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Soil management in sustainable agriculture
Book reviews RAD programme were identified as: food production in semi-natural ecosystems; long-term behaviour of radionuclides and their mobility; seasonality; and countermeasures. Of the eight contributions in this section, three deal with deposition to and uptake from soil by plants; three on the transfer to and turnover within grazing animals, and one on countermeasures. The results presented confirm that season has a major influence on radionuclide transfer subsequent to an accidental deposit; that chemical form of deposit is of less long-term significance than soil chemical factors; that radiocaesium transfer to grazing animals is greater for acidic organic and sand soils than for loams and clays; and that variation in uptake between individual plant species within semi-natural pastures can be considerable. Semi-natural ecosystems and their products are of considerable significance in Nordic countries and this is reflected in both the sections on agricultural ecosystems and on forest and alpine ecosystems. The latter emphasises transfer to fungal fruiting bodies, moose, roe deer and reindeer, and contains a particularly extensive (45 page) treatise on radiocaesium behaviour in boreal forests. The general conclusion is that the ecological half-life of 137Cs in boreal forests and many of their main dietforming products is very long and approaches the physical half-life (30 years). All radioecological studies require careful attention to quality assurance and application to the overall aim, i.e. assessment of impacts on man and the environment. The final section therefore contains contributions on air sampling, gamma spectrometry, whole-body counting and the comparison of dose estimates derived from dietary studies with those obtained from whole-body counting. The conclusion of the latter is that critical groups comprise those persons with a high consumption of mushrooms, wild berries, reindeer, freshwater fish, elk, lamb and goat products. Dose commitments for members of these critical groups may be 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than for the general population. Overall, this book achieves its stated aim of presenting the results of the RAD radioecology programme. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that it is formed from a series of independent contributions, a fact which is emphasised by the differing formats and presentation of each contribution. Some contributions will be of greater value to the reader than others and some readers may feel that individual contributions lack evidence of critical review and placement in a wider context than that of radiocaesium deposited after the Chernobyl accident. Despite these reservations, the book is recommended as an introduction to post-Chemobyl Nordic radioecology. Readers new to the subject of radioecology should bear in mind that, prior to the Chernobyl accident, much work had been published on the behaviour of radiocaesium in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and that even semi-natural ecosystems are well represented in this earlier literature. P. J. Coughtrey
103
Soil Management in Sustainable Agriculture. Edited by H. F. Cook and H. C. Lee, Wye College Press, 1995, ISBN 0-86266-138-2, 590 pp. Price: £48.00. Soil management for sustainable agriculture is one of the key tasks facing land managers as we approach the 21st Century. This book, which attempts to address this problem, arises from the Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture held at Wye College, University of London in September 1993. There are 80 papers included in the text and almost inevitably in a text based on conference proceedings they vary considerably in quality, originality and focus, with some reporting new research findings, others taking an overview of research and research objectives and some reporting previously published research. Given the number of papers, it is not possible to review them individually. The text is divided into five broad sections which attempt to group together papers with a particular focus. The first section deals with general issues, two subsequent sections consider sustainable crop fertility and crop nutrition on a regional basis, dealing with tropical regions and temperate and Mediterranean regions. The final two sections consider sustainable soil management with similar regional foci. Part One is very wide ranging in its coverage, with 10 papers which attempt to cover the philosophical issues of sustainable agricultural management with general reviews of the literature in both crop and animal systems, including economic analysis, together with reference to particular national or regional perspectives. Part Two contains nine papers with a tropical emphasis in reports of results from experiments from South and Central America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa. Six of the papers focus on the management of nitrogen in crop production systems. Part Three, comprising over 30% of the text, reports research on sustainable soil fertility and crop nutrition in temperate and Mediterranean regions and is much broader in its coverage of matters relating to sustainable crop management than Part Two, with papers considering N and P nutrition, but also the general aspects of crop nutrition and the role of soil organic matter, below ground soil conditions, plants and the effects of soil erosion. Part Four includes papers considering sustainable soil management in the tropics and apart from a very brief mention of Costa Rica, the nine papers focus on Africa and Asia. Part Five continues the regional theme of Part Four with a focus on temperate and Mediterranean regions but addresses a wider range of topics which include reports of the use of composted urban wastes, responses to various strategies of tillage and land management, and aspects of organic and bio-dynamic farming systems. As with most books which present conference proceedings, the quality of the papers covers a very wide range and to the critical reader some might appear to be more concerned with guaranteeing payment of travel and conference expenses rather
104
Book reviews
than contributing substantially to our knowledge and understanding of sustainable agriculture. There are no long papers in this volume yet some of the contributions present ideas and results which are clearly worth further development, whilst others might have conveyed their message in a compact one page summary. Whilst fully aware that attendance at conferences is often funded by our sponsors only when a paper is presented, I would suggest to conference organisers that this should not commit them to publishing the paper. Of the 80 papers published here, my assessment is that no more than 25 would have made it through the rigorous
vetting procedures in operation for most scientific journals, the rest make only a very limited contribution to our knowledge. There is some interesting material in this volume but readers would have been better served by the editors allowing some authors to extend their contributions and perhaps using the 'rapporteur' system to provide reviews of the other papers. This would have produced a shorter more compact text which would have made a more substantial contribution to our knowledge than the present over long text.
Stephen Nortclifl"
103
Soil Management in Sustainable Agriculture. Edited by H. F. Cook and H. C. Lee, Wye College Press, 1995, ISBN 0-86266-138-2, 590 pp. Price: £48.00. Soil management for sustainable agriculture is one of the key tasks facing land managers as we approach the 21st Century. This book, which attempts to address this problem, arises from the Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture held at Wye College, University of London in September 1993. There are 80 papers included in the text and almost inevitably in a text based on conference proceedings they vary considerably in quality, originality and focus, with some reporting new research findings, others taking an overview of research and research objectives and some reporting previously published research. Given the number of papers, it is not possible to review them individually. The text is divided into five broad sections which attempt to group together papers with a particular focus. The first section deals with general issues, two subsequent sections consider sustainable crop fertility and crop nutrition on a regional basis, dealing with tropical regions and temperate and Mediterranean regions. The final two sections consider sustainable soil management with similar regional foci. Part One is very wide ranging in its coverage, with 10 papers which attempt to cover the philosophical issues of sustainable agricultural management with general reviews of the literature in both crop and animal systems, including economic analysis, together with reference to particular national or regional perspectives. Part Two contains nine papers with a tropical emphasis in reports of results from experiments from South and Central America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa. Six of the papers focus on the management of nitrogen in crop production systems. Part Three, comprising over 30% of the text, reports research on sustainable soil fertility and crop nutrition in temperate and Mediterranean regions and is much broader in its coverage of matters relating to sustainable crop management than Part Two, with papers considering N and P nutrition, but also the general aspects of crop nutrition and the role of soil organic matter, below ground soil conditions, plants and the effects of soil erosion. Part Four includes papers considering sustainable soil management in the tropics and apart from a very brief mention of Costa Rica, the nine papers focus on Africa and Asia. Part Five continues the regional theme of Part Four with a focus on temperate and Mediterranean regions but addresses a wider range of topics which include reports of the use of composted urban wastes, responses to various strategies of tillage and land management, and aspects of organic and bio-dynamic farming systems. As with most books which present conference proceedings, the quality of the papers covers a very wide range and to the critical reader some might appear to be more concerned with guaranteeing payment of travel and conference expenses rather
104
Book reviews
than contributing substantially to our knowledge and understanding of sustainable agriculture. There are no long papers in this volume yet some of the contributions present ideas and results which are clearly worth further development, whilst others might have conveyed their message in a compact one page summary. Whilst fully aware that attendance at conferences is often funded by our sponsors only when a paper is presented, I would suggest to conference organisers that this should not commit them to publishing the paper. Of the 80 papers published here, my assessment is that no more than 25 would have made it through the rigorous
vetting procedures in operation for most scientific journals, the rest make only a very limited contribution to our knowledge. There is some interesting material in this volume but readers would have been better served by the editors allowing some authors to extend their contributions and perhaps using the 'rapporteur' system to provide reviews of the other papers. This would have produced a shorter more compact text which would have made a more substantial contribution to our knowledge than the present over long text.
Stephen Nortclifl"