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The ecology of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Scientific outlines of an international programme of collaborative research. (Man and the biosphere series 16)
Environmental Pollution, Vol. 92, No. 2, pp. 231-236, 1996 Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved ELSEVIER
BOOK REVIEWS
Acid Rain Research: Do We Have Enough Answers? (Studies in Environmental Sciences 64). Edited by G. J. Heij and J. W. Erisman. Proceedings of a Speciality Conference, s'-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, 10-12 October 1994. Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam, 1995, ISBN 0-444-8203808, 502 pp. Price: US$170.50.
decline research. There is a very useful paper on the effects of deposition on non-forest ecosystems, including calcareous grasslands. The paper by Van Dobben which attempts to evaluate and integrate the results of Dutch forest research is a most valuable overview of current underestanding, outlining the uncertainties over the role of aluminium and the failure of critical loads theory to be confirmed by field observations of forest health. It draws an interesting analogy of forest effects with the well-documented phenomenon of Calluna-heathland decline, noting that the latter may act as an early warning signal for the former where inter-specific competition is minimised and response times are inevitably longer. The paper on future research indicates that we are very far from having enough knowledge on acid rain and its effects, not least because other potentially adverse environmental changes are taking place, such as global warming and shifts in land-use, which all have important implications in terms of their interactions with acid deposition. Thus, it is particularly unfortunate that the excellent Dutch acidification programme has largely come to an end, with a major shift in national research priorities. In summary. I recommend this book highly, but unfortunately its price is likely to deter many customers, including libraries.
So many books have been published on the subject of acid rain over the last 15 years that my initial approach to this volume was somewhat unenthusiastic. In the event, however, I became extremely interested in this authoritative and up-to-date account, covering the multidisciplinary facets of the topic. The book represents the proceedings of a conference which specifically addressed the question as to whether or not the extensive national and international research programmes on acid rain have provided sufficient information for decision makers. There are 23 main research papers in the volume, with seven more concerned with more generic reviews of the state of current knowledge and priorities for future research, and 21 posters. The papers are split among the conference sessions, which covered: trace gases; ammonia/ammonium; particle deposition; total atmospheric deposition and soil loads--measurements and models; the effects of acid deposition on forest ecosystems in The Netherlands; a review of whether current knowledge is sufficient for tomorrow's decision making purposes; and future research. Overall, the research described has a very strong Dutch flavour, which is hardly surprising given that the conference marked the culmination of a 10-year acidification research programme in The Netherlands. It is rather difficult to do justice to such a comprehensive and exhaustive book in a brief review. I found the reviews on the latest research on dry deposition processes to be particularly interesting, with the complexities of the mechanisms involved being highlighted and indicating that there is still a lot to learn on this subject, which is so important for control policy. The paper on particle deposition addresses a somewhat neglected area and shows serious underestimates of fluxes to forests, which has important implications for understanding the pathways of other pollutants. Some emphasis is given to experimental manipulation studies increasing and decreasing sulphur and nitrogen inputs to forests, which allow estimates to be made of the conditions necessary to permit ecosystem recovery. Consideration of this topic indicates the widespread exceedance of critical loads in Dutch forests, primarily due to nitrogen deposition, and critical AI and A1/Ca ratios in the soil being exceeded but with no apparent link to defoliation. It is salutary to note that this has remained a hot topic since the beginning of forest
J. N. B. Bell
The Ecology of the Chernobyl Catastrophe. Scientific Outlines of an International Programme of Collaborative Research. (Man and the Biosphere Series 16). By V. K. Savchenko. UNESCO, Paris and the Parthenon Publishing Company, Carnforth, ISBN 1-85070-656-5, 250 pp. Price: £48.00. My first reaction to this book was one of deep interest and anticipation of reading an integrated account of the radioecology of the Chernobyl deposition in the former Soviet Union. On reading the book I was a little disappointed, as the ecological impacts tend to become lost in generalities. However, I appreciate the interdisciplinary approach adopted by the author, with medical, ecological, sociological, political and economic aspects of the accident being given due consideration. The book is the sixteenth volume in the Man and the Biosphere Series produced by UNESCO and has arisen as a result of the Chernobyl Ecological Science Network set up by this organisation, with twenty countries participating in co-ordinated research into the ongoing problems arising from the accident. I found the book 231
232
Book Reviews
easy to read, with copious useful illustrations and very helpful summaries in boxes of the key issues. Each chapter ends with a pair of alternative hypotheses concerning impacts of the accident, followed by appropriate research recommendations. Chapter 1 describes the Chernobyl accident and its immediate consequences, emphasising how Belorus caught the brunt of the deposition, but surprisingly fails to mention its causes, which were an appalling and fatal combination of design fault and human error. The next chapter is concerned with impacts on natural ecosystems, with some fascinating descriptions of growth abnormalities on the forest flora. This concentrates largely on the sensitivity of different plant and animal species to radioactivity, but says relatively little about the cycling of radionuclides in forests, which has attracted such intense research interest over the last 10 years. Chapter 3 is concerned with agro-ecosystems, in particular transfers of radionuclides between soils, crops and domestic animals, and the countermeasures introduced to reduce dose to humans. I was intrigued to note the progressive reduction in ‘temporary permissible’ levels in food stuffs down to present ‘control’ levels, which in the case of meat are well below the 1000 Bq kg-’ limit imposed on sheep after Chernobyl deposition in the United Kingdom. The next chapter is entitled ‘Human Ecology’ and is concerned with health impacts of the accident, indicating that these result from both chemical and radiotoxicity, and are by no means restricted to cancers. Chapter 5 covers ‘Biological Diversity’ and is most disappointing, with eighteen pages of basic genetics and phenetics, followed by only four on what actually happened in this respect in heavily contaminated areas, and even these largely consist of photographs. The following chapter can be criticised on the same grounds, as it goes to great lengths in describing the role of mutations in changing population characteristics but contains only three pages on the role of radioactivity in this respect, although there is a fascinating description of the results of screening of Chernobyl-affected humans for cytogenetic damage. Chapter 7 on socio-economic systems starts with a rather ‘woolly’ preamble on sustainable development and ecological economics, but subsequently develops into an interesting description of the response of the Soviet authorities and their successors. Emphasis is given not only to the phenomenal economic consequences of the accident for Belorus, Ukraine and Russia, but also ‘human’ costs such as increased divorce rates in affected areas. It concludes with a description of the international action which resulted in the setting up of the Chernobyl Centre for International Research. This leads into the final part of the book which describes in detail the establishment of the Chernobyl Ecological Science Network and its future research themes. The rather specialised discipline of radioecology received an unexpected and unprecedented boost after Chernobyl, particularly in relation to the behaviour of radionuclides in non-agricultural ecosystems. I had
anticipated to read far more about these activities from the perspective of scientists directly involved with research in the most heavily contaminated areas, but my expectaions were not fulfilled. J. N. B. Bell
Biological Degradation and Bioremediation of Toxic Chemicals. Edited by G. Rasul Chaudhry. Chapman
and Hall, London, g50.00.
1995, ISBN o-412-62290-4. Price:
Nearly 50 years ago, the word ‘biodegradation’ and its derivatives entered the language and today it is well defined and common place. In the last few years a new word, ‘bioremediation’, has come along to fill a need to describe ‘new’ concepts/processes, though bioremedial processes have been practised perhaps unwittingly for centuries. Discussing definitions can be stifling or enlightening; in the present case it seems worthwhile. The personal definition of bioremediation in the preface to this book is wide and all-embracing, namely, ‘to cure, to restore, to correct or to repair, by biological processes, what we have done to hurt our environment and ecosystems;’ and it is equated to ‘environmental technology’. Thus, it includes the various forms of sewage waste water treatment systems which other definitions would exclude on the grounds that such systems are protective or preventative, or ‘bioprophylattic’. Such an attitude would restrict the term bioremediation to the restoration of contaminated soils, ground water or even gases, focusing on enhancing existing, but slow, biodegradation processes. Also, it is not the toxic chemical which is remedied; it is rather. the problems caused by the presence of the chemical which are remedied. However, the book takes the wider view as witnessed by the references to waste water treatment, e.g. in the case of morpholine. What is expected from a book with the above title is, for each chemical or class of chemicals, a description of the source of the competent species of micro-organisms, including how to adapt or genetically engineer suitable species; their nutrition and physiology; and other factors which would assist in deciding whether and how bioremediation could occur. Important questions to be answered are: would the (engineered) bacteria survive in the environment?; is a co-substrate necessary?; would the target substrate be degraded in the presence of other xenobiotic chemicals?; is there competition with indigenous species? Then would follow accounts of laboratory- and pilot-scale attempts at bioremediation and finally descriptions and results of full-scale trials. These expectations are not fulfilled in the book but reference to the introduction shows why-the book sets out to describe recent advances in the biodegradation of selected pollutants but then to describe only the potential applications to alleviate this pollution. With this proviso, the book does live up to its goal. In all
BOOK REVIEWS
Acid Rain Research: Do We Have Enough Answers? (Studies in Environmental Sciences 64). Edited by G. J. Heij and J. W. Erisman. Proceedings of a Speciality Conference, s'-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, 10-12 October 1994. Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam, 1995, ISBN 0-444-8203808, 502 pp. Price: US$170.50.
decline research. There is a very useful paper on the effects of deposition on non-forest ecosystems, including calcareous grasslands. The paper by Van Dobben which attempts to evaluate and integrate the results of Dutch forest research is a most valuable overview of current underestanding, outlining the uncertainties over the role of aluminium and the failure of critical loads theory to be confirmed by field observations of forest health. It draws an interesting analogy of forest effects with the well-documented phenomenon of Calluna-heathland decline, noting that the latter may act as an early warning signal for the former where inter-specific competition is minimised and response times are inevitably longer. The paper on future research indicates that we are very far from having enough knowledge on acid rain and its effects, not least because other potentially adverse environmental changes are taking place, such as global warming and shifts in land-use, which all have important implications in terms of their interactions with acid deposition. Thus, it is particularly unfortunate that the excellent Dutch acidification programme has largely come to an end, with a major shift in national research priorities. In summary. I recommend this book highly, but unfortunately its price is likely to deter many customers, including libraries.
So many books have been published on the subject of acid rain over the last 15 years that my initial approach to this volume was somewhat unenthusiastic. In the event, however, I became extremely interested in this authoritative and up-to-date account, covering the multidisciplinary facets of the topic. The book represents the proceedings of a conference which specifically addressed the question as to whether or not the extensive national and international research programmes on acid rain have provided sufficient information for decision makers. There are 23 main research papers in the volume, with seven more concerned with more generic reviews of the state of current knowledge and priorities for future research, and 21 posters. The papers are split among the conference sessions, which covered: trace gases; ammonia/ammonium; particle deposition; total atmospheric deposition and soil loads--measurements and models; the effects of acid deposition on forest ecosystems in The Netherlands; a review of whether current knowledge is sufficient for tomorrow's decision making purposes; and future research. Overall, the research described has a very strong Dutch flavour, which is hardly surprising given that the conference marked the culmination of a 10-year acidification research programme in The Netherlands. It is rather difficult to do justice to such a comprehensive and exhaustive book in a brief review. I found the reviews on the latest research on dry deposition processes to be particularly interesting, with the complexities of the mechanisms involved being highlighted and indicating that there is still a lot to learn on this subject, which is so important for control policy. The paper on particle deposition addresses a somewhat neglected area and shows serious underestimates of fluxes to forests, which has important implications for understanding the pathways of other pollutants. Some emphasis is given to experimental manipulation studies increasing and decreasing sulphur and nitrogen inputs to forests, which allow estimates to be made of the conditions necessary to permit ecosystem recovery. Consideration of this topic indicates the widespread exceedance of critical loads in Dutch forests, primarily due to nitrogen deposition, and critical AI and A1/Ca ratios in the soil being exceeded but with no apparent link to defoliation. It is salutary to note that this has remained a hot topic since the beginning of forest
J. N. B. Bell
The Ecology of the Chernobyl Catastrophe. Scientific Outlines of an International Programme of Collaborative Research. (Man and the Biosphere Series 16). By V. K. Savchenko. UNESCO, Paris and the Parthenon Publishing Company, Carnforth, ISBN 1-85070-656-5, 250 pp. Price: £48.00. My first reaction to this book was one of deep interest and anticipation of reading an integrated account of the radioecology of the Chernobyl deposition in the former Soviet Union. On reading the book I was a little disappointed, as the ecological impacts tend to become lost in generalities. However, I appreciate the interdisciplinary approach adopted by the author, with medical, ecological, sociological, political and economic aspects of the accident being given due consideration. The book is the sixteenth volume in the Man and the Biosphere Series produced by UNESCO and has arisen as a result of the Chernobyl Ecological Science Network set up by this organisation, with twenty countries participating in co-ordinated research into the ongoing problems arising from the accident. I found the book 231
232
Book Reviews
easy to read, with copious useful illustrations and very helpful summaries in boxes of the key issues. Each chapter ends with a pair of alternative hypotheses concerning impacts of the accident, followed by appropriate research recommendations. Chapter 1 describes the Chernobyl accident and its immediate consequences, emphasising how Belorus caught the brunt of the deposition, but surprisingly fails to mention its causes, which were an appalling and fatal combination of design fault and human error. The next chapter is concerned with impacts on natural ecosystems, with some fascinating descriptions of growth abnormalities on the forest flora. This concentrates largely on the sensitivity of different plant and animal species to radioactivity, but says relatively little about the cycling of radionuclides in forests, which has attracted such intense research interest over the last 10 years. Chapter 3 is concerned with agro-ecosystems, in particular transfers of radionuclides between soils, crops and domestic animals, and the countermeasures introduced to reduce dose to humans. I was intrigued to note the progressive reduction in ‘temporary permissible’ levels in food stuffs down to present ‘control’ levels, which in the case of meat are well below the 1000 Bq kg-’ limit imposed on sheep after Chernobyl deposition in the United Kingdom. The next chapter is entitled ‘Human Ecology’ and is concerned with health impacts of the accident, indicating that these result from both chemical and radiotoxicity, and are by no means restricted to cancers. Chapter 5 covers ‘Biological Diversity’ and is most disappointing, with eighteen pages of basic genetics and phenetics, followed by only four on what actually happened in this respect in heavily contaminated areas, and even these largely consist of photographs. The following chapter can be criticised on the same grounds, as it goes to great lengths in describing the role of mutations in changing population characteristics but contains only three pages on the role of radioactivity in this respect, although there is a fascinating description of the results of screening of Chernobyl-affected humans for cytogenetic damage. Chapter 7 on socio-economic systems starts with a rather ‘woolly’ preamble on sustainable development and ecological economics, but subsequently develops into an interesting description of the response of the Soviet authorities and their successors. Emphasis is given not only to the phenomenal economic consequences of the accident for Belorus, Ukraine and Russia, but also ‘human’ costs such as increased divorce rates in affected areas. It concludes with a description of the international action which resulted in the setting up of the Chernobyl Centre for International Research. This leads into the final part of the book which describes in detail the establishment of the Chernobyl Ecological Science Network and its future research themes. The rather specialised discipline of radioecology received an unexpected and unprecedented boost after Chernobyl, particularly in relation to the behaviour of radionuclides in non-agricultural ecosystems. I had
anticipated to read far more about these activities from the perspective of scientists directly involved with research in the most heavily contaminated areas, but my expectaions were not fulfilled. J. N. B. Bell
Biological Degradation and Bioremediation of Toxic Chemicals. Edited by G. Rasul Chaudhry. Chapman
and Hall, London, g50.00.
1995, ISBN o-412-62290-4. Price:
Nearly 50 years ago, the word ‘biodegradation’ and its derivatives entered the language and today it is well defined and common place. In the last few years a new word, ‘bioremediation’, has come along to fill a need to describe ‘new’ concepts/processes, though bioremedial processes have been practised perhaps unwittingly for centuries. Discussing definitions can be stifling or enlightening; in the present case it seems worthwhile. The personal definition of bioremediation in the preface to this book is wide and all-embracing, namely, ‘to cure, to restore, to correct or to repair, by biological processes, what we have done to hurt our environment and ecosystems;’ and it is equated to ‘environmental technology’. Thus, it includes the various forms of sewage waste water treatment systems which other definitions would exclude on the grounds that such systems are protective or preventative, or ‘bioprophylattic’. Such an attitude would restrict the term bioremediation to the restoration of contaminated soils, ground water or even gases, focusing on enhancing existing, but slow, biodegradation processes. Also, it is not the toxic chemical which is remedied; it is rather. the problems caused by the presence of the chemical which are remedied. However, the book takes the wider view as witnessed by the references to waste water treatment, e.g. in the case of morpholine. What is expected from a book with the above title is, for each chemical or class of chemicals, a description of the source of the competent species of micro-organisms, including how to adapt or genetically engineer suitable species; their nutrition and physiology; and other factors which would assist in deciding whether and how bioremediation could occur. Important questions to be answered are: would the (engineered) bacteria survive in the environment?; is a co-substrate necessary?; would the target substrate be degraded in the presence of other xenobiotic chemicals?; is there competition with indigenous species? Then would follow accounts of laboratory- and pilot-scale attempts at bioremediation and finally descriptions and results of full-scale trials. These expectations are not fulfilled in the book but reference to the introduction shows why-the book sets out to describe recent advances in the biodegradation of selected pollutants but then to describe only the potential applications to alleviate this pollution. With this proviso, the book does live up to its goal. In all