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Temperate deciduous forests
301
mechanisms of species replacement with increasing nutrient levels. Finally a discussion is offered on the role that multiple nutrients play in competition. Effects of temporally varying driving forces, mainly nutrients, on the dynamics of nutrient-limited food webs is studied in chapter 10. The response to fast and slow environmental changes is studied first in a one-compartment model. Response of food chain models to permanent changes in nutrient flows is discussed next. One also finds detailed discussions on the effect that temporal variability has on a system of competing species and effects of large environmental change on dynamics of ecosystems. Following concepts of spatial extent are studied in chapter 11: advective movements; a spiraling length; organism diffusion and effects on food chain stability. Implications for global change are presented in the last chapter. Studied are effects on global carbon cycle and effects of CO 2 enrichment on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. About 500 references are included in the literature section. Teachers as well as students of ecology and ecological modelling will find this book clearly written and stimulating.
TARZAN LEGO VIC Rudjer Boskot,ic Institute P.O.B. 1016, 41001 Zagreb Croatia TEMPERATE DECIDUOUS FORESTS
Temperate Deciduous Forests. E. R/Shrig and B. Ulrich (Editors). Ecosystems of the World 7, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1991, 635 pp., US$ 225.50/DF1 440.00, ISBN 0-444-88599-4. This book is volume 7 of the series Ecosystems of the World (David W. Goodall, editor in chief). It deals exhaustively with development, processes, and floral and faunal composition of the temperate deciduous forests, with strong emphasis on the forests of North America and Europe. The first section (with contributions by E. R6hrig and M. Schaefer) is devoted to general aspects of temperate deciduous forests: geographic distribution, climatic conditions, floral composition and its evolutionary development, seasonality, vegetation structure and forest succession, and the animal community and its diversity and resources. The second section (with contributions by P.K. Khanna, B. Ulrich, E. R6hrig and M. Schaefer) deals with ecosystem processes in temperate
302
deciduous forests: ecochemistry, biomass and productivity, secondary production and decomposition. The third section and major part of the book (with contributions by B.V. Barnes, J.T. Kitchings, B.T. Walton, E. R6hrig, G. Jahn, M. Schaefer, K.K. Ching, and J. Schmaltz) focusses on regional aspects. Extensive surveys are presented for the temperate deciduous forests of North America and Europe and their fauna, supplemented by much briefer chapters on the temperate deciduous forests of Mexico and Central America, Southern South America, the Near East, and East Asia. The book is supplemented by a systematic list of genera, author index, systematic index, and general index. Each contribution provides a comprehensive description of the subject together with an exhaustive review of important research results in the field. The wealth of data and references is enormous. The book will be an extremely valuable reference and data source for workers in the field, and it will provide graduate students and other newcomers to this vast field of research with a solid base on which to build their own research. However, the book also attempts to go beyond the traditional scientific focus on observation, and to deal with the processes and functions linking climate, soil, vegetation, and fauna in the forest ecosystem, and with the long-term successional and anthropogenic changes in these forests. I have studied this book with the specific interest of a forest system modeller looking for information on the biotic, abiotic, and cybernetic processes making up and shaping the temperate deciduous forest and its seasonal and long-term development. I found an enormous amount of information important for forest modelling, together with the relevant references. For anybody who is, or will be, working in this field, this book is an authoritative, comprehensive and valuable reference which will be consulted again and again.
HARTMUT BOSSEL Ent~ironmental Systems Research Group UniL~ersity of Kassel 3500 Kassel, Germany WATER POLLUTION
Water Pollution: Modelling, Measuring and Prediction. L.C. Wrobel and C.A. Brebbia (Editors). Computational Mechanics Publications, Elsevier Applied Science, 1991, 762 pp., £99.00, ISBN 1-85312-146-0. Most people working in water pollution would welcome a book which brings together the many areas of current research in the field. This book,
mechanisms of species replacement with increasing nutrient levels. Finally a discussion is offered on the role that multiple nutrients play in competition. Effects of temporally varying driving forces, mainly nutrients, on the dynamics of nutrient-limited food webs is studied in chapter 10. The response to fast and slow environmental changes is studied first in a one-compartment model. Response of food chain models to permanent changes in nutrient flows is discussed next. One also finds detailed discussions on the effect that temporal variability has on a system of competing species and effects of large environmental change on dynamics of ecosystems. Following concepts of spatial extent are studied in chapter 11: advective movements; a spiraling length; organism diffusion and effects on food chain stability. Implications for global change are presented in the last chapter. Studied are effects on global carbon cycle and effects of CO 2 enrichment on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. About 500 references are included in the literature section. Teachers as well as students of ecology and ecological modelling will find this book clearly written and stimulating.
TARZAN LEGO VIC Rudjer Boskot,ic Institute P.O.B. 1016, 41001 Zagreb Croatia TEMPERATE DECIDUOUS FORESTS
Temperate Deciduous Forests. E. R/Shrig and B. Ulrich (Editors). Ecosystems of the World 7, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1991, 635 pp., US$ 225.50/DF1 440.00, ISBN 0-444-88599-4. This book is volume 7 of the series Ecosystems of the World (David W. Goodall, editor in chief). It deals exhaustively with development, processes, and floral and faunal composition of the temperate deciduous forests, with strong emphasis on the forests of North America and Europe. The first section (with contributions by E. R6hrig and M. Schaefer) is devoted to general aspects of temperate deciduous forests: geographic distribution, climatic conditions, floral composition and its evolutionary development, seasonality, vegetation structure and forest succession, and the animal community and its diversity and resources. The second section (with contributions by P.K. Khanna, B. Ulrich, E. R6hrig and M. Schaefer) deals with ecosystem processes in temperate
302
deciduous forests: ecochemistry, biomass and productivity, secondary production and decomposition. The third section and major part of the book (with contributions by B.V. Barnes, J.T. Kitchings, B.T. Walton, E. R6hrig, G. Jahn, M. Schaefer, K.K. Ching, and J. Schmaltz) focusses on regional aspects. Extensive surveys are presented for the temperate deciduous forests of North America and Europe and their fauna, supplemented by much briefer chapters on the temperate deciduous forests of Mexico and Central America, Southern South America, the Near East, and East Asia. The book is supplemented by a systematic list of genera, author index, systematic index, and general index. Each contribution provides a comprehensive description of the subject together with an exhaustive review of important research results in the field. The wealth of data and references is enormous. The book will be an extremely valuable reference and data source for workers in the field, and it will provide graduate students and other newcomers to this vast field of research with a solid base on which to build their own research. However, the book also attempts to go beyond the traditional scientific focus on observation, and to deal with the processes and functions linking climate, soil, vegetation, and fauna in the forest ecosystem, and with the long-term successional and anthropogenic changes in these forests. I have studied this book with the specific interest of a forest system modeller looking for information on the biotic, abiotic, and cybernetic processes making up and shaping the temperate deciduous forest and its seasonal and long-term development. I found an enormous amount of information important for forest modelling, together with the relevant references. For anybody who is, or will be, working in this field, this book is an authoritative, comprehensive and valuable reference which will be consulted again and again.
HARTMUT BOSSEL Ent~ironmental Systems Research Group UniL~ersity of Kassel 3500 Kassel, Germany WATER POLLUTION
Water Pollution: Modelling, Measuring and Prediction. L.C. Wrobel and C.A. Brebbia (Editors). Computational Mechanics Publications, Elsevier Applied Science, 1991, 762 pp., £99.00, ISBN 1-85312-146-0. Most people working in water pollution would welcome a book which brings together the many areas of current research in the field. This book,