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Target Readership	Sen. Secondary					For help with criteria, click here
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Contents:

1 - The estuarine environment; 2 - Life in estuaries; 3 - Primary producers: plant production and its availability; 4 - Primary consumers: herbivores and detritivores; 5 - The secondary consumers: carnivores; 6 - Estuarine uses and users; 7 -Methods for studying human-induced change in estuaries; 8 - The management of estuaries.

Review:

Estuaries are key parts of the aquatic system. They are vital resources for both people and other organisms and yet they are subject to considerable pressure especially with the move in many areas to locate significant human populations near to them. The aim of this book (subtitled biology, threats and management) is to look both at the natural systems of estuaries and the human impact upon them. This is no easy task because every estuary is different and even definitions of the same place can be in conflict!

Chapter one opens with a basic overview of estuaries. This starts with a consideration of the various definitions through to the physical and chemical features of both estuaries and surrounding connected wetlands. With this basic outline, chapter two starts to look at estuarine biology. Estuaries are difficult places to live in with constantly changing physical conditions and estuarine food webs reflect this. In addition to these points the chapter also outlines a basic food web and some of the key measures of productivity used elsewhere in the text. Chapter three deals with plants: salt marshes, mangroves, inter-tidal wetlands and the associated fauna. Although there's a general discussion the focus, as with other chapters on biology, is with productivity. Chapter four continues this but looks at herbivores and detritivores. The main examination is the distribution and productivity of the main groups. Secondary consumers are discussed in chapter five where in addition to productivity, species diversity is also outlined. Chapter six moves to the second part of the subtitle - threats. This is a lengthy chapter detailing the key human impacts on the estuarine system - pollution, system changes, fisheries, land works and power generation (with many sub-divisions of these headings). Chapter 7 is more methodological: it outlines the ways in which we can study estuaries. Methods noted are wide-ranging from individuals (toxicity, bioassays, health and genetics etc.) to populations and communities. We finish with a brief look through a decision tree as part of the experimental design process. The final chapter describes the various management techniques that can be used. There's a wealth of detail here from politics, planning and practice as well as law and some case studies.

There's much to like in this book. It's quite compact to there's obviously a loss of detail. Set against this, all the main points are covered. The chapters are well illustrated with masses of data from a range of estuaries. Of all the work, chapter 6 is the best with excellent flow diagrams of human impact. Overall, a very good introduction to the topic and one which deserves a wide readership.