Bioindicator Systems For Soil Pollution, Vol. 16

How is one to make good, cost-effective decisions about the management or remediation of polluted soils? The application of bioindication techniques may provide information on the availability of contaminants, and may thus help to support management decisions. In addition, the repeated application of bioindicators may reveal temporal trends and the spatial extent of the ecological effects of contaminants. This book presents a set of new approaches to the development of bioindication systems for the soil environment. The emphasis is on the use of invertebrates, as part of the soil life-support system. One of the book's main messages is that bioindicators should integrate information derived from invertebrate communities, micro- organisms and soil processes. It discusses general ecotoxicological approaches, community and systems approaches, as well as various case studies in Eastern and Western Europe and the USA.
Audience: All those involved with management decisions on polluted soils, as well as academics working on the further development of bioindicator systems.

How is one to make good, cost-effective decisions about the management or remediation of polluted soils? The application of bioindication techniques may provide information on the availability of contaminants, and may thus help to support management decisions. In addition, the repeated application of bioindicators may reveal temporal trends and the spatial extent of the ecological effects of contaminants. This book presents a set of new approaches to the development of bioindication systems for the soil environment. The emphasis is on the use of invertebrates, as part of the soil life-support system. One of the book's main messages is that bioindicators should integrate information derived from invertebrate communities, micro- organisms and soil processes. It discusses general ecotoxicological approaches, community and systems approaches, as well as various case studies in Eastern and Western Europe and the USA.
Audience: All those involved with management decisions on polluted soils, as well as academics working on the further development of bioindicator systems.

Booknews

A bioindicator system is a tool for extracting biological information from an ecosystem and using that information to make scientifically based decisions about the management of polluted sites. The 20 papers focus on the use of soil animals in combination with microflora and soil processes, which seems to be inhibited by a general lack of knowledge about the ecophysiological responses of soil invertebrates and the cryptic life style of most of its representatives. They cover ecotoxicological approaches, community and systems approaches, and soil invertebrates in bioindication systems. They also describes systems in practice, including soil fauna to indicate radioactive pollution, assessing soils contaminated by military testing, and heavy metals in Berlin and Russia. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)