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Vegetation and erosion. Processes and environments
Book Review
260
and we should pay more attention to the anomalies thrown up by our apparent failures. Gregory & Thornes return to the vexed problem of the human influencc by setting palacohydrology m a more general, politically acceptable, context of environmental change. They stress the need for a coherent theory of the nature of change over Holocene timescates. One feels that if only the encouragement to model and to erect theoretical test cases were now to be followed by the protagonists the current domination of empiricism and inspired detective work would be ended. Palaeohydrology gets no mention in the IPCC's recent pronouncements on Climate Change (Houghton, Jenkins & Ephraums 1990). In its present condition it should prepare for more limelight in river basin management strategies designed to cope with climate change. It must, however, learn to adopt a standard format, particularly (as do IPCC) in relation to its levels of confidence in retrodiction. This is clearly difficult in a field which is poorly funded and in which serendipitous discoveries are often the fount of the best progress. The best light in which to judge the progress made by the empirical phase of palaeohydrology is to compare this volume with the "background" and "perspective" to the sub-discipline contained in Gregory (1983) it is good to know that so many good individual studies have been promoted by Project 158. Synthesizers prepare for rich pickings! Malcolm Newson Professor of Physical Geography University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U K
References GREGORY, K.J. (ed,) (1983): Background to palaeohydrology, a perspective, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester UK, 486 pp. GREGORY, K,J., LEWIN, J. & THORNES, J.B. (eds.) (1987): Palaeohydrology in Practice, a river basin analysis. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester UK, 370 pp. STARKEL, L. & THORNES, J,B. (eds.) (1981): Palaeohydrologyof river basins. Br. Geomorph. Res. Gp., Tech Bull 28, Geo Books, Norwich UK, 107 pp.
Vegetation and Erosion, Processes and Environments by J.B. Thornes (ed.) John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, ~ n e , 518 pp., ISBN 0-471-92630-2
Toronto, Singapore, 1990,
I must confess at the outset my dislike of conference proceedings masglaerading as books. Typically they are a collection of papers on somewhat disparate topics which are nevertheless loosely connected by some theme. This book is no exception, a fact made worse for me b y the misleading claim on the back cover (and no doubt in the publisher's publicity material) that "a wide range of this material [on control of geomorphic processes by plants] is reviewed and fresh research has b e e n
('AIENA
An Interdisciplinary Jonrna[ of SOIL SCIENCE
HYDROLOGY
GEOMORPHOLOGY
261
Book Review
presented". Fresh research, in the form of a series of well-edited conference papers is certainly presented. There is, however, precious little by way of review in the sense of analysis of the wide range of material presented or its digestion and presentation in a consolidation form. The book contains 28 papers on vegetation erosion linkages in landscapes ranging from desert dunes, through savanna and chaparral, to temperate and tropical forests. Riparian vegetation and its effects on hydraulic behaviour and erosion processes in both alluvial and coastal environments is treated in 6 papers. Land use effects and the impacts of changes in vegetative cover are treated in 7 of the papers. There is much that is new here in the individual papers, and the book should be of interest to geomorphologists, ecologists and hydrologists. It will prove to be a useful addition to the shelves of many multi-disciplinary libraries. The papers in this book were presented at a BGRG conference in 1988. Their presentation in the form of a book (in 1990) has clearly improved the clarity and uniformity of the presentation. The material has also appeared in a permanent and easily citable form, rather than forming part of the "grey literature". These have been achieved at the cost of a 2-year delay in appearance of the material. I prefer the IAHS approach which requires pre~publication of Symposium proceedings, if they are to be supported by IAHS. The proceedings volumes form a numbered series of formal publications and are not part of the "grey" literature. The BGRG would do well to adopt this approach rather th,an its present series of "books". A.J. Pearce Forest Research Institute Christchurch, New Zealand
Agro-Ecological Regions of India by J.L. Sehgai, D.K. Mondal, C. Mondal & S. Vadivelu Tech. Bull., NBSS Publ. 24, map and explanatory text, Nagpur, 1990, 75 pp. The map at a scale of 1:5 million contains 21 agro-ecological regions. Such a region is described according to the FAO as a land unit carved out of an agroclimatic region when superimposed on landform and the kinds of soils and soil conditions that act as modifiers to climate and length of growing period. Data for over 350 meteorological stations (50-year period) were used for preparing soil water balances as used in the "Benchmark Soils of India" (Murthy et al. 1982). On this basis the length of growing period (GP) as a main indicator of subdivision of the agro-ecoregions was calculated using the FAO (1983) model: the GP starts when precipitation (P) exceeds 0.5 potential evapotranspiration (PET) and ends with the utilization of 100 mm of stored soil moisture once P falls below PET. - - The explanatory text contains a brief description of each agroecological region covering information on location, agroclimate (see above) including soil moisture and soil temperature regime, soils classified acc. to the Soil Taxonomy, major land use, constraints and potentials. Major soil characteristics of one to three dominant soil CATENA~An Interdisciplinary Journal of SOIL SCIENCE
HYDROLOGY GEOMORPHOLOGY
260
and we should pay more attention to the anomalies thrown up by our apparent failures. Gregory & Thornes return to the vexed problem of the human influencc by setting palacohydrology m a more general, politically acceptable, context of environmental change. They stress the need for a coherent theory of the nature of change over Holocene timescates. One feels that if only the encouragement to model and to erect theoretical test cases were now to be followed by the protagonists the current domination of empiricism and inspired detective work would be ended. Palaeohydrology gets no mention in the IPCC's recent pronouncements on Climate Change (Houghton, Jenkins & Ephraums 1990). In its present condition it should prepare for more limelight in river basin management strategies designed to cope with climate change. It must, however, learn to adopt a standard format, particularly (as do IPCC) in relation to its levels of confidence in retrodiction. This is clearly difficult in a field which is poorly funded and in which serendipitous discoveries are often the fount of the best progress. The best light in which to judge the progress made by the empirical phase of palaeohydrology is to compare this volume with the "background" and "perspective" to the sub-discipline contained in Gregory (1983) it is good to know that so many good individual studies have been promoted by Project 158. Synthesizers prepare for rich pickings! Malcolm Newson Professor of Physical Geography University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U K
References GREGORY, K.J. (ed,) (1983): Background to palaeohydrology, a perspective, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester UK, 486 pp. GREGORY, K,J., LEWIN, J. & THORNES, J.B. (eds.) (1987): Palaeohydrology in Practice, a river basin analysis. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester UK, 370 pp. STARKEL, L. & THORNES, J,B. (eds.) (1981): Palaeohydrologyof river basins. Br. Geomorph. Res. Gp., Tech Bull 28, Geo Books, Norwich UK, 107 pp.
Vegetation and Erosion, Processes and Environments by J.B. Thornes (ed.) John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, ~ n e , 518 pp., ISBN 0-471-92630-2
Toronto, Singapore, 1990,
I must confess at the outset my dislike of conference proceedings masglaerading as books. Typically they are a collection of papers on somewhat disparate topics which are nevertheless loosely connected by some theme. This book is no exception, a fact made worse for me b y the misleading claim on the back cover (and no doubt in the publisher's publicity material) that "a wide range of this material [on control of geomorphic processes by plants] is reviewed and fresh research has b e e n
('AIENA
An Interdisciplinary Jonrna[ of SOIL SCIENCE
HYDROLOGY
GEOMORPHOLOGY
261
Book Review
presented". Fresh research, in the form of a series of well-edited conference papers is certainly presented. There is, however, precious little by way of review in the sense of analysis of the wide range of material presented or its digestion and presentation in a consolidation form. The book contains 28 papers on vegetation erosion linkages in landscapes ranging from desert dunes, through savanna and chaparral, to temperate and tropical forests. Riparian vegetation and its effects on hydraulic behaviour and erosion processes in both alluvial and coastal environments is treated in 6 papers. Land use effects and the impacts of changes in vegetative cover are treated in 7 of the papers. There is much that is new here in the individual papers, and the book should be of interest to geomorphologists, ecologists and hydrologists. It will prove to be a useful addition to the shelves of many multi-disciplinary libraries. The papers in this book were presented at a BGRG conference in 1988. Their presentation in the form of a book (in 1990) has clearly improved the clarity and uniformity of the presentation. The material has also appeared in a permanent and easily citable form, rather than forming part of the "grey literature". These have been achieved at the cost of a 2-year delay in appearance of the material. I prefer the IAHS approach which requires pre~publication of Symposium proceedings, if they are to be supported by IAHS. The proceedings volumes form a numbered series of formal publications and are not part of the "grey" literature. The BGRG would do well to adopt this approach rather th,an its present series of "books". A.J. Pearce Forest Research Institute Christchurch, New Zealand
Agro-Ecological Regions of India by J.L. Sehgai, D.K. Mondal, C. Mondal & S. Vadivelu Tech. Bull., NBSS Publ. 24, map and explanatory text, Nagpur, 1990, 75 pp. The map at a scale of 1:5 million contains 21 agro-ecological regions. Such a region is described according to the FAO as a land unit carved out of an agroclimatic region when superimposed on landform and the kinds of soils and soil conditions that act as modifiers to climate and length of growing period. Data for over 350 meteorological stations (50-year period) were used for preparing soil water balances as used in the "Benchmark Soils of India" (Murthy et al. 1982). On this basis the length of growing period (GP) as a main indicator of subdivision of the agro-ecoregions was calculated using the FAO (1983) model: the GP starts when precipitation (P) exceeds 0.5 potential evapotranspiration (PET) and ends with the utilization of 100 mm of stored soil moisture once P falls below PET. - - The explanatory text contains a brief description of each agroecological region covering information on location, agroclimate (see above) including soil moisture and soil temperature regime, soils classified acc. to the Soil Taxonomy, major land use, constraints and potentials. Major soil characteristics of one to three dominant soil CATENA~An Interdisciplinary Journal of SOIL SCIENCE
HYDROLOGY GEOMORPHOLOGY