Holloway, Colin W.

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156 Environmental Conservationpushed as they are through increasing population andexhausted land to move into areas of increasing fragilitywhen once the ecosystem has been disturbed. The studycertaily blows the gaff on those who still consider thatenvironmental degradation is the preserve of the industrial-ized societies and not so much a problem of the economic-ally developing.There is a neat summary of the dust-bowl in the UnitedStates and the Virgin Lands Experience in the U.S.S.R.,together with the steps taken to restore what had been lost.But this is not typical of the book as a whole, which seemsto hark back to an earlier age when due care was takenby Man of his surroundings, however unsatisfactory thepolitical regime may have been. Soil conservation program-mes in one country are reported to have been almostabandoned on independence because of their identificationwith colonial rule. The South American large estateowners come in for praise as ensuring the maintenance ofthe resource-base that is now being lost as the great estatesare broken up into small-holdings. Here too are echoes ofEliot viewing change as a collapse of an old order.An excellent chapter on encroaching deserts gives apreview of some of the issues to be faced by the 1977United Nations Conference on Desertification. But herethere may be some exaggeration. It has not been entirelyestablished that there were many deaths over and abovenormal in West Africa as a result of the Sahelian drought;certainly there were not hundreds of thousands as seems tohave been suggested. Also, it is not quite clear that theSahara is moving northwards on a broad front as well assouthwards. But it is a spirited piece of writing that findsplace for the theories of Professor R. A. Bryson on thepossible role of Man in inducing climatic variability: some-thing most worthy of further study.The invasion of upland areas by farmers and the effectsnot only in the highlands but also downstream of areas ofsettlement, together with the collapse of irrigation systems,are discussed in two of the best chapters. A point that theauthor could have made—if my shaky arithmetic is correct—is that the figures given by Professor V. A. Kovda on theabandonment of irrigated land, along with the other figuresgiven in Chapter 7, suggest that the sum total of land underirrigation remains constant.Elsewhere, Mr Eckholm points to the dangers of desertsinvading many areas of the humid tropics owing to thefragility of the soils heretofore protected by forest, and tothe world shortage of firewood as well as to the hazards ofover-fishing and ocean pollution.This is a book worthy of its predecessors written byLester Brown, the President of the Worldwatch Institute,on population, food, and the environment. They are all,however, long on the exposure of real and present dangers,but short on solutions. This is, perhaps, as they should be;for as Maurice Strong writes in the Foreword, LosingGround is a timely and valuable contribution to publicawareness. But there is always the possibility that suchcontributions can be counterproductive, evoking a sense ofhopelessness about problems which, while being within ourcomprehension, seem beyond our capacity to cope—thusinvoking theories of triage and Noah's arks. Back to Eliotagain: 'humankind cannot bear very much reality'. Butthis is more of a suggestion for future studies wherewatching the world might be accompanied by a vigorousexamination of how best the international community cangird itself to respond to these challenges. Man, after all,is the only being on this planet who can live in such a widevariety of ecosystems as well as change them; has at hiscommand a tremendous range of tools and techniques; hasdevised countless patterns of cooperation; and has analmost inexhaustible capacity for innovation. Yet there isanother reason. The heart of the Waste Land is Tiresias, thenarrator, who was himself symptomatic and whose veryconsciousness was an expression of the debased state whichhe described. The portrayer of collapse runs the risk ofbeing similarly identified—unless he is prepared also toreach out and 'grasp the nettle'.RALPH TOWNLEY{Nairobi, Kenya)Introduction to Ecology, by PAUL A. COLINVAUX. JohnWiley & Sons, New York-London-Sydney-Toronto:ix + 621 pp., illustr., 26 x 1 8 x 3 cm, £6.25 (hardback),£4.80 (paperback), 1973.The content of this book is based primarily on theauthor's experience as a lecturer in ecology at Ohio StateUniversity. His presentation is divided into four mainsections. The first traces the evolution of ecology from,inter alia, biogeography and the study of plant succession,the second describes the development of the ecosystemconcept including the spatial distribution of its living com-ponents and energy-flow, the third deals in some detail withpopulation ecology, and the final section provides a reviewand synthesis of the preceding sections—with particularemphasis on factors that affect the distribution and abun-dance of animals and plants.The approach to these topics alternates between adescriptive recital of ecological processes and an analysisof the development of present-day knowledge and hypo-thesis. Each chapter is preceded by a summary, and manyof the chapters have a closing paragraph or two of con-clusions, to re-emphasize the principal messages that theauthor wishes to convey. Evidence is presented in prose,diagrams, and photographs; mathematical equations,models, and system-analyses are few or absent. The illus-trations are profuse, there are 18 pages of references, andthe whole is rounded off with a very practical index/glossary.Progress in dealing with the subject-matter of the open-ing section is slow, because the author cannot resist exam-ining each and every tributary to the main stream of discus-sion. The pace improves in the second part, only to slowdown again on population ecology—this time because ofthe space devoted to criticizing earlier theories and case-histories on the regulation of populations. Does the Kaibabdeer saga really merit yet another resurrection, spread overthree pages, in an ecological textbook of the 1970s? Anothersource of irritation is the number of minor errors in thetext, maps, bibliography and, even, list of contents. For-tunately, most of them are so obvious that they are unlikelyto cause any serious problem to the reader.The book undoubtedly provides a very comprehensivereview of current ecological knowledge and ideas, but thequality of the analyses of information and the conclusionsthat are drawn vary considerably—being sometimesextremely good but, at other times, more than a little con-fused. For example, regulation of animal populationthrough social behaviour is dismissed as no more than aside-effect of habits that confer other selective advantageson individuals, because 'natural selection always choosesindividuals who leave the most offspring' (a phrase that isrepeated several times within the book). But naturalselection surely favours species of which the adapta-tions enable them to continue to feed, reproduce, andretain sufficient genetic diversity to be able to respond toenvironmental change, while other species perish fromhttps:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900018403Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 13:00:17, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available atReviews & Notices 157starvation or similar calamity: leaving lots of offspring is agood start but, as the author will appreciate in view of hissubsequent comments on human population, it is notnecessarily the right road to survival!In summary, the book draws together a tremendousstore of useful data which is presented in a very readableform; it will certainly provide a good introduction to thesubject for the interested observer, but some degree ofselection may be required in its use as a source of teachingmaterial.COLIN W. HOLLOWAY(Morges, Switzerland)Wildlife Conservation by Young People, by NEIL ARNOLD.Ward Lock Educational, London: 208 pp., 21 x 13.5 x1.6 cm, illustr., £3.95 (cloth), £2.25 (paper), 1976.Neil Arnold is an enthusiastic teacher at a CountyPrimary School on the edge of an English seaside town.The school grounds and a few surrounding fields excited himas an area in which to introduce the children to biology, andinstil a feeling for conservation of the natural and semi-natural environment around them. In a few years, andwith the cooperation of groundsmen, school managers,parents, and above all children, he had set up a reserve inthe school grounds which has now been opened to otherschools and interested groups. The information that heacquired, the sources to which he referred for advice, thetraps into which he fell, the despair he sometimes felt, butabove all the successes he won from the children in his care,prompted him to set about producing this source-book forany other teachers and parents who might wish to helpinfluence young people to acquire a sensible attitude towildlife.The approach reflects admirable common-sense ratherthan scholarship. A great deal has been said recently aboutlearning by experience, about the ways to instil corporateresponsibility in children, and about developing the sort ofenquiring mind that makes a scientist. The nature reserve,made and maintained by the children themselves, is probablya near-perfect setting for this to happen, and Mr Arnoldnarrates the entire process of creating such a facility. Hegives many a useful hint: ' Take a photograph of all thejunk you collect on the site—its potential educational valueis immense'; 'Replace a few normal bricks in a wall withair bricks, and fit test-tubes into the holes to see what usessuch crevices'; or again even more simply 'Make your hidewith observation slits at two heights, one for adults and onefor children'.Above all, this book emphasizes that a teacher does notneed to be an expert naturalist to embark on this sort ofapproach to the natural environment: 'Learn with thechildren' is the message, and may it be widely accepted! Thebook's theme is that tomorrow's conservationists must behelped while young to develop that feeling for wildlife,including enthusiasm for its changing pattern, that givesthem a sense of corporate responsibility for all life onEarth.*DAVID NICHOLS(Exeter, England)* In response to some questions regarding this review, ProfessorNichols wrote ' . . . I very much hope you [will find] space for it,since I firmly believe that more educationists need to take a leafout of Arnold's book. I took a crowd of 9-year-olds from mywife's school on to the beach during a low tide recently and theywere completely enthralled with what they found, and werevery receptive of the conservation message I tried to put across'.—Ed.Fragile Ecosystems—Evaluation of Research and Applica-tions in the Neotropics, Edited by EDWARD G. FARNWORTH& FRANK B. GOLLEY. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg& New York: xxvi + 258 pp., illustr., 23.5 x 15.5 x 1.4 cm,DM 19.20 or US$ 7.80 (stiff paper covers), 1974.Published as a report of the Institute of Ecology (TIE),this book results from a workshop held at Turrialba, CostaRica, in March 1973; the project was supported by theU.S. National Science Foundation, and the workshop wasattended by over 100 participants from 15 countries. Theaim of the report, to which a total of over 400 correspond-ents contributed ideas and advice, was to summarize whatis known about tropical ecology, and to define those areasof research which seem likely to require the most concen-trated effort in the years ahead. Although dealing largelywith general principles which are applicable to the tropicalregions as a whole, the book, as its secondary title implies,is concerned most of all with the new-world tropics. Thereport is written primarily for research scientists interestedin tropical ecology, but its style makes it comprehensiblealso to the educated layman.The original workshop applied its efforts to six mainfields:1. The nature of populations in tropical ecosystems;2. The structure and function of tropic al ecosystems;3. Recovery of tropical ecosystems;4. The nature of the impacts of Man on tropical systems;5. Consequences of large-scale changes in tropical land-scapes; and6. Mechanisms to support and encourage research intropical ecology.These six areas of research determined the generalstructure of the present book; the result is a comprehensiveand highly useful text, which will surely have (and ispresumably already having) a significant influence onresearch. Although it is perhaps somewhat 'flashy' in itstitle of 'Fragile Ecosystems', this is a practical volume: theopening section is the summary, which displays the aimsand conclusions of the workshop project, and lists themajor recommendations that have resulted from it. ASpanish translation of the book has also been published.It is gratifying to see that we are beginning to graspecological principles sufficiently well for valid synopses ofthis kind to be produced; vast gaps in our knowledge willremain for a long time to come, but perhaps 'environ-mentalists' and 'developers' no longer view one anotherwith the same suspicion as heretofore: the former acceptthat development is a process which they cannot (and possi-bly do not want to) stop, while the latter see that the interestsof the former are not so very far removed from their own.If this is not so, then let us hope that volumes of this qualityand practical nature will promote such a rapprochement.The contention on page 4 of the book, however, that'there is little need for further descriptive work' and thatwe should 'build on the well-developed theoretical base inpopulation and systems ecology presently available' is,I feel, scientifically premature; a prominent feature ofcontemporary biology is the proliferation by theoreticiansof 'models', the all-too-often hopeless inaccuracy of whichcan be shown by any competent field naturalist. But, tosympathize again with the authors, one recognizes thatthere is little time left for squabbling; applied ecology muststrive to put forward unifying principles, however muchthey are mere approximations to the real world, or itwill play little part in controlling the generally depressingchanges that are occurring around us at an increasing speed.N. V. C. P.https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900018403Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 13:00:17, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at

Book Review: Introduction to Ecology: Introduction to Ecology, by ColinvauxPaul A.. John Wiley & Sons, New York-London-Sydney-Toronto: ix + 621 pp., illustr., 26 × 18 × 3 cm, £6.25 (hardback), £4.80 (paperback), 1973

Book Review: Introduction to Ecology: Introduction to Ecology, by ColinvauxPaul A.. John Wiley & Sons, New York-London-Sydney-Toronto: ix + 621 pp., illustr., 26 × 18 × 3 cm, £6.25 (hardback), £4.80 (paperback), 1973

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