What sight is more beautiful than a high-energy beach facing lines of rolling white breakers? What battleground is more ferocious than where waves and sand meet? What environment could be more exciting to study than this sandy interface between sea and land? And yet how much do we know about sandy beaches? Open sandy beaches are amongst the most neglected fields of scientific study in the coastal environment. This situation exists despite their great extent along most temperate and tropical coastlines and their value as recreational areas and buffer zones against the sea. The traditional oceanographer does not venture into the surf zone while the terrestrial ecologist stops short at the high water mark. Only a few coastal engineers have grappled with the problem of sand and sediment movement as it influences their construction of harbours and pipelines. The marine biologist on the other hand has regarded estuaries, coral reefs and rocky shores, obviously teeming with life, as more fruitful areas for study than the apparently poor animal life on sandy beaches. Sandy beaches have therefore tended to become a scientific no man's land. Over the last decade this situation has begun to improve. Recent work on high-energy beaches has revealed that they may in fact be rich and productive and fertile areas for study. It has even been suggested that beaches and their adjacent surf zones may constitute viable marine ecosystems.

This book is based on the premise that the study of ecological communities should be a composite analysis of system properties (community structure, community energetics) and population properties (life history patterns, adaptive strategies) backed by a thorough understanding of the physical chemical environment. Too frequently community ecology takes a much narrower focus. This may partly be the result of perceived antagonisms between schools of thought in ecology. Despite their rather separate origins, the multiple theoretical and methodological tools that now exist must be applied synthetically to real communities if the progress of the past two decades is to continue into the next two. This book has a case history format, which increases the opportunity for detailed analysis, although I have attempted to maintain the general per spective of a community ecologist and to draw extensively from the literature whenever it seems profitable to do so. The case history data are for Lake Lanao, a large tropical lake. The main zooplankton data base used in the analysis is entirely original and unpublished, although the detailed support ing data on the physical-chemical environment and the phytoplankton com munity have been presented in numerous journal articles and are thus abstracted or used selectively to meet the needs of zooplankton community analysis."

Groundwater constitute the most important reservoir of available clean water. Due to its overexploitation, some anthropogenic mismanagement on the surface and the overloading of the cleanup potential of subsurface, many of the groundwater systems used for water supply are in jeopardy. The problem is very severe in dry-lands, but also in urban, industrial, agricultural and traffic areas.This book first discusses the recharge fluxes relating both to the quantity and quality of groundwater. In order to face the threats to the water supply and to be able to maintain a sustainable water management policy, detailed knowledge is needed in between others on the surface to subsurface transformation link in the water cycle. Secondly, the presentation and comparison of both the traditional and modern approach to determine groundwater recharge is discussed.

For many years the reduction of eutrophication in the Baltic Sea has been a hot issue for mass-media, science, political parties and environmental action groups with manifold implications related to fisheries (will the Baltic cod survive?), sustainable coastal development (have billions of Euros been wasted on nitrogen reductions?), ecotoxicology (can we safely eat Baltic fish?). This book takes a holistic process-based ecosystem perspective on the eutrophication in the Baltic Sea, with a focus on the factors regulating how the system would respond to changes in nutrient loading. This includes a very special process for the Baltic Sea: land uplift. After being depressed by the glacial ice, the land is now slowly rising adding vast amounts of previously deposited nutrients and clay particles to the system. 110,000 to 140,000 tons of phosphorus per year are added to the system from land uplift, in comparison to the 30,000 tons of phosphorus per year from rivers. The added clay particles function in ways similar to which clay particles of benthonite function in the wine industry: namely as a clarifier. Paradoxically, in spite of the fact that so many nutrients are added to the system from land uplift, the Baltic Sea would have an even higher nutrient concentration than at present, had it not been for the impact of the clay particles from land uplift. These results motivate a major revision of the outlook and understanding of the structure and function of the Baltic Sea ecosystem. The book also presents a remedial strategy aimed at combating eutrophication in the Baltic Sea which challenges the accepted remedial strategy.

Fisheries science in North America is changing in response to a changing climate, new technologies, an ecosystem approach to management and new thinking about the processes affecting stock and recruitment. Authors of the 34 chapters review the science in their particular fields and use their experience to develop informed opinions about the future. Everyone associated with fish, fisheries and fisheries management will find material that will stimulate their thinking about the future. Readers will be impressed with the potential for new discoveries, but disturbed by how much needs to be done in fisheries science if we are to sustain North American fisheries in our changing climate. Officials that manage or fund fisheries science will appreciate the urgency for the new information needed for the stewardship of fish populations and their ecosystems. Research organizations may want to keep some extra copies for a future look back into the thoughts of a wide range of fisheries professionals. Fisheries science has been full of surprises with some of the surprises having major economic impacts. It is important to minimize these impacts as the demand for seafood increases and the complexities of fisheries management increase.

The state of the Northeast Atlantic fisheries in recent years has highlighted - plementation as the Achilles heel of modern fisheries management: discards and unreported or misreported landings are in many cases recognised to effectively subvert sound conservation goals. Social science literature on fisheries mana- ment has tended to regard the implementation of resource conservation policies mainly as a question of effective enforcement. This literature regards surveillance and penalty as the key mechanism through which fishermen keep to catch restr- tions and loyally report their catches. This book emerged because several years of research on fishermen's compliance had made us uneasy about this rather narrow approach to the problem of implementation. This uneasiness motivated us to widen the approach to the question of implementing conservation policies in the fisheries. Taking Norway as an example, its fishing fleet consists of some 7,000 vessels spread along a coastline of more than 20,000 km, populated by less than 5 million people. The idea of ensuring desirable behaviour through surveillance and - forcement alone is almost absurd in such a context, as the task is impossible by any reasonable means. The Norwegian implementation system has thus had to rely heavily on the incentives provided by the rules and legitimacy created through a century of state/industry collaboration. Different coastal states face very different conditions in terms of solving typical implementation problems such as discards and misreporting.

The aim of this book is to discuss practically useful (operational) bioindicators for sustainable coastal management, criteria for coastal area sensitivity to eutrophication and an approach set a "biological value" of coastal areas. These bioindicators should meet defined criteria for practical usefulness, e.g., they should be simple to understand and apply to managers and scientists with different educational backgrounds. Central aspects for this book concern effect-load-sensitivity analyses. One and the same nutrient loading may cause different effects in coastal areas of different sensitivity. Remedial measures should be carried out in a cost-effective manner and this book discusses methods and criteria for this. Remedial strategies should generally focus on phosphorus rather than nitrogen because the effects of nitrogen reductions can rarely be predicted well and nitrogen reductions may favour the bloom of harmful cyanobacteria. Three case-studies exemplify the practical use of the bioindicators and concepts discussed in the book. The first concerns how local emissions of nutrients affect the receiving waters when all important nutrient fluxes are accounted for. The second concerns how to find reference values for "good" ecological status to set targets for remedial actions. The third gives a reconstruction of eutrophication. If the development during the last 100 years can be understood, key prerequisites to turn the development would be at hand.

This book should attract considerable interest from researchers in marine ecology, consultants and administrators interested in management and studies of coastal systems.

The southwestern Amazon basin, centering on the Territory of Rondoenia and the State of Acre, is symbolically if not exactly geographically, the Wild Wild West of Brazil's northern rainforest fron tier. In Brazil the name Rondoenia evokes exaggerated images of lawlessness, land feuding, and indigent peasants in search of a homestead. Despite the problems and the perception, the region has pushed ahead, in the view of the govern ment, with large-scale deforestation and the establishment of cattle ranches and agricultural farms raising manioc, rice, bananas, and other cash crops. The mining industry has been launched with the exploitation oftin stone, and the recent gold rush has attracted thousands of miners that are sifting alluvial deposits along the rivers for the precious ore. In an energy-short world, the region boasts of its large hydroelectric potential waiting development in the rivers falling off the Brazilian Shield and draining into the Rio Madeira. Planners are optimistic that Rondoenia's resources, once developed, will more than justify, at least in this corner of the rainforest frontier, the Economic Conquest ofthe Amazon. Sandwiched between the economic take-off and the dream, however, are the biological resources - the plants and animals - that must serve as sources of energy and food until human dominated ecosystems replace naturaiones. These resources are, ofnecessity, being heavily attacked to support the shaky economy of the region, but they are very poorly understood in terms of potential productivity and proper management.

Coastal ecosystems make up some of the most important and, yet, most endangered, regions in the world. The protection of the unique processes that take place in these ecosystems requires that partnerships be formed among ecologists, resource managers and planners.

Experienced in the challenges of coastal system analysis, the contributors to this book provide multidisciplinary guidance on the assessment and management of environmental impacts caused by development. Each chapter examines an issue important to these fragile ecosystems, first presenting a non-technical summary of the issue and a review of the current state of the knowledge, then following with data and a more detailed consideration of the topic. Functioning both as a practical guide, accessible to nonscientists, and as a rigorous scientific source book, Changing Land Use Patterns in the Coastal Zone will be useful to ecologists, urban and regional planners, resource managers, policymakers and students. While many of the case studies included in this volume are drawn from studies in the southeastern United States, the examples and lessons provided will be relevant to those working in all coastal environments.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

Our knowledge of the limnology of the waters situated, roughly, between the tropics of cancer and of capricorn, has depended for a long time on the expedition-approach, and therefore developed in a rather irregular, haphazard way, with the personal incentive of a small number of individuals as the main driving force. Things slowly started to change in the 1950s, and at an accelerating rate in the 1960s and 1970s. The IBP, and later the SCOPE and MAB programs, whatever their shortcomings are or may have been, promoted in-depth research of a small number of tropical lakes. For one thing, they showed the need for the creation of in situ limnological research institutes. When, in the 1970s, limnological research facilities or their nuclei began to appear in the tropical zones of all continents, an interesting phenomenon occurred: while most of the young native limnologists had received their training in advanced centres or courses held in the temperate (and developed) climatic zones, quite a few of their former supervisors or their associates became interested in warm lakes and rivers as well, using the new or newly expanded local institutes. We are, today, still in this phase and it is, apparently, expanding even further. Although not all experiments of this kind lead to happy marriages, a few were quite successful, and several papers contained in the present volume are hoped to reflect this.

Organotin compounds, used as antifouling biocides since 1960, are chemical compounds that act as endocrine disrupters. It is not known how organotin compounds cause hormone disturbance, however, and many questions remain about their effect on aquatic organisms. Studies on organotin compounds have recently evolved, with many new findings reported. Following a worldwide ban on organotin compounds in 2008, alternative compounds will mainly be used, with the potential for coastal areas to become contaminated, causing, among other effects, cholinesterase inhibition in aquatic organisms. Use of alternative compounds must be controlled to avoid such errors. These and other findings are described and concisely summarized in this book, providing a useful reference in countries where alternative biocides are being considered. Included are studies on the effects on marine organisms, making this book an excellent aid to experts in environmental chemistry, to government organizations, and to students.

The diversity, ecological role and biotechnological applications of marine fungi have been addressed in numerous scientific publications in the last few years. This enormous spurt of information has led to a dire need among students and professionals alike for a source, which contains comprehensive reviews of various aspects of marine fungi. This book addresses this need, especially since it is written by reputed marine mycologists. The latest information on topics including molecular taxonomy and phylogeny, ecology of fungi in different marine habitats such as deep sea, corals, dead- sea, fungi in extreme marine environments and their biotechnological applications is reviewed. The book presents a comprehensive source of information and analysis aimed at marine fungi for researchers, teachers and students of marine mycology.

"Handbook of Microalgal Culture" is truly a landmark publication, drawing on some 50 years of worldwide experience in microalgal mass culture. This important book comprises comprehensive reviews of the current available information on microalgal culture, written by 40 contributing authors from around the globe.

The book is divided into four parts, with Part I detailing biological and environmental aspects of microalgae with reference to microalgal biotechnology and Part II looking in depth at major theories and techniques of mass cultivation. Part III comprises chapters on the economic applications of microalgae, including coverage of industrial production, the use of microalgae in human and animal nutrition and in aquaculture, in nitrogen fixation, hydrogen and methane production, and in bioremediation of polluted water. Finally, Part IV looks at new frontiers and includes chapters on genetic engineering, microalgae as platforms for recombinant proteins, bioactive chemicals, heterotrophic production, microalgae as gene-delivery systems for expressing mosquitocidal toxins and the enhancement of marine productivity for climate stabilization and food security.

"Handbook of Microalgal Culture" is an essential purchase for all phycologists and also those researching aquatic systems, aquaculture and plant sciences. There is also much of great use to researchers and those involved in product formulation within pharmaceutical, nutrition and food companies. Libraries in all universities and research establishments teaching and researching in chemistry, biological and pharmaceutical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, and aquaculture will need copies of this book on their shelves.

Amos Richmond is at the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

Hydrometry is concerned with the measurements of all the variables in the hydrological (water) cycle and hydrological information is therefore necessary for the practice of efficient water management. Water will be a major issue as the world enters the third millennium where more than one quarter of its population still do not have safe drinking water. An increasing demand is therefore placed on hydrometry to provide the essential hydrometric information in order that the world's water resources may be managed more efficiently. The aim of this second edition is to continue the success of the first edition by including new chapters on weather radar, remote sensing, groundwater and tree ring analysis, important in extending hydrometric records. Chapters of the first edition have been brought up to date as necessary in accordance with new technology and care has been taken to bridge the gap between past methods in hydrometry. The book therefore provides an invaluable guide to managers as well as field personnel who have operation and decision making roles in water management. Contents: Flow measurement; Instrumentation; Long river records; Precipitation measuring radar; Satellite remote sensing; Groundwater; Tree ring analysis; Transmission of hydrometric data by satellite; Maximizing the utility of river flow data; Hydrometric data processing; Uncertainties and Measuring up to water resources assessment.

Drylands are usually characterised by strong climatic contrasts with rivers suffering seasonal drought and occasional torrential rains. Drylands produce a characteristic balance of hillslope and channel processes that give dryland rivers their special features. The most obvious and important property of most dryland rivers is that flow is ephemeral. Hence the relative importance of many fluvial processes differs considerably from more humid regions. Although these characteristics are not unique to dryland rivers, they share many attributes that place them outside the normal range of temperate rivers and merit separate study.

Dryland Rivers is the first text to focus on dryland channel networks and processes and presents a historical framework for research, discusses examples of current studies and evaluates contemporary modelling approaches. Emphasis is on the Mediterranean region, with comparisons to other dryland regimes, with differing degrees of aridity, and with seasonality that may differ from the Mediterranean regime of wet winters and dry summers.

Dryland Rivers is a vital text for water engineers, environmental consultants, and researchers in geomorphology or semi-arid environments. It will be an invaluable reference to postgraduate students and undergraduates at level 2 and 3, especially those focused on dryland environments.

Integrated Water Management (IWM) deals with the planning and management of water resources by integrating the different issues involved, including ecological, economic, technical legislative, and transboundary. This book offers a general framework for IWM. It includes both the different environmental problems that affect the very different ecosystems and the main methodologies able to face the problem of IWM.

At the present time, the deepening of our understanding about the nature of extreme and catastrophic natural and man-induced events, in particular hydrologic ones, becomes very topical. This book addresses the development of advanced methods for the prediction, the estimation of occurrence probabilities and the risk related to extreme hydrological events. Reduction of the vulnerability of social, economic, and engineering systems to extreme hydrologic events and the decrease of their effects on such systems is also being discussed in this book.

Dealing with these problems needs further refining of existing tools for the prediction and forecasting of extreme events. It can be done essentially through revealing mechanisms of their generation and with the use of new approaches and methodologies in related branches of statistical- and physics based hydrology.

The following topics are considered in this book:

1) Basin case studies on extreme hydrological events

2) Probabilistic estimation in flood studies

3) Ice-induced floods

4) River low flows, climatic conditions and environmental issues

5) Risk assessment and management for floods, low water events, and damage vulnerability issues.

Water is newsworthy: there is, or will be, a world water crisis. Aggravated by climate change, we are approaching the limits of human exploitation of freshwater resources, notably in growing essential food. The complexities and uncertainties associated with improving our management of fresh water take the potential remedies out of the hands of simple, local, hard engineering and into much larger units ? the basin, the ecosystem and the global context, and also require longer term perspectives.

The Third Edition follows the same structure as its predecessors, presenting the historical and scientific backgrounds to land-water interactions and establishing the links with development processes and policies. Throughout, its two major messages are that our new philosophy should be one of ?humans in the ecosystem? and that the guidance from science, being uncertain and contested, must be operationalized in a participatory system of governance based on participation. Following a review of progress towards these elements in the developed world, the international case studies update the situation in the developing world following the Millennium Development Goals, our new emphasis on poverty and on global food supplies.

This book covers the multitude of scientific research findings, development of ?tools? and spatial/temporal scale challenges which have emerged in the last decade. Tensions are highlighted in the current and future role of large dams, country studies are retained (and considerably updated) and development contexts are explored in greater depth as a dividing line in capacity to cope with land and water stress. "Technical issues" have been expanded to cover major droughts, environmental flows and the restoration of rivers and wetlands. A separate chapter picks up these themes under terms of their relationship with uncertainty and the widespread perception that a new ethos of adaptive management is needed in the water sector.

For students of geography, environmental science, hydrology, and development studies this innovative edition provides a reasoned, academic basis of evidence for sustainable, adaptive management of rivers and related large-scale ecosystems using more than 600 new sources. It will also prove invaluable for lecturers and practitioners.

Water is newsworthy: there is, or will be, a world water crisis. Aggravated by climate change, we are approaching the limits of human exploitation of freshwater resources, notably in growing essential food. The complexities and uncertainties associated with improving our management of fresh water take the potential remedies out of the hands of simple, local, hard engineering and into much larger units - the basin, the ecosystem and the global context, and also require longer term perspectives. The Third Edition follows the same structure as its predecessors, presenting the historical and scientific backgrounds to land-water interactions and establishing the links with development processes and policies. Throughout, its two major messages are that our new philosophy should be one of 'humans in the ecosystem' and that the guidance from science, being uncertain and contested, must be operationalized in a participatory system of governance based on participation. Following a review of progress towards these elements in the developed world, the international case studies update the situation in the developing world following the Millennium Development Goals, our new emphasis on poverty and on global food supplies. This book covers the multitude of scientific research findings, development of 'tools' and spatial/temporal scale challenges which have emerged in the last decade. Tensions are highlighted in the current and future role of large dams, country studies are retained (and considerably updated) and development contexts are explored in greater depth as a dividing line in capacity to cope with land and water stress. "Technical issues" have been expanded to cover major droughts, environmental flows and the restoration of rivers and wetlands. A separate chapter picks up these themes under terms of their relationship with uncertainty and the widespread perception that a new ethos of adaptive management is needed in the water sector. For students of geography, environmental science, hydrology, and development studies this innovative edition provides a reasoned, academic basis of evidence for sustainable, adaptive management of rivers and related large-scale ecosystems using more than 600 new sources. It will also prove invaluable for lecturers and practitioners.

Environmental isotope and nuclear techniques provide unmatched insights into the processes governing the water cycle and its variability under past and present climates. This monograph is recommended to advanced students and specialists and presents historical perspective, state of the art applications and new developments of isotopes in hydrology, environmental disciplines and climate change studies.

The spectrum of isotope applications addressed in this monograph ranges from the assessment of groundwater resources in terms of recharge and flow regime, identification of palaeogroundwater, water balance of river basins and lakes, to studies of the past and present global environmental and climate changes. The contributions are written by renowned specialists in the various application fields.

The problems afflicting the Aral Sea and its environs as a result of the overuse and abuse of the rivers flowing into it are well documented. Until now, however, it was difficult to hear the voices of those responsible for actually managing those waters. This volume reproduces the proceedings of an Advanced Research Workshop held in Bishkek, which brought together all the most senior water resource managers in Central Asia, from Ministers to local experts and eminent academics. It describes, from the practitionera (TM)s perspective, the problems encountered in the regiona (TM)s efforts to implement integrated water resources management, and solutions that have been put in place in order to address these.

The book sets out the approaches taken by each basin state, by way of the institutional, legal and financial frameworks adopted by them. It details the management practices that have been utilised in order both to surmount potential inter-state conflicts arising from water use disagreements and to make the best use of the available water, and it provides practical examples demonstrating how IWRM has been implemented at more local levels. Ultimately, it conveys the strong spirit of collaboration that drives water management in the five newly independent states.

This book focuses on how hydrogeophysical methods can be applied to solve problems facing environmental engineers, geophysicists, agronomists, hydrologists, soil scientists and hydrogeologists. We present applications of hydrogeophysical methods to the understanding of hydrological processes and environmental problems dealing with the flow of water and the transport of solutes and contaminants. The majority of the book is organized as a series of process-driven chapters. Areas covered include: infiltration and solute transport processes, biogeochemical functioning of soil-water systems, coastal groundwater interactions, cold region hydrology, engineered barriers & landfill processes. In addition, the book offers insight into the development of new data fusion methodologies, of value to many hydrogeophysical investigations, and provides an account how the rapidly developing self-potential technique an give valuable information about water fluxes and hydrochemical states..

Only in Australasia can the effect of technological societies on river systems be truly analysed and this unique, accessible book covers key issues in river management from a geomorphological perspective.
Australia and New Zealand were colonised only 200 years ago by central bureaucratic administrations. For the whole period of European settlement most river management activities have been carried out by government agencies and the record of their activities is relatively complete. These countries therefore provide good case studies for the impact of technological societies on river systems, having transformed their rivers in a short time from their 'natural' into a heavily managed condition.
Geomorphology provides the scientific basis for much of our understanding of river behaviour and geomorphologists are now actively involved in the management process. This book provides a collection of case studies, the first to be produced to date, which describe the management of rivers covering issues of environmental flow, stream condition, mining and extractive activities, river channel change, river stabilisation, river regulation and urban streams.
The book will prove invaluable to geomorphologists, river engineers, stream ecologists, river managers, and environmental impact assessors involved in river management and restoration.

Managing water resources is one of the most pressing challenges of our times - fundamental to how we feed 2 billion more people in coming decades, eliminate poverty, and reverse ecosystem degradation. This Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, involving more than 700 leading specialists, evaluates current thinking on water and its interplay with agriculture to help chart the way forward. It offers actions for water management and water policy - to ensure more equitable and effective use.This assessment describes key water-food-environment trends that influence our lives today and uses scenarios to explore the consequences of a range of potential investments. It aims to inform investors and policymakers about water and food choices in light of such crucial influences as poverty, ecosystems, governance, and productivity. It covers rainfed agriculture, irrigation, groundwater, marginal-quality water, fisheries, livestock, rice, land, and river basins. Ample tables, graphs, and references make this an invaluable work for practitioners, academics, researchers, and policymakers in water management, agriculture, conservation, and development.Published with IWMI.