Book reviews

Earth Politics. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsacker, 1994, London, Zed Books, 234 pp. ISBN 1 85649 174 9, pb £14.95; hb £36.95

Greening Your Local Authority. Janice Morphet (Ed.), 1994, London, Pitman Publishing (originally Harlow, Longman), 144 pp. ISBN 0582 229 065, pb £32.50

Ecology and Society: an introduction. Luke Martell, 1994 London, Polity Press, 250 pp. ISBN 0 7456 1022 6, hb £39.50, ISBN 0 7456 1023 4, pb £11.95

The Politics of the Environment. Robert E. Goodin, 1994. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 599 pp. ISBN 1 85278 872 0, hb £115.00

Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment John Glasson, Riki Therivel & Andrew Chadwick, 1994, London, UCL Press, 352 pp. ISBN 1 85728 117 9, hb £45.00, ISBN 1 85728 118 7, pb £14.95

Planning for the Planet: sustainable development strategies for local and strategic plans. Friends of the Earth, 1994, London, FoE, 104 pp. ISBN 1 85750 224 8, £12.00

Environmental Strategy and Sustainable Development: the corporate challenge for the 21st century. Richard Welford, 1995, London, Routledge, 240 pp. ISBN 0 415 10551 X, hb £40.00, ISBN 0 415 10552 8, pb £12.99

Housing and the Environment: a new agenda. Mark Bhatti, Jane Brooke & Mike Gibson (Eds), 1994, Foreword by Jonathon Porritt, Coventry, Chartered Institute of Housing, 210 pp. ISBN 0 901 607 738, £14.95     

Importance of Sediment–Water Interactions in Coeur d’Alene Lake,Idaho, USA: Management Implications

A field study at Coeur dAlene Lake, Idaho, USA, was conducted between October 1998 and August 2001 to examine the potential importance of sediment–water interactions on contaminant transport and to provide the first direct measurements of the benthic flux of dissolved solutes of environmental concern in this lake. Because of potential ecological effects, dissolved zinc and orthophosphate were the solutes of primary interest. Results from deployments of an in situ flux chamber indicated that benthic fluxes of dissolved Zn and orthophosphate were comparable in magnitude to riverine inputs. Tracer analyses and benthic-community metrics provided evidence that solute benthic flux were diffusion-controlled at the flux-chamber deployment sites. That is, effects of biomixing (or bioturbation) and ground-water interactions did not strongly influence benthic flux. Remediation efforts in the river might not produce desired water-quality effects in the lake because imposed shifts in concentration gradients near the sediment–water interface would generate a benthic feedback response. Therefore, development of water-quality models to justify remediation strategies requires consideration of contaminant flux between the water column and underlying sediment in basins that have been affected by long-term (decadal) anthropogenic activities.     

Focusing biodiversity research on the needs of decision makers

The project on Biodiversity Uncertainties and Research Needs (BURN) ensures the advancement of usable knowledge on biodiversity by obtaining input from decision makers on their priority information needs about biodiversity and then using this input to engage leading scientists in designing policy-relevant research. Decision makers articulated concerns related to four issues: significance of biodiversity; status and trends of biodiversity; management for biodiversity; and the linkage of social, cultural, economic, legal, and biological objectives. Leading natural and social scientists then identified the research required to address the decision makers' needs and determined the probability of success. The diverse group of experts reached consensus on several fundamental issues, helping to clarify the role of biodiversity in land and resource management. The BURN participants identified several features that should be incorporated into policy-relevant research plans and management strategies for biodiversity. Research and assessment efforts should be: multidisciplinary and integrative, participatory with stakeholder involvement, hierarchical (multiple scales), and problem- and region-specific. The activities should be focused regionally within a global perspective. Meta-analysis of existing data is needed on all fronts to assess the state of the science. More specifically, the scientists recommended six priority research areas that should be pursued to address the information needs articulated by decision makers: (1) characterization of biodiversity, (2) environmental valuation, (3) management for sustainability—for humans and the environment (adaptive management), (4) information management strategies, (5) governance and stewardship issues, and (6) communication and outreach. Broad recommendations were developed for each research area to provide direction for research planning and resource management strategies. The results will directly benefit those groups that require biodiversity research to address their needs—whether to develop policy, manage natural resources, or make other decisions affecting biodiversity.     

牛栏江流域(昆明段)水质现状、存在问题及对策研究

牛栏江是金沙江的一级支流,为常流河,在昆明境内由多条河流汇集而成,通过对牛栏江流域(昆明段)水质现状分析,阐述了流域内存在的环境保护问题,提出相应的对策措施和建议.     

Treatability of nonylphenol ethoxylate surfactants in on-site wastewater disposal systems.

The fate of nine-mole nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPE9) discharged to an on-site wastewater disposal (septic) system was the focus of a 2-year investigation. Known amounts of NPE9-based detergent were metered daily into the plumbing at a single-family household. The ethoxylate-containing wastewater was discharged to the highly anoxic environment of a 4500-L septic tank before distribution to the oxic subsurface via 100 m of leach line. After 180 days of injecting detergent to the septic system, periodic soil pore water and/or groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), nonylphenol ether carboxylates, and nonylphenol. The NPE9 and degradation intermediates that were measured were reduced by 99.99% on a molar basis. An 18% reduction in molar concentration within the septic tank was observed. This was followed by a further 96.7% reduction of molar concentration within the leach lines. As the pore water migrated through the vadose zone, an additional 99.69% reduction in molar concentration was measured between the bottom of the leach lines (leach line effluent) and the lowest vadose zone monitoring location. The results obtained from these analyses indicate that degradation of the surfactant occurs within the anoxic portion of the disposal system with continued rapid biodegradation in the oxic unsaturated zone. Only trace amounts of degradation residuals were detected in soil pore water. The concentration and distribution of various degradation intermediates with respect to location, time, and ambient physical conditions were evaluated. Rapid and systematic degradation of NPE in on-site wastewater disposal systems was documented.     

Experimental assessment of wind erosion after soil stabilization treatments at Eneabba,Western Australia

Wind tunnel experiments on rehabilitation surfaces at Eneabba, Western Australia evaluated the techniques used by Associated Minerals Consolidated Ltd. (AMC) and Allied Eneabba Ltd. (AEL) to stabilize regions being revegetated following heavy mineral sand mining. Newly landscaped areas proved to be the most erodible, beginning to erode at 9 m sec⁻¹ and producing a soil flux of 10 kg m⁻¹ min⁻¹ at 18 m sec⁻¹ wind speeds. Sandier, more organically-rich, surfaces in the rehabilitation areas were somewhat less erodible with losses of only 2 kg m⁻¹ min⁻¹ at wind speeds of 18 m sec⁻¹. The mining companies use various nurse crops and top dressing mulch for surface stabilization. Rows of oats, sparse plantings of the grass cultivar “SUDAX” (Dekalb ST6) supplied by Westfarmers Ltd. and applications of Terolas, a cold, bituminous surface binding material supplied by Shell Co. of Australia Ltd., all proved successful in reducing wind erosion in this semi-arid region where more than 25% of summer days experience winds greater than 8 m sec⁻¹.     

An Integrated Model of Public Contact Planning for Conservation Management

/ Public contact is a vital component of any program to manage natural resources. A well-planned public contact program uses a variety of strategies to create a sympathetic and environmentally aware public and to meet specific management-related objectives. A methodology is proposed that can be applied to planning public contact at any level, from media design for a specific project to corporate strategies for communication. The methodology integrates management-driven, client-driven and resource-driven planning to provide the connections essential to effective communication.KEY WORDS: Planning; Public contact; Interpretation; Conservation; Management     

Trends in Wildlife Management and the Appropriateness of Australian University Training

Abstract: That the greatest challenges in conservation are often not technical but rather economic or sociological has been expressed for at least the last 20 years. This raises the question of whether the training offered to tomorrow's conservation practitioners prepares them sufficiently to deal with the human dimensions of conservation. We analyzed 747 papers from seven wildlife management and conservation biology journals to determine the trends in this area of conservation management between 1985 and 1995. We found that over that time the emphasis stayed on single-species issues with a science focus, but there was a marked shift toward conservation biology issues, management-oriented research, and discussion of economic and social factors relevant to management. We also examined the handbooks of 11 Australian universities to analyze the content of 439 compulsory subjects in 12 degrees that we judged could produce wildlife managers. More than 68% of subjects were from a basic science or technology discipline, 16% from resource management, and only 13% from economics, humanities, communications, or planning. Thus, many of the skills required by contemporary wildlife managers must be learned in postgraduate training or on the job. Much of the undergraduate training syllabus, in Australia at least, does not reflect trends in the practice of wildlife management today and will not provide tomorrow's managers with the range of disciplinary understanding required. We were able, however, to identify three types of undergraduate training—ecological system managers, environmental managers, and human system managers—and we found that the curricula in human-system management contained increased emphasis on socioeconomic issues relevant to management.     

Diets of calanoid copepods on the West Florida continental shelf: Relationships between food concentration,food composition and feeding activity

Bottle incubations were conducted in March, July/August and October 1992. to measure the daily rations (R) and objectively characterize the diets of the calanoid copepodsEucalanus elongatus, Undinula vulgaris, Centropages velificatus andTemora stylifera from the west Florida continental shelf. Daily rations,R, were clustered around two, order-of-magnitude different means, 1.3 and 11.2% of body C d^–1, representative of quiescent and active feeding modes, respectively. The food concentration at which the transition from quiescent to active mode occurred was influenced by food particle size. In the quiescent mode, diets were dominated by nanoplankton, whereas no food type dominated the diet in the active mode. Selective feeding, defined as a statistically significant difference between the frequency distributions of foods in the diet and environment, occurred in both quiescent and active copepods. However, what appeared to be selective feeding in quiescent copepods could be explained by processes that passively modified the distribution of the diet relative to that of the food supply. Conversely, selective feeding in active copepods apparently resulted from foraging for particles >5 m in diameter in food environments dominated by nanoplankton (<5 m).