,would provide a comprehensive database and reference
work covering principally ferns, but also the other pteridophytic groups. The two authors (A.F. Tryon and B. Lugardon) are well known for their detailed studies of fern and other pteridophyte spores by SEM and TEM and have contributed much to the literature on this subject. The book is of large format (215 × 285 mm) and long, 648 pages, and is, as one might hope, amply illustrated throughout. A lengthy introduction provides information on the topics of terminology, methodology, composition and development of the exine, evolution of the sporoderm and ultrastructural comparisons of the major groups with reference to homology of structure (much of this based on previous studies by the authors). This section (well illustrated with numerous informative TEM micrographs) successfully puts into context the detailed descriptions that follow; these entail illustrations of species in 232 genera in 35 families. The remainder of the book is divided by family (ferns followed by sphenophytes and lycophytes), and further subdivided by genus. Genera are numbered making recovery of information simple. Fern genera occupy by far the major part of the volume, some 557 pages. The anomalous genera Psilotum and Tmesipteris are included within the ferns, preceding the two aquatic families Marsileaceae and Salviniaceae. Each chapter (family) is headed by a silhouette illustration (not always very informative) of a typical member or members of the family, followed by a brief summary of the main characteristics of the spore types found in the group. Although useful as it stands, perhaps more could have been made of this section in terms of the discussion of overall relationships between spore types and possible phylogeny and ancestral forms. Each generic section consists of notes on the taxonomy of the genus, its geographic range and the basic features of the spores (size, shape, aperture form, surface form and exine structure). Also included are comments on spore diversity, coverage of the latter forms variation within the genus and on the relationships of extant and fossil representatives. In heterosporous groups (e.g. the Salviniaceae), microspores and megaspores are treated separately and in the lycophytes (Selaginella and Isoetes), coverage of the latter forms the major
include numerous references to features illustrated in the plates of fossils. Eighty-six pages of text are distributed among 14 well-written chapters, which are followed by 73 pages of appendices and figure explanations. The text is informative, written in an engaging way, and serves as a very good summary of most aspects of graptology. However, I wonder if the level of presentation is not one notch above what may be ideal for a text written for the non-professional without much previous background in the subject, but it fits admirably university students, also at the graduate level, as well as paleontologists who are not graptolite specialists. Two unusual chapters in the Appendix are a list with global coverage of collecting localities and short biographies of 10 prominent graptolite workers. In the latter section one misses Rudolph Ruedemann, who for half a century was the undisputed leader of North American graptolite research and whose voluminous studies form the basis of much current research. Although quite attractive, this is not a perfect book. Perhaps scores of misspellings of person and place names will, not irritate the average reader, but there are factual errors and a number of peculiar statements. For instance, Tremadoc is listed as a system in text-fig. 1. The.~island of Gotland is mentioned as an occurrence of, typical black graptolite shale (p. 17): this is certainly~news because I am not aware of a single exposure of this facies in this carbonate island. Scandinavia is referred to the Pacific Province in the Lower Ordovician (p. 35) and Holmograptus, which is best known from the Baltic region, is listed as restricted to this province (p. 35). If not a misprint, this is a new and puzzling interpretation because Scandinavia (except central Norway) has previously always been considered a key part of the Atlantic Province. The world-renowned Lower Paleozoic fish specialist Erik Stensi6, a die-hard Swede, will certainly turn round in his grave by being referred to as a Norwegian paleontologist (p. 64). Eurypterids are not the largest arthropods known (p. 95); some recent decapods are reported to attain a larger size. The chapter on collecting localities in the USA should have.been read by someone familiar with current local conditions to avoid several mistakes and outdated information.
351
For instance, Pratt's Syncline, Stonelick Lake, Porterfield Quarry, and Wytheville (p. 111-113) have not been productive localities for years. The Normanskill Shale is not a formation in Arkansas (p. 112) but in eastern New York some 1800 km away. Very remote, and for other reasons inaccessible, localities in Yukon Territory (incorrectly listed as part of the USA), Idaho, and Texas are mentioned but the many outstanding Ordovician sections in Mohawk Valley, New York, which are as easily accessible and productive today as in Ruedemann's time a century ago, are omitted without explanation. The 10 biographies of well-known graptolite workers are informative and interesting. Contrary to the text (p. 144) Carl Wiman was quite well-known outside graptolite research circles as a vertebrate paleontologist and stratigrapher. The chert fauna described by Roman Kozlowski from the Holy Cross Mountains (p. 146) is not of Upper Cambrian but Lower Ordovician (Tremadocian) age. Despite these imperfections, I rank this as an excellent book that is strongly recommended to anyone interested in graptolites and general paleobiology. Unfortunately, its hefty price will cut down sales to both amateurs and other nonspecialists but every well-managed geology library should order a copy. STIG M. BERGSTR~)M (Columbus, OH)
Productivity of the Ocean: Present and Past. Edited by W.H. Berger, V.S. Smetacek and G. Wefer. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK 1989. A Dahlem Workshop Report, Life Sciences Research Rep. 44. xiii + 471 pp. ISBN 0-47192246- 3. The book Productivity of the Ocean." present and past is one of the good Dahlem workshop reports, which gives an up to date view on the various problems related with ocean primary productivity and global changes in the past. The structure of the Dahlem workshops in Berlin (G), with multiauthor prepared papers, treating different subjects, and supplemented by workshop reports, ensures a discussion on the present day level of knowledge. The book is divided into four sections, each
352
with four or five papers prepared in advance and each with a group-report. These sections have, however, no titles, which raises some confusion how to deal with of them separately. The first paper "Ocean productivity and paleoproductivity", is a well informative overview how productivity changed through time and how it can be reconstructed from biogenic signals in the sediments. Except schemes and formulae of transfer of organic matter, originating from primary production, data are given of primary production (PP) and new production (NP) levels for the world ocean. Additionally the export production and its episodicity, the transit flux, the benthic respiration and burial and preservation are tackled. Interesting are the data and views on palaeoproductivity, showing that the carbon system of the ocean is~in close correspondence with the pCO2 changes in the atmosphere through geological time. This does not prove, according to the authors, that their model correctly describes the mechanisms controlling atmospheric pCO2. The paper on "Food web structure and loss rate" contains most recent information on new production results, also as related to the presence of grazing herbivores. For low copepode grazing in the euphoric surface layer, the nutrient concentrations decrease rather rapidly, while at high copepode grazing these nutrient concentrations decrease more slowly and remain stabilized at a certain level. This shows that food web structures are of essential impact to the cycle of elements in the productive zone. It would have been interesting to have seen the bifurcation model, as presented under the title "Hydrodynamical singularities as controls of recycled versus export production in oceans", being applied to the data presented by the other papers, but due to the structure of the Dahlem workshop, this has to be left to the reader. However, the above-mentioned authors might come up later with some nice (even conflicting) results. As it stands now, t h e model is a start, being descriptive, however not yet arriving at a synthesis. The question "Is the downward dissolved organic matter (DOM) flux important in carbon transport" has fascinated the workshop, since the problem is mentioned in different papers. The
BOOK REVIEWS
hypothesis is almost exclusively based on one article of Sugimura and Suzuki of 1988 in Marine Chemistry. It seems that an almost 80 years old discussion is reviving. Already POtter introduced it in 1909, and it has regularly been repeated by other authors, who found more carbon than others due to their DOC (dissolved organic carbon) [analysis. Piitter also thought that due to the large pool of DOM] this should be a source of food for fish, but this was again disproved by Krogh in 1930. Sugimura and Suzuki found higher DOM in surface layers, and a good correlation with the oxygen depletion (AOU=apparent oxygen utilization) from top to the deep ocean. (By the way they also correlated DOC+ DON with AOU, which is incorrect, since DOC already represents compounds containing nitrogen). They suggested this might be a causal correlation, and thus being the reason for vertical transport of DOM to deeper waters. This hypothesis is worked out here again, however, without a sufficient critical view. Seeing the T (temperature)and S (salinity) data of the Sugimura and Suzuki paper, there is surely no mixing between top layers and deep waters. The deep waters originate from other regions, being transported to the region of sampling. DOM of this deep water might thus also have the same origin, being produced in that (remote) surface source region. Whether the surface DOM concentrations are higher or not, due to different analytical techniques and detection of ranges of molecular sizes of DOM, this has no impact on a "possible" vertical transport, unless DOM of the surface waters is partly adsorbed to sinking particles and thus additionally contributing to the oxidation of these sinking particles at deeper waters. However, this has not been mentioned and is also without quantitative proof. Another point is whether part of the surface DOM is not dead but partly consisting of living sub-micro organisms (0.2 Ixm-0.8 Ixm) which may partly pass 0.4 p.m filters. A study of F. Schut at the Universities of Groningen (NL) and Alaska (USA) gives opening to such a possibility. Then DOM in surface layers should indeed contain the large-size molecules (of these living organisms), as detected by Sugimura and Suzuki. Anyway DOM
BOOK REVIEWS
353
is still fascinating the scientific world and even DOM as food might be rediscussed. Coinciding with the major topic of the workshop are also the other well prepared paper on "New production: history, methods, problems", and the group report on "Export productivity from the photic zone". Related topics are "Regional extremes in particulate matter composition and flux: effects on the chemistry of the ocean interior", "Particle flux in the ocean: effect of episodic production", "How much shelf production reaches the deep sea", processes related to the benthic systems and finally a number of topics on paleoproductivity also related to atmospheric COE, based on ocean modeling. In summary, the different groups have successfully tried, by presenting a wealth of information, to understand the basis of global and regional facets of primary production as related with time and thus with (natural) global changes. Global maps of ocean productivity are presented as an appendix. A number of figures lack sufficient labelling of the curves like e.g. in fig. 1, p. 3, and what is the depth in fig. 3, p. 55. A glossary of acronyms would also have been very useful, in order to avoid that some terms are differently defined throughout the book. Although this book cannot be considered as a handbook, it should certainly be standard available for all scientists being involved with the productivity of the oceans and its impact on possible global changes, as to paleobiologists and paleogeologists. It will sharpen their scientific views in this matter. The price is £65, which should make libraries the major clients. E.K. D U U R S M A (Monaco)
Spores of the Pteridophyta. Surface, Wall Structure, and Diversity Based on Electron Microscope Studies. A.F. Tryon and B. Lugardon. Springer, Berlin, 1991. Hardcover. X + 6 4 8 pp. Price DM 188.-ISBN 3-540-97218-8.
Spores of the Pteridophyta has been long awaited by palynologists and palaeopalynologists alike, with the anticipation that this publication ,would provide a comprehensive database and reference
work covering principally ferns, but also the other pteridophytic groups. The two authors (A.F. Tryon and B. Lugardon) are well known for their detailed studies of fern and other pteridophyte spores by SEM and TEM and have contributed much to the literature on this subject. The book is of large format (215 × 285 mm) and long, 648 pages, and is, as one might hope, amply illustrated throughout. A lengthy introduction provides information on the topics of terminology, methodology, composition and development of the exine, evolution of the sporoderm and ultrastructural comparisons of the major groups with reference to homology of structure (much of this based on previous studies by the authors). This section (well illustrated with numerous informative TEM micrographs) successfully puts into context the detailed descriptions that follow; these entail illustrations of species in 232 genera in 35 families. The remainder of the book is divided by family (ferns followed by sphenophytes and lycophytes), and further subdivided by genus. Genera are numbered making recovery of information simple. Fern genera occupy by far the major part of the volume, some 557 pages. The anomalous genera Psilotum and Tmesipteris are included within the ferns, preceding the two aquatic families Marsileaceae and Salviniaceae. Each chapter (family) is headed by a silhouette illustration (not always very informative) of a typical member or members of the family, followed by a brief summary of the main characteristics of the spore types found in the group. Although useful as it stands, perhaps more could have been made of this section in terms of the discussion of overall relationships between spore types and possible phylogeny and ancestral forms. Each generic section consists of notes on the taxonomy of the genus, its geographic range and the basic features of the spores (size, shape, aperture form, surface form and exine structure). Also included are comments on spore diversity, coverage of the latter forms variation within the genus and on the relationships of extant and fossil representatives. In heterosporous groups (e.g. the Salviniaceae), microspores and megaspores are treated separately and in the lycophytes (Selaginella and Isoetes), coverage of the latter forms the major