Global attention in scientific, industrial, and governmental commUnItIes to traces of toxic chemicals in foodstuffs and in both abiotic and biotic environ ments has justified the present triumvirate of specialized publications in this field: comprehensive reviews, rapidly published progress reports, and archival documentations. These three publications are integrated and scheduled to pro vide in international communication the coherency essential for nonduplicative and current progress in a field as dynamic and complex as environmental con tamination and toxicology. Until now there has been no journal or other publica tion series reserved exclusively for the diversified literature on "toxic" chemicals in our foods, our feeds, our geographical surroundings, our domestic animals, our wildlife, and ourselves. Around the world immense efforts and many talents have been mobilized to technical and other evaluations of natures, locales, magnitudes, fates, and toxicology of the persisting residues of these chemicals loosed upon the world. Among the sequelae of this broad new emphasis has been an inescapable need for an articulated set of authoritative publications where one could expect to find the latest important world literature produced by this emerging area of science together with documentation of pertinent ancil lary legislation."

Lord Rutherford has said that all science is either physics or stamp collecting. On that basis the study of forest biomass must be classified with stamp collecting and other such pleasurable pursuits. Japanese scientists have led the world, not only in collecting basic data, but in their attempts to systematise our knowledge of forest biomass. They have studied factors affecting dry matter production of forest trees in an attempt to approach underlying phYf'ical principles. This edition of Professor Satoo's book has been made possible the help of Dr John F. Hosner and the Virginia Poly technical Institute and State University who invited Dr Satoo to Blacksburg for three months in 1973 at about the time when he was in the final stages of preparing the Japanese version. Since then the explosion of world literature on forest biomass has continued to be fired by increasing shortages of timber supplies in many parts of the world as well as by a need to explore renewable sources of energy. In revising the original text I have attempted to maintain the input of Japanese work - much of which is not widely available outside Japan - and to update both the basic information and, where necessary, the conclusions to keep them in tune with current thinking. Those familiar with the Japanese original will find Chapter 3 largely rewritten on the basis of new work - much of which was initiated while Dr Satoo was in Blacksburg.

This thorough study is an assessment of the risks involved with the deliberate release of microorganisms modified by means of genetic engineering. Major emphasis is on European cooperative research projects such as the ones on Rhizobium and Baculovirus. Further contributions cover aspects of soil microbiology, genetic transformation in soil, molecular and plasmid genetics, horizontal spread of plasmids, as well as administrative, regulative and legal aspects in relation to possible releases.

Until relatively recently the valuable tropical montane cloud forests (hereaf ter usually referred to as TMCFs) of the world had scarcely come under the assaults experienced by the downslope montane and lowland forests. TMCFs are not hospitable environments for human occupation, and their remoteness (except in places near Andean high mountain settlements and in the Ethiopian Highlands) and difficult terrain have given them de facto protection. The ad jacent upper montane rain forests have indeed been under assault for timber, fuelwood, and for conversion to grazing and agriculture for many decades, even centuries in the Andes, but true cloud forest has only come under ex ploitation as these lower elevational resources have disappeared. They have also been "nibbled" at from above where there have been alpine grasslands under grazing pressure. Increasingly now, however, these cloud forest eco systems are being fragmented, reduced, and disturbed at an alarming rate. It is now becoming recognized that steps must be taken rapidly to increase our understanding of TMCF and to achieve their conservation, because: their water-capture function is extremely important to society; * their species endemism is high; they serve as refugia for endangered species being marginalized in these environments by increasingly transformed lower elevation ecosystems; they are relatively little studied; yet, their value to science is extremely high; they have low resilience to disturbance; vii viii Preface and many other reasons, which will be discussed subsequently in this publi cation.

Worldwide concern in scientific, industrial, and governmental com munities over traces of toxic chemicals in foodstuffs and in both abiotic and biotic environments has justified the present triumvirate of specialized publications in this field: comprehensive reviews, rapidly published progress reports, and archival documentations. These three publications are integrated and scheduled to provide in international communication the coherency essential for nonduplicative and current progress in a field as dynamic and complex as environmental contamination and toxicology. Until now there has been no journal or other publication series reserved exclusively for the diversified literature on toxic" chemicals in our foods, our feeds, our geographical surroundings, our domestic animals, our wild life, and ourselves. Around the world immense efforts and many talents have been mobilized to technical and other evaluations of natures, locales, magnitudes, . fates, and toxicology of the persisting residues of these chemicals loosed upon the world. Among the sequelae of this broad new emphasis has been an inescapable need for an articulated set of authorita tive publications where one could expect to find the latest important world literature produced by this emerging area of science together with documentation of pertinent ancillary legislation."

Worldwide concern in scientific, industrial, and governmental com munities over traces of toxic chemicals in foodstuffs and in both abiotic and biotic environments has justified the present triumvirate of specialized publications in this field: comprehensive reviews, rapidly published progress reports, and archival documentations. These three publications are integrated and scheduled to provide in international communication the coherency essential for nonduplicative and current progress in a field as dynamic and complex as environmental contamination and toxicology. Until now there has been no journal or other publication series reserved exclusively for the diversified literature on "toxic" chemicals in our foods, our feeds, our geographical surroundings, our domestic animals, our wild life, and ourselves. Around the world immense efforts and many talents have been mobilized to technical and other evaluations of natures, locales, magnitudes, fates, and toxicology of the persisting residues of these chemicals loosed upon the world. Among the sequelae of this broad new emphasis has been an inescapable need for an articulated set of authorita tive publications where one could expect to find the latest important world literature produced by this emerging area of science together with documentation of pertinent ancillary legislation."

The unsaturated zone is the medium through which pollutants move from the soil surface to groundwater. Polluting substances are subjected to complex physical, chemical and biological transformations while moving through the unsaturated zone and their displacement depends on the transport properties of the water-air porous medium system. Pollution caused by human activities, agriculture, and industry, has brought about a growing interest in the role of the unsaturated zone in groundwater pollution. Due to the complexity and the multidisciplinary nature of the subject, it is being investigated by specialists from various scientific disciplines, such as soil physicists, chemists, biologists, and environmental engineers. This state of affairs has motivated the initiative taken by the Water Quality Commissions of IUPAC (the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) and IAHS (the International Association of Hydrological Sciences) to convene an international workshop, which was organized and hosted by the Institute of Soils and Water of the Agricultural Research Organization in Bet Dagan, Israel in March 1983. The lecturers at the workshop were an invited group of specialists who are engaged in studying the many facets of the unsaturated zone, and the present book is a selection of their presentations. Each chapter of the book relates to a different aspect of the unsaturated zone."

This book consolidates the descriptive results of a pantropical project called Agroforestry Systems Inventory (AFSI), undertaken by the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) from 1982 to 1987. Since agroforestry was a relatively new term when the project was initiated, the main objective was to increase the understanding of and provide a state-of the-art information base on existing agroforestry systems. Therefore, the project was designed to systematically collect, collate, synthesize, and dissem inate information on existing agroforestry systems in developing countries. One of the major results of the project, descriptions of existing agroforestry systems, was published as a series of articles in Agroforestry Systems. These system descriptions form the bulk of this book. Other products of the project include a microcomputer database on agroforestry systems, practices and components, and voluminous unpublished reports and records. Perhaps the title of the book is misleading in that the book does not include or cover all existing agroforestry systems in the tropics and geographical regions in the tropics. Additionally, some of the systems described are outside the tropical boul;ldaries of 23. 5" Nand S latitudes. For the purpose of this book, the word tropics is used in a general sense to also include subtropical developing countries that have agro-ecological and socio-economic character istics and land-use problems similar to those of the countries within the geographical limits of the tropical belt."

Acid rain is a serious international environmental problem. Scandinavian forests have suffered especially severe damage, and have been the focus of considerable research on the causes and impacts of atmospheric pollution. This book presents the results of long-term studies on acid rain in Norwegian forests. This research examined soil chemistry and biology; the impacts of acid rain on tree growth and nutrition; and its influence on ground vegetation, fungi, and seedling germination and development. Long-Term Experiments with Acid Rain in Norwegian Forest Ecosystems is a lasting contribution to the literature on acid precipitation, and will be of interest to researchers in ecology, air pollution, forestry and environmental chemistry.

During the last decade, forest decline has become increasingly apparent. The decline in forest health was often reported to be associated with air pollution. The present study on Norway spruce stands in the Fichtelgebirge analyses various processes interacting within forest ecosystems. It covers transport and deposition of air pollutants, the direct effects of pollutants on above-ground plant parts, the responses of soil to acid rain, and the changing nutrient availability, and the accompanying effects on plant metabolism and growth. The role of fungi, microorganisms and soil animals in the decline of these stands is also assessed. The volume is concluded with a synthesis evaluation of the influence of different factors, and their interactions on forest decline.

ing damage ranged from odor. to general visual appearance. Attributes of seedling quality are categorized as either to cutting buds. to scraping bark to detect dead cambium. performance attributes (RGP. frost hardiness. stress resistance) One nursery reported using frost hardiness as an indicator of or material attributes (bud dormancy. water relations. nutrition. when to begin fall lifting. but none reported using it as an morphology). Performance attributes are assessed by placing indicator of seedling quality before shipping stock to customers. samples of seedlings into specified controlled environments and evaluating their responses. Although some effective short 23.4.3 Stress resistance cut procedures are being developed. performance tests tend Only three nurseries measure stress resistance. They use to be time consuming; however, they produce results on whole the services of Oregon State University and the test methods plant responses which are often closely correlated with field described in 23.2.3. One nursery reported that results of stress performance. Material attributes. on the other hand. reflect tests did not agree well with results of RGP tests and that RGP only individual aspects of seedling makeup and are often correlated better with seedling survival in the field. Most stress poorly correlated with performance. tests are conducted for reforestation personnel rather than for Bud dormancy status seems to be correlated. at least nurseries."

The "International Symposium on Scleroderris Canker of Conifers" held June 21-24, 1983 in Syracuse, New York was the result of mutual interest expressed by the USDA Forest Service, the Canadian Forestry Service, and the State Uni versity of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF). The Symposium was an official function of the working party canker diseases (Scleroderris), Subject group S.2.06.02 Division II IUFRO. We wish to express our thanks to the USDA Forest Service, Research and the Canadian Forestry Service for financial support of the program, and SUNY ESF for hosting the Symposium. A major research program was launched in 1977 to study the biology of the European strain as found in North America. Support for this research resulted from spec i a 1 fund ing by the Congress of the United States to the USDA Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station. Most of these funds were released as cooperative research grants to universities in the Lake States and the northeast. Many of the research papers delivered at this Symposium are the direct result of these research grants. While the Symposium deliberately emphasized the North American experience 'with Gremmeniella abietina in order to provide a focus for the meeting, we were anxious that this Symposium would also include studies from other countries.

With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences.
The present volume includes reviews on genetics, cell biology, physiology, comparative morphology, systematics, ecology, and vegetation science.

The 12th International Conference on Plant Growth Substances was held from 26th to 31st August 1985 in Heidelberg, F. R. G., under the auspices of the IPGSA (International Plant Growth Sub stances Association) and the University of Heidelberg in its 599th year. As many as 750 participants from 40 countries all over the world attended the conference, including guests and staff members of the local organizers. Fine days provided an excellent background for a fruitful and pleasant meeting and all the activities accompanying the scientific programme. During the conference all current aspects concerning growth substances were treated. Altogether the par ticipants presented 207 oral reports organized in four parallel sessions and about 300 posters, for which 2 hours' poster sessions were reserved each day. The conference gained in perspective from the arrangement of five workshops in which special aspects and the most recent results could be presented by specialists in the particular fields. The topics of the workshop were: actual methods of hormone detection (orga nizer H. Kende), auxin transport (organizer R. Hertel), growth sub stances and tumour formation (organizer J. Schroder), evolution of the hormone system (organizer W. Jacobs) and problems of ap plication (organizer J. Jung). The abstracts of all presentations were collected in a Book of Abstracts available during the conference, giving a rough surveY of the whole field of plant growth substances in its present state."

The recogmtIon of the microcirculation as an ideal interdisciplinary meeting place for the life sciences is really a postwar phenomenon. The European and the American Societies more than any other organizations launched the idea, and the success of the European Society's International Meetings gave impetus to a growth of interest from a handful of specialists to the wide interdisciplinary study which microcirculation now represents. The meeting held in Canada in June 1975 was, however, the first truly international meeting devoted to the microcirculation. It, too, was a success from every point of view, and the exchange of knowledge and new ideas was rewarding. It is our present hope that the tradition of European meetings with their characteristic European flavor will continue, but larded by larger, international congresses conceived on a worldwide basis. For the present conference we were fortunate in the presence of Dr. B. Zweifach. He was once referred to as the "father of the microcircula tion." This claim, unfortunately, I cannot accept. That honor probably belongs to Harvey, who by one of the most brilliant strokes of inductive reasoning in medical history inferred the existence of capillaries though he could not see them. Ben Zweifach's role was rather that of the midwife, presiding at the birth rather than the conception. The baby he delivered long years ago has since thriven lustily and its growth is in no small measure due to the continuing zeal of Zweifach and his associates."

Biologically active compounds isolated from microorganisms continue to be vital to the development of new drugs and agricultural chemicals. This book was prepared by current and past members of the laboratory of Dr. Satoshi Omura of the Kitasato Institute in Japan. Dr. Omura and his colleagues have discovered and studied a number of important antibiotics, and in their work they have pioneered new methods for screening microbes for interesting and important compounds. This book presents strategies and methods for identifying novel molecules with several types of biological activity. In addition, the book discusses the identification of microbial compounds of agrochemical importance, presents information on chemical screening methods, and concludes with chapters on microbial strain selection, fermentation technology, and genetic engineering of antibiotic-producing microorganisms. This book will be of great interest to scientists working in the very active and competitive fields of antibiotic and agrochemical discovery.

Professor Albert S. Perry passed away suddenly on February 18, 1992, leaving behind his grieving family, friends and colleagues. It was his aspiration to produce a comprehensive work on insecticides to summarize his lifelong dedication to the field of entomology and public health. On the day before his operation, he expressed his desire with the following words: . "1 am coming out of this surgery and will recuperate from it as soon as possible for the sake of my boy (then aged three) and the book." He also told me that he would like to add a chapter on IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and suggested that we write it together. The sad reality is that none of this took place the way he had planned and these became his last words. On my own, I found it difficult to proceed with the writing of the IPM chapter, since several chapters are required to cover. this subject and, in fact, several books. are already devoted to IPM. There was even an IPM article written in a journal (Awake 1983) for a general audience to which he commented that he would like to use it someday because it was well written for laymen, thus providing the readers a wide selection of journals and books to choose from."

Insects as a group occupy a middle ground in the biosphere between bac at one extreme, amphibians and mammals at the other. teria and viruses of insects present special problems to the The size and general nature study of entomology. For example, many commercially available instru ments are geared to measure in grams, while the forces commonly en countered in studying insects are in the milligram range. Therefore, tech niques developed in the study of insects or in those fields concerned with the control of insect pests are often unique. Methods for measuring things are common to all sciences. Advances sometimes depend more on how something was done than on what was measured; indeed a given field often progresses from one technique to another as new methods are discovered, developed, and modified. Just ofthese techniques find their way into the classroom when as often, some the problems involved have been sufficiently ironed out to permit students to master the manipulations in a few laboratory periods. Many specialized techniques are confined to one specific research lab oratory. Although methods may be considered commonplace where they are used, in another context even the simplest procedures may save con siderable time. It is the purpose of this series (1) to report new devel opments in methodology, (2) to reveal sources of groups who have dealt with and solved particular entomological problems, and (3) to describe experiments which may be applicable for use in biology laboratory courses."

In continuation of Somaclonal Variation and Crop Improvement I (1990), this volume is comprised of twenty-four chapters dealing with somaclonal variants showing resistance to salt drought, herbicides, viruses, "Alternaria," "Fusarium," "Glomerella," "Verticillium," "Phytophthora," fall armyworm, etc. in a number of plants of economic importance.
It is divided into two sections:
Section I. Somaclonal Variation in Agricultural Crops: wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, potato, tomato, "Lotus," "Stylosanthes," banana, strawberry, citrus, colt cherry.
Section II. Somaclonal Variation in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: "Atropa," "Carthamus," "Hypericum," "Lavatera," "Nicotiana," Primula, Rauwolfia, scilla, and Zinnia.

Worldwide concern in scientific, industrial, and governmental com munities over traces of toxic chemicals in foodstuffs and in both abiotic and biotic environments has justified the present triumvirate of specialized publications in this field: comprehensive reviews, rapidly published progress reports, and archival documentations. These three publications are integrated and scheduled to provide in international communication the coherency essential for nonduplicative and current progress in a field as dynamic and complex as environmental contamination and toxicology. Until now there has been no journal or other publication series reserved exclusively for the diversified literature on "toxic" chemicals in our foods, our feeds, our geographical surroundings, our domestic animals, our wild life, and ourselves. Around the world immense efforts and many talents have been mobilized to technical and other evaluations of natures, locales, magnitudes, fates, and toxicology of the persisting residues of these chemicals loosed upon the world. Among the sequelae of this broad new emphasis has been an inescapable need for an articulated set of authorita tive publications where one could expect to find the latest important world literature produced by this emerging area of science together with documentation of pertinent ancillary legislation."

The world population in 1930 was 2 billion. It reached 3 billion in 1960, stands at 4. 6 billion today, and is expected to reach 6 billion by the end of the century. The food and fiber needs of such a rapidly increasing population are enormous. One of the most basic resources, perhaps the most basic of all, for meeting these needs is the soil. There is an urgent need to improve and protect this resource on which the future of mankind directly depends. We must not only learn how to use the soil to furnish our immediate needs, but also ensure that the ability of the soil to sustain food production in the future is unimpaired. This is indeed a mammoth task; a 1977 United Nations survey reported that almost one-fifth of the world's is now being steadily degraded. The diversity of soil makes it cropland necessary for research to be conducted in many locations. There are basic principles, however, that are universal. This, Advances in Soil Sciences, presents clear and concise reviews in all areas of soil science for everyone interested in this basic resource and man's influence on it. The purpose of the series is to provide a forum for leading scientists to analyze and summarize the available scientific information on a subject, assessing its importance and identifying additional research needs. But most importantly, the contributors will develop principles that have practical applications to both developing and developed agricultures.

This book presents the lectures and posters of some of the main leaders in the field of th magnesium research and medical applications delivered at the 8 International Symposium on Magnesium, which took place on 5-9 October, 1997 in Heraklion, Crete under the chairmanship of Professor Theophilos Theophanides. The meeting was sponsored by the National Technical University of Athens and Ministry of Industry, Energy and Technology. The aim of this meeting was to promote research and applications of magnesium and interface between medical doctors, clinicians and scientists in order to understand the mechanisms responsible for magnesium involvement in the pathogenesis of diseases, its biological significance, metabolism and many other utilizations which are associated with membranes and cells. The success of this interface is due to the contribution of its participants who came from all continents and to their high scientific level. The topics, which were presented, and the questions, which were asked, concerned mechanisms of mode of action of free magnesium cations, Mg2+, hydrated cations, 2 Mg2+. 6 HP, and magnesium linked cations Mg +.LxH 0, where L: ligand and x = 2 1...6 Hp. We would like to express our utmost gratitude to the sponsers and to extend our deep appreciation and thanks to all those who helped and encouraged the scientific and material organization of this meeting. We wish to thank all the members of the scientific committee and the organizing committee.

The four-day international Conference on Pest Management in Rice, which is the subject of this volume, was the third in an ongoing series of meetings on tropical crops organised by the Pesticides Group of the Society of Chemical Industry, London. The participants came from both the public and private sectors and from many different countries. All the major groups of pests-weeds, microorganisms, arthropods and rodents-were considered, as the organisers believe that it is necessary to address the total pest management problems in each particular growing area, and the variety of the papers indicates the importance of a multi disciplinary approach to their solution. Rice is one of the most important world crops and is the major source of food for around 60% of the world's population, with a world production of 500 million tonnes from 150 million hectares of land. Since world stocks amount to only two months supply, many people are at risk from famine. Moreover, it has been esti mated that the world requirement in 2020 will be about 760 million tonnes, an increase of 50%. This pressure of population on food makes efficient pest management vital and is the reason for bringing together experts from all over the world to this major conference."

The research presented here provides a sound scientific basis for management and policy decisions regarding the productivity and sustainability of forest ecosystems in the context of a rapidly changing global environment. It is the synthesis of 5 years of field and laboratory research on southern forests conducted by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service to provide scientific assessments to the US Global Change Research Program, and, as such, is invaluable for policy makers and land use managers.