This preface is being written at a time of exceptional public interest in the North Sea, following media head lines on toxic algal blooms, the mass mortality of common seals, and concern over pollution levels. These headlines may suggest that pollution of the North Sea is a recent event. This is not the case. Although no data are available (methods simply did not exist), it is safe to assume that emission (both into air and water) of heavy metals already started to increase in the 19th cen tury. The growth of cities and introduction of sewer sys tems led to the discharge of raw sewage and sewage sludge. The introduction of man-made (xenobiotic) organ ic chemicals and their subsequent emission into the North Sea commenced before the second world war. The shallower and coastal areas of the North Sea receive the highest concentrations of these pollutants. Not unexpectedly, these areas - some Norwegian fjords, the Dutch coast, the German Bight - show signs of ecosystem deterioration and eutrophication. A certain percentage of the pollutants does not remain in the North Sea but is "exported" to the Atlantic. The North Sea therefore con tributes to the global input of pollutants to the world's oceans. The major part of the pollutants accumulate in the North Sea and are incorporated in the bottom sediments. Although they are "out of sight," they should not be "out of mind.""

The Commission of the European Communities and the State Science and Technology Com mission of the People's Republic of China agreed in spring 1987 to establish a Sino European biotechnology centre. One activity of the centre concerns the organisation of joint scientific workshops in the fields of agriculture and medicine. After a frrst workshop on medicine held in Shanghai in October 1987, the Sino-European Soil Science Workshop, held in Guangzhou from 26 April -I May 1988, was the second one, this time devoted to a particularly important aspect of agriculture -soil science. The South China Agricultural University on behalf of the Sino-European Biotechnol ogy Centre was responsible for the local organisation of the Workshop; the European con tributions were organised by the_Commission. Soil Science is of particular importance to China in view of the fact that only about 10% of the whole country is arable land. Careful soil conservation is therefore a subject of high priority. A solid knowledge and understanding of the characteristics and functioning of the soils is a pre-requisite for their conservation and the very broad European expertise in temperate as well as tropical and sub-tropical climatic zones could well contribute to the efforts of Chinese soil scientists to modernise their methodologies and classification. This contribution, however, could not be envisaged as a unilateral technical assistance. Indeed, the only promising way to come to a real contribution is through joint research involving Chinese as well as European scientists."

This book is the first of two volumes intended to replace the old and now out of print Precis de pedologie, the previous three editions of which were pro duced by the same publisher in 1960, 1965 and 1970. It was apparent that the term 'precis', which means that the text was neces sarily condensed and summarised, no longer corresponded with the present day situation, for pedology has developed considerably in the past 10 years and it now makes use of the most modern and varied research techniques. It has become an entirely separate discipline and has assumed, at least in certain countries, considerable importance. In addition, different schools of thought have developed and their sometimes contradictory viewpoints are presented at many international conferences, which, if valid conclusions are to be reached from them, required considerable space for discussion. Thus, even by being very concise it was no longer possible to deal with the whole of soil science within the space of one volume, so that a two volume format became a necessity. As soil science is known to have two fundamentally distinct aspects, it has been easy to determine the contents of each volume and also to give each an identity and unity, as well as enabling a different kind of presentation to be made in each case."

A NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) was conducted on June 21-23, 1994 in Visegnid, Hungary related to the clean-up of former Soviet military installation sites. This ARW included a technical site visit to the Komarom Base Site which is a former Soviet military installation in Hungary. During this three-day ARW, a strategy and set of recommendations were developed for selecting technologies and evaluating remediation as the economic and approaches for these sites. This strategy incorporated such critical issues financial conditions of the region, temporal considerations with regard to the urgency for which remedial actions are needed for these sites, the prioritization of resource allocations for site clean-up using risk-based considerations, and other crucial issues which will affect the implementation of remedial activities in the region. Approximately 40 invited experts, representing a number of different disciplines as well as both NATO and Cooperation Partner countries from the region, participated in this ARW. The types of former Soviet military installations in Central and Eastern Europe include: aircraft bases, fueling areas, maintenance and repair facilities, training grounds, non ammunition storage areas (for lubricants, chemicals, paints, equipment), ammunition storage areas, medical facilities, production facilities, and municipal facilities. Environmental contamination at these sites poses significant human health and environmental risks. Site contaminants include: solvents (e. g., BTEX), mineral oil hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), chlorinated hydrocarbons, heavy metals, pesticides residues, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The primary environmental media adversely affected by these contaminants are soils, ground water and surface water."

Chemicals inhibiting the biosynthesis of branched-chain amino acids form a new and promising class of herbicides. This volume discusses in an authoritative way recent developments in this field and covers important aspects of these potent herbicides (synthesis, structure-activity, mode of action, selectivity, weed resistance, metabolism).

Old and New Fields of Old-Field Ecology In ecology, succession occupies a place similar to that of evolution in general biology. Ram6n Margalef, 1968. It was a great honor for me to have been asked by Marinus Werger to write an introductory note to this very special volume. Presumably my friends and former students in Europe felt that a few words from the New World might put the results presented in this exciting book into a somewhat broader perspective. My perspective (or retrospective), however, is neither impersonal nor original; it is an eclectic reflection of recent developments in ecology and in old-field ecology in particular. The ecological generalizations and theories of Ram6n Margalef and Eugene P. Odum, as we perceived them in Prague in the early 1970s, were for some of us so attractive and promising that we even started to believe it would not take too long until we had a truly unifying general theory of ecological succession. All that was needed - we thought - were data clarifying a few controversial issues. This is how our studies of old-field succession began in 1973. We viewed old-fields as a sort of 'Drosophila' for terrestrial ecology.

About four years ago Dr. Gilbert White visited China and sowed the seeds of this project through conversations with Drs. Huang and Gong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Mr. Long of the Yellow River Conservancy Commission. After some additional rounds of communications by letter, the plan for a workshop evolved and Drs. Wolman and Brush visited with Dr. Sabadell of the Nat_ional Science Foundation to begin the initial planning. In March 1987 Dr. Brush visited China and the details were worked out for the October 1987 workshop. At the outset it was recognized that the 10 American scientists and engineers ltad very Ii ttle knowledge of the Yellow River and none had ever seen it. Therefore, it became important that field trips be scheduled before the workshop to better set the stage for fruitful discussions. It was also acknowledged that the American participants could not present papers about the Yellow River per se so their offerings reflected their general knowledge of rivers using other rivers as examples. On the other hand the Chinese participants were all well into the difficult problems of harnessing the Yellow River and made their presentations accordingly. Despite these differences the subject matter was the unifying thread and cross communication was excellent.

Soil ecology is the study of interactions between the physio-chemical components of the soil and organisms living within the soil. Humans are highly dependent upon the soil ecosystem, which provides food, fiber, fuel and ecological services, such as the recycling of atmospheric gases. It is therefore important to understand the function and nature of the soil ecosystem in order to predict and mitigate the long term consequences of present day actions. Soil Ecology and Management describes the organisms inhabiting the soil, their functions and interactions and the dimensions of human impact on the activity of soil organisms and soil ecological function. Chapters discuss basic soil characteristics and biogeochemical cycling, key soil flora and fauna, community-level dynamics (soil food webs) and the ecological and pedological functions of soil organisms. Unlike other soil biology and ecology textbooks, the authors also convey a better understanding of how human activities impact upon soil ecology in a section on ecosystem management and its effects on soil biota and provide a unique perspective on the utility of soil organisms.

Geostatistics Rio 2000 includes fifteen contributions, five of which are on applications in petroleum science and ten are on mining geostatistics. These contributions were presented at the 31st International Geological Congress, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 6-17 August, 2000. Stochastic simulation was the key theme of these case studies. A wide range of methods was used: truncated gaussian and plurigaussian, SIS and SGS, boolean methods and multi-point attractors.

The five contributions on petroleum science focus on different aspects of reservoir characterisation. All use stochastic simulations to generate 3D numerical models that reproduce the key features of reservoirs.

Five of the ten contributions on mining present ore-body simulations; the others address questions like reconciling reserve estimates with production figures.
None of these contributions present new theory. Instead they show readers how to incorporate geology into geostatistical case studies in a meaningful way.

"Audience: " The volume will be of value to scientists, researchers, and professionals in geology, mining engineering, petroleum engineering, mathematics and statistics, as well as those working for mining and oil companies.

Integration of ichnological information into sedimentological models, and vice versa, is one of the main means by which we can improve our understanding of ancient depositional environments. Mainly intended for sedimentologists, this book aims to make ichnological methods as part of facies interpretation more popular, providing an analytical review of the ichnology of all major depositional environments and the use of ichnology in biostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic analysis.

It starts with an introduction to the historical aspect of ichnology, introducing common concepts and methods, and then continues with parts treating the main depositional systems from continental, shallow-marine and deep-marine siliciclastics, and marine carbonates. The last part is dedicated to the ichnology in hydrocarbon reservoir and aquifer characterization.
First overview in 25 years of the status of ichnological studies in facies reconstructions of all major depositional environmentsWritten by a selected, well-experienced and specialized international authorshipProvides easy access to the comprehensive and widespread literature

Books dealing with climatic change are commonplace, as are those concerned with effects of environmental stresses on plants. The present volume distinguishes itself from earlier publications by highlighting several interrelated environmental stresses that are changing in intensity as the climate warms in response to the accumulation of 'greenhouse' gases. The stresses examined at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop upon which this book is based include atmospheric pollutants, flooding and sub mergence, drought and cold. In future, successful farming or landscape management will ultimately depend on strategies that offset the effects of these and other environmental constraints, while exploiting more favourable features. However, the to predicted speed of climate change may exceed the rate at which new approaches farming, forestry, landscape management and genetic conservation can be developed through experience and retroactive response. The alternative is to anticipate future needs and thus identify appropriate management and legislative strategies by research and discussion. The contents of this volume contribute to these vital processes, upon which the productivity of agroecosystems and conservation of natural ecosystems may increasingly depend. Those with any lingering doubts concerning the gravity of the likely future situation are especially encouraged to read the opening chapter. For convenience, chapters discussing pollution, flooding, drought and cold are grouped in separate sections. However, many authors have taken care to emphasise that interactions between the changing combinations of stresses pose particular problems for plants and plant communities."

Sandstone Petroleum Reservoirs presents an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to the geology of sandstone oil and gas reservoirs. Twenty-two case studies involving a variety of depositional settings, tectonic provinces, and burial/diagenetic histories emphasize depositional controls on reservoir architecture, petrophysical properties, and production performance. An introductory section provides perspective to the nature of reservoir characterization and highlights the important questions that future studies need to address. A "reservoir summary" following each case study aids the reader in gaining quick access to the main characteristics of each reservoir. This casebook is heavily illustrated, and most data have not been previously published. The intended audience comprises a broad range of practicing earth scientists, including petroleum geologists, geophysicists, and engineers. Readers will value the integration of geological versus engineering interests provided here, and will be enabled to improve exploration and production results.

In 1971, the late Dr. J. Kolek of the Institute of Botany, Bratislava, organized the first International Symposium devoted exclusively to plant roots. At that time, perhaps only a few of the participants, gathered together in Tatranska Lomnica, sensed that a new era of root meetings was beginning. Nevertheless, it is now clear that Dr. Kolek's action, undertaken with his characteristic enormous enthusiasm, was rather pioneering, for it started a series a similar meetings. Moreover, what was rather exceptional at the time was the fact that the meeting was devoted to the functioning of just a single organ, the root. One possible reason for the unexpected success of the original, perhaps naive, idea of a Root Symposium might lie with the fact that plant roots have always been extremely popular as experimental material for cytologists, biochemists and physiologists whishing to probe processes as diverse as cell division and solute transport. Of course, the connection of roots with the rest of the plant is not forgotten either. This wide variety of disciplines is now coupled with the development of increasingly sophisticated experimental techniques to study some of these old problems. These factors undoubtedly contribute to the necessity of continuing the tradition of the root symposia. The common theme of root function gives, in addition, a certain unity to all these diverse activities.

Defining ecology as a system-theory oriented synthesis of both earth and life sciences, the book aims at a novel co- herent understanding of chemicalimpact on the lower at- mosphere and characteristic types of terrestrial ecosystems. To this end comprehensive flux-analytical and hierarchical modelling approaches were developed and consulted, which in- clude a thorough consideration of the specific physical and geographic boundary conditions of the processes involved. The first part is devoted to fundamentals of environmental chemistry and ecology, while the second deals with the com- plex atmospheric pathways of anthropogenic chemicals. In the last part, the manifold interactions of these compounds or their metabolites with the soil-vegetation complex of eco- systems are described. Chapters on pollutant impact on mate- rials and a review of chemical fate modelling are included. Thus scientists and practitioners facing ecological projects may expect to obtain a deeper insight into landscape ecology from the impact point of view owing to the concise presenta- tion of complex mechanisms and the generalized modelling ap- proach.

This book contains the contributions to an European symposium on "Trace Elements in Environmental History", held from June 24th to 26th at GCittingen, FRG. The confe rence was organised by the Institute of Anthropology of the Georg August-University in GCittingen. At first glance, it might be surprising that the organizers are anthropolo gists. But this is a result of change of paradigm prehistoric anthropology is facing at the time. For decades, population development and population processes in the past have been looked at in terms of morphology, thus describing the diversity of human populations by the outer appearance of the skeletal findings and by the reconstruction of population structures. The new approach concentrates less on how people in the past looked like, but moreover on what they did and how they lived. Thus, research is based on ecosystem-theories, and it aims on the evaluation of ancient ecological features and past man/environment relationships. Research is encouraged since anthropologists are asked a lot of questions by historians and social scientists, who became more and more interested in the history of every day's life. Prehistoric anthropology today focu ses also on manners, habits, ways of life and environmental constituents as they can be traced from skeletal remains, which represent an important historical source. The ecosystemic approach is promising since the experiences of daily life certainly influence human behaviour, life style and mentality, thus directing reproduction and therefore population development.

The purpose of this book is to give an introduction to the most important aspects of suspended matter in the aquatic environment: its origin and composition, the concentration distribution, transport and deposition, and the most important physical-chemical-bio logical process that affects suspended matter: flocculation. In Chap ter 1 the development of suspended matter observation and study throughout history is given, with the coming of a more modern approach during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, and the development of the present science of suspended matter after 1945. The sources of suspended matter in rivers, lakes, estuaries, and the sea are discussed in Chapter 2, which includes the supply of detrital particles as well as the formation of new particles in the water (organic matter, carbonate, opal). The concentration distribution of suspended matter in rivers, lakes, estuaries, tidal is discussed in Chapter 3, to which is areas, lagoons, and in the sea added a discussion on the sampling of suspended matter and on methods to determine its concentration. Particle composition is treated in Chapter 4, to which is added a section (4. 6) on the compositional analysis of suspended particles. Also included is a discussion on particle surface characteristics and the adsorption of elements and compounds onto particles."

various places of the world. Thus, it is hoped that this up-to-date subseries would increase the "awareness" of the world's citizens and encourage governments to devote more attention and resources to address this issue. The series editors thank the international panel of contributors for bringing this timely series into completion. We also wish to acknowledge the very insightful input of the following colleagues: Prof. A.L. Page of the University of California, Prof. T.C. Hutchinson of the University of Toronto, and Dr. Steve Lindberg of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We also wish to thank the superb effort and cooperation of the volume editors in handling their respective volumes. The constructive criticisms of chapter reviewers also deserve much appreciation. Finally, we wish to convey our appreciation to my secretary, Ms. Brenda Rosier, and my technician, Ms. Claire Carlson, for their very able assistance in various aspects of this series.

A number of well-known forests have been the object of studies by ecological teams. Every ecologist is familiar with the names of forests such as Whytham Woods in England (Elton 1966), Solling in West Germany (Ellenberg 1971), Hubbard Brook in New Hampshire, U. S. A. (Likens et al. 1977, Bormann and Likens 1979), and ladra6s in Central Sweden (Persson 1980). The number of such team studies grew rapidly during the period of the International Biological Programme (Reichle 1981). Each of these forests represented aspects oflocal and general interest. The Niepolomice Forest in Southern Poland (Fig. 1) does not possess any spectacular features and it may be regarded as a typical forest of the lowlands of continental Europe. Situated in the Vistula River Valley, 20 km east of Cracow (50 Degrees07' N, 20 Degrees23' E) it consists of two major sections: an extensive pine forest of the Pino-Quercetum type, and a smaller, deciduous, oak-hornbeam- Fig. 1. The location of the Niepolomice Forest in Southern Poland VI Preface Tilio Carpinetum forest. This huge forested area (11,000 ha) owes its survival in one of the most densely populated parts of Europe to a long period of protection as a royal hunting ground. The period of royal protection ended abruptly at the turn of 20th century under the devastating blows of two world wars followed by perhaps an even greater danger, the effects of modern developments in heavy industry.

Discussions of "systems" and the "systems approach" tend to fall into one of two categories: the panegyrical and the disparaging. Scholars who praise the systems approach do so in the belief that it is a powerful and precise method of study. Scholars who try to shoot it down fail to see any advantage in it; indeed, many deem it periIicious. Van Dyne (1980, p. 889) records a facetious comment he once heard, the gist of which ran: "In instances where there are from one to two variables in a study you have a science, where there are from four to seven variables you have an art, and where there are more than seven variables you have a system." This tilt at the systems approach is mild indeed compared with the com ments of an anonymous reviewer of a paper by myself concerned with the systems approach as applied to the soil. The reviewer stated bluntly that he or she had no time for an approach which falsifies and belittles work that has been done and is of no use for future work. My summary of the paper opened with the seemingly innocuous sentence "The notion of the soil as a system is placed on a . formal footing by couching it in terms of dynamical systems theory.""

Clay minerals form in a wide variety of crustal environments, e.g. in soil profiles, in sediments at the surface and in deeply buried sedimentary deposits, and under regional, contact and hydrothermal metamorphism conditions.
The book provides information about the dynamics of isotope systems in clays and helps us to understand the physical and chemical parameters in the transfer of masses within the crustal domain. Written for graduate students taking courses in sedimentary geochemistry, clay mineralogy, and soil mineralogy, the book will also appeal to scientists carrying out research on clay genesis and mass transfer in crustal environments.

This is the first book entirely devoted to travertine, a material in use for over 4000 years. The single-author work is a valuable reference source for travertine, covering all aspects of travertine origins, formation, composition, flora and fauna, occurrence and utilisation, as well as covering allied continental carbonates such as lake marls, calcretes and beachrocks.
Travertine, some forms of which are often known as tufa, is of particular significance as a source of environmental information (fossils and isotope geochemistry), often permitting the reconstruction of past environments. Reviews of dating techniques, classification and geomorphology are included and the author attempts to provide an unbiased but critical appraisal of current models of travertine formation.
Currently, travertine is in great demand as a building and ornamental stone. It has also been exploited in unconventional ways, such as petrifying springs and by way of unusual and little known artistic techniques. Scaling of pipes and boilers is often the result of processes allied to travertine formation. The phenomenon is described parallel to methods of scale elimination and compared with natural processes where travertine formation is inhibited. Travertine sites are of special scientific interest, with their rich and often unique floras and faunas displaying their unique biodiversity, and their unusual and often fragile biota. Conservation issues are discussed, together with the description of travertine fossils and occurrences throughout the geological record.
The content will be of interest to carbonate sedimentologists, hydrobiologists, palaeoclimatologists, physical geographers, water treatment engineers, astrobiologists, architects, and sculptors."

Saline land is a resource capable of significant production. Recent advances in research in breeding for salt tolerance in wheat, biotechnology in rice, and selection and rehabilitation of salt-tolerant plants are of economic importance in arid/saline conditions.

This book gives some practical approaches for saline agriculture and afforestation, and describes examples of cultivating salt-tolerant/halophytic plants for commercial interest on salt-affected land or with highly salinized water in Australia, China, Central Asia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Russia. It also explores the possibilities of arid/saline agriculture and afforestation in UAE.

This book offers detailed discussion of dielectric measurement and behaviour of wet soil, from theoretical and experiment points of view. The author describes numerous microwave measurement techniques and protocols, and shows how to evaluate and choose among them. The book is written primarily with the requirements of interdisciplinary researchers in agriculture and soil science in mind.

This Fertilizer Manual was prepared by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) as a joint project with the United Nations Industrial Development Organi zation (UNIDO). It is designed to replace the UN Fertilizer Manual published in 1967 and intended to be a reference source on fertilizer production technology and economics and fertilizer industry planning for developing countries. The aim of the new manual is to describe in clear, simple language all major fertilizer processes, their requirements, advan tages and disadvantages and to show illustrative examples of economic evaluations. The manual is organized in five parts. Part I deals with the history of fertilizers, world outlook, the role of fertilizers in agriculture, and raw materials and includes a glossary of fertilizer-related terms. Part II covers the production and transportation of ammonia and all important nitrogen fertilizers-liquids and solids. Part III deals with the characteristics of phosphate rock, production of sulfuric and phosphoric acid, and all important phosphate fertilizers, including nitrophosphates and ammonium phosphates. Part IV deals with potash fertilizers-ore mining and refining and chemical manufac ture; compound fertilizers; secondary and micronutrients; controlled-release fertilizers; and physical properties of fertilizers. Part V includes chapters on planning a fertilizer industry, pollution control, the economics of production of major fertilizer products anJ intermediates, and problems facing the world fertilizer industry."