Toxicology of Marine Mammals (New Perspectives: Toxicology and the Environment)

Book Description

The activities of modern society have unleashed a range of toxic chemicals into the global environment. Many of these toxicants are now being detected in increasing quantities in the tissues of marine mammals, most notably in top predators who acquire relatively large amounts of toxic chemicals by ingesting contaminated prey. Toxicology of Marine Mammals focuses on the effects of natural and introduced toxicants on organs and systems in marine mammals. It provides overviews on health status and contamination, with subsequent chapters devoted to whales, pinnipeds, dolphins, polar bears, manatees, and sea otters. Internationally renowned researchers assess the mounting evidence for adverse effects on reproduction and the chemically-induced increased susceptibility to death from infectious diseases. The concluding chapter addresses perspectives and issues for the future. This compelling book features research from a vast geographic landscape ranging from the tropics to the Arctic, with case studies on intriguing areas of contamination such as the St. Lawrence River and the Baltic Sea. It identifies the severe threats that environmental contaminants pose to the health and future of marine mammals. It also makes an urgent call for legislation to regulate the incessant pollution ravaging our seas and devastating the marine mammal population worldwide. Toxicologists working in marine biology and veterinary medicine, conservation scientists, fisheries scientists, environmental scientists, and wildlife managers will all benefit from this comprehensive resource. >Features

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Freshwater Bivalve Ecotoxicology

Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 142004284X

Book Description

This book covers the techniques and approaches for assessing suspected contaminant impact upon freshwater bivalves. The editors meet this challenge by incorporating expertise on research topics and management issues from a cross section of active scientists in the field. The resulting array of viewpoints provides a valuable tool drawn from both internal and external peer reviews. They explore current advances in general monitoring of population responses to stressors, fundamental concepts of ecotoxicology specific to burrowing bivalves, and useful insights that offer direction and priority for resolving specific problems challenging protection and conservation efforts.

Environmental Sampling and Analysis: A Practical Guide

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Environmental Sampling and Analysis: A Practical Guide
Lawrence H. Keith
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0873713818

Book Description

This concise book covers all the critical aspects of environmental sampling and analysis. Extensively peer-reviewed by scientists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies, industry and academia, it is packed with practical advice and tips from renowned experts. Planning, sampling, analysis, QA/QC, and reporting are discussed for air, water, solid liquid, and biological samples, with emphasis on the interdependence between sampling and analytical activities. Special requirements for sampling devices, containers, and preservatives are provided with convenient checklists for sampling plans and protocols. New and revised recommendations involving method detection levels, reliable detection levels, and levels of quantitation are discussed in conjunction with laboratory reports and user presentations of data near analytical detection limits. This is a valuable and comprehensive reference book for chemists, technicians, consultants, lawyers, regulators, engineers, quality control officers, news and information managers, teachers, and students.

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The Hudson River Estuary

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521844789

Book Description

The Hudson River Estuary is a comprehensive look at the physical, chemical, biological and environmental management issues that are important to our understanding of the Hudson River. Chapters cover the entire range of fields necessary to understanding the workings of the Hudson River estuary; the physics, bedrock geological setting and sedimentological processes of the estuary; ecosystem-level processes and biological interactions; and environmental issues such as fisheries, toxic substances, and the effect of nutrient input from densely populated areas. This book places special emphasis on important issues specific to the Hudson, such as the effect of power plants and high concentrations of PCBs. The chapters are written by specialists at a level that is accessible to students, teachers and the interested layperson. The Hudson River Estuary is a unique scientific biography of a major estuary, with relevance to the study of any similar natural system in the world.

Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry

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Oh for an editor

Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry
Francis H. Chapelle
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 047134852X

Book Description

Up-to-date coverage and a unique, multidisciplinary approach

The ongoing effort to protect our valuable ground-water resources necessarily involves scientists and engineers from many disciplines. Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry, Second Edition is designed to bridge the historical lack of communication among these disciplines by detailing-in language that cuts across specialties-the impact of microorganisms and microbial processes on ground-water systems.

Carefully revised to reflect the many recent discoveries that have been made in the field, the Second Edition begins with an overview of microbiology, ideal for hydrologists and others who may lack formal training in the field. These initial chapters systematically cover the kinds of microorganisms found in subsurface environments, focusing on their growth, metabolism, genetics, and ecology.

The second part of the book offers a hydrologic perspective on how microbial processes affect ground-water geochemistry in pristine systems. It also introduces the different classes of ground-water systems, and gives an overview of techniques for sampling subsurface environments. Readers gain an understanding of biogeochemical cycling in ground-water systems-in coverage unique to this book-and how ground-water chemistry can be used to study microbial processes in aquifer systems.

The final section of the book deals with the biodegradation of human-introduced contaminants in ground-water systems, with an up-to-date review of the physiology, biochemistry, and redox conditions that favor biodegradation processes.

Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry, Second Edition is important reading for geoscientists, hydrologists, and environmental engineers, as well as for water planners and lawyers involved in environmental issues. It also serves as a compelling text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in ground-water chemistry.

Customer Reviews:

Oh for an editor.......2003-04-30

This second edition is just as full of typos as the first, an average of 1/page, from misuse of "it's" to alternation of the spelling of Monod (Monad), to slipping the superscript so 10^5 becomes 105. The illustrations are fine and clear, and subject to the same mispelling.
The author is with the USGeological Survey, which at least used to be a paragon of critical editing, and one had hoped for better proofing in this expansion of the widely used and acclaimed text. A book at this price that stands to be a long-lived authority should have received better.
The expansion is welcome, since geomicrobiology is advancing so fast that the first edition was already out of date. Much of the expansion is given to petroleum hydrocarbons (with a couple of pages on MTBE) and chlorinated solvents, some of which has again become dated since the second edition, already, some of which appears catering to school classes.
Some of the more mysterious questions of geomicrobiology are still avoided (e.g. how do microbes get into clayey deposits where pores are smaller than average bugs and pore throats are much smaller? did individuals get buried with the sediment and adapt to survive millions of years in virtual dormancy?). And Chapelle cannot quite bring himself to adopt the new divisions of Archaea and Bacteria, using the term bacteria to refer to both, in the old style, although he acknowledges the newer thinking.
Unfortunately, in such a small specialty, the existence of an authoritative edition discourages challengers, and we will no doubt wait another or ten years for another geomicrobiology text.
If you are thinking about this book as a reference, rather than a required text, you might look instead at the American Society for Microbiology's Manual of Environmental Microbiology, ed. Hurst, 1997, ASM Press. This is a collection of articles by 90 or so microbiologists that you can probably get used, is 900 p with considerably more breadth and depth than Chapelle, and is a bibliophile's delight. Chapelle has a section in Envir Microbio, which seems to be typo-free.
Envir Microbio also contains, for instance in a section on landfill processes, relatively extensive material on fermentation, which gets about a paragraph in Chapelle's book. Fermentation is very important in groundwater bioremediation, but typically gets short shrift because it is complicated and inefficient, and hard to track because it does not consume electron acceptors, and many of its products (typically acids) do not show up in traditional chemical analyses. Landfill engineers know a lot more about fermentation than geomicrobiologists.
Chapelle is also disappointing in not having stretched this edition to cover the budding discipline of isotopic fractionation in documenting microbial attenuation processes. To be sure, most of the published work using GC IRMS to separate and measure isotope ratios of individual organic compounds post-dates this second edition, but he must have been aware of these developments. He mentions some traditional isotopes to evidence evolution of some systems.

Chapelle's index is also skimpy. No page reference, for instance, for iron reducing bacteria, although he discusses them at some length, mentioning Geobacter chapelleii, named, deservedly, after himself.
But no scientific book goes as far as we would like down our special interests. Science literature is a work in progress, not a bible, and it is silly to expect The Book of Geomicrobiology & Geochemistry. I am not sending my Chapelle back.

Restoring Life in Running Waters: Better Biological Monitoring

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Invaluable for those concerned about fish habitat
Informative, thorough, and interesting
Excellent strategy & advice; slightly one-dimensional
Thoughtful and inspiring yet a bit too one dimensional
Thoughtful and inspiring yet a bit too one dimensional

Restoring Life in Running Waters: Better Biological Monitoring
James R. Karr , and Ellen W Chu
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1559636742

Book Description

Resource management in the United States is undergoing a fundamental change. Traditional sustained-yield approaches that focus on commodity-production and human resource use are steadily giving way to ecological approaches, often referred to as ecosystem management, that have long-term ecological sustainability as their primary goal. To achieve that goal, ecosystem management emphasizes socially defined goals and objectives, integrated and holistic science, collaborative decision making, and adaptable institutions. Political considerations are an essential component of ecosystem management, yet its socio-political context has been largely ignored by those studying and writing on the subject.

The Politics of Ecosystem Management is the first book to focus entirely on the political challenges facing ecosystem management as it moves from theory to practice.

The authors examine:

the history of natural resource management in the United States
the theory behind ecosystem management
potential inconsistencies and contradictions in the themes of ecosystem management
political philosophies that undergird traditional resource management
alternative political principles inherent in ecosystem management
opportunities and barriers for achieving collaborative ecosystem management

The Politics of Ecosystem Management considers the sweeping and profound changes that will be required of the American governance system-its political philosophy, institutions, notions of citizenship, and politics, as well its resource management practices-if the shift to ecosystem management is to be realized. It is a lucid and accessible volume that represents a vital contribution to the literature for students, researchers, and professionals involved with any aspect of developing and implementing ecosystem-based approaches to resource management.

Customer Reviews:

Invaluable for those concerned about fish habitat.......2000-01-19

This book provides a functional, usable set of guidelines to consider when working on fisheries habitat and stream rehabilitation problems. Although it is oriented towards the American environmental processes - EPA etc, the background concepts and information should be required reading for everyone who is involved in both environmental monitoring and assessment, and those who are involved in trying to bring back stream habitat that has been lost.

Useful for a much broader audience than originally targetted. For instance Community Stewardship groups here in BC have found it most useful.

Informative, thorough, and interesting.......1999-02-27

A very informative, thorough, and interesting coverage of the topic. Very well written and an enjoyable read. I especially liked the presentation of the "chapters" as "premises."

Advocacy is one theme of this book, but I didn't find that objectionable. As a former professional in the regulatory field, I think it is important for people with opinions to express them!

This book is really a must-read for people working on any aspect of biological monitoring of aquatic systems.

Excellent strategy & advice; slightly one-dimensional.......1998-12-11

Karr & Chu provide compelling arguments for the inclusion of reasoned biomonitoring efforts in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of aquatic ecosystems. This is long-overdue. Their desire for biological relevance above and beyond statistical significance is also laudable, reminding me of a dear mentor's constant advice: "But what do the numbers *mean* biologically??" It is an extremely well documented book as well, providing ample resources for further scholarly investigation of related topics. I laud their eagerness to create biological relevance and move beyond standard statistical distributions by brute biological common sense. Their approach is clearly robust, time-effective, and biologically relevant - an excellent combination for real-world environmental management decisions! I do, however, find the authors' quite one-dimensional focus on the use of single "multimetric indices" to be limiting in the practice of aquatic EIA. (Multimetric indices are sums of individual indices, each measuring a different ecological factor.) I fear that the same mathematical machinations which make Karr & Chu's methods robust may also make them insensitive to subtle biological changes. They might contend that robust management considerations render subtle biological changes irrelevant; I would argue that subtle change over time can be at least as powerful as quantum, near-instantaneous changes. The author's methods are also constrained by the fact that the a significant effort is expended in calibration, which may be fine and justified for future studies, but may be of little help for projects currently "in-hand." In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book as a required read in aquatic biomonitoring strategies, but I will continue to examine my data in more statistically conventional ways as well as through multimetric indices --- I'm not likely to throw out the entire old toolbox for the addition of one new tool, after all, and all the multimetric indices in the world won't do a jot of good without sound experimental design practices.

Thoughtful and inspiring yet a bit too one dimensional.......1998-12-03

Karr & Chu write to inspire improvement in biological assesment protocols; no doubut I agree with them on this goal. They also remind us all that the "proof of the pudding" is in the biological relevance of the statistical analyses which we undertake to perform this task. Again, no problem. I do have suspicions re: their rather singular fixation on univariate compression of data to the IBI format to the extent that any & all multivariate data treatments are avoided. I would strongly recommend this text as a starting point, but would equally strongly recommend that you *avoid* considering it a definitive Bible for these assessment processes. An apt ecologist who is conversant with contemporary techniques of biotic quantification should perhaps be able to come up with some more multivariate and flexible metrics in addition to those suggested in this text -- although their tables of "what works where" are very helpful starting guidlines for pragmatic issues of what variables to measure in the field. Excellent documentation if you want to go after the references found in the bibliography. Wonderfully aggresive attitude re: preserving our rivers & engaging style -- I read most of the book this afternoon just because it's so engaging, which is pretty high praise for a textbook. If you also happen to be involved with biomonitoring efforts, please drop me an email as I'm working remotely via the 'Net & wold love the comraderie & discussion -- Eric entfolks@mwci.net

Thoughtful and inspiring yet a bit too one dimensional.......1998-12-03

The Late, Great Lakes: An Environmental History (Great Lakes Books)

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Timothy Mikolay
A must read for Great Lakes States residents

The Late, Great Lakes: An Environmental History (Great Lakes Books)
William Ashworth
Manufacturer: Wayne State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback