The title is vague, perhaps intentionally. You cannot, for example, find what is known about the effects of air pollution on specific agricultural crops, horticultural plants, or plant communities. Rather, the chapters are oriented toward rigorous discussions of a particular effector group of effects on various plant species and cultivars. Twelve chapters provide a conclusion, a generalization, or a final considerations section that serves as a summary. However, the value of these varies considerably. I believe the authors should have insisted that all contributors provide a well-organized summary. Most of the contributors acknowledge the limits of their data and lament the paucity of studies that have actually been done. The first chapter (avoid holding your breath while reading this!), "Global status of air pollution: An overview," helps orient the reader by providing a useful overview on the basic components of pollution in our atmosphere (sulfur dioxide, suspended particulate matter - the Los Angeles basin has the highest levels in the U.S. - lead, carbon monoxide, acid deposition, ozone, methane, etc.). These atmospheric pollutants, singly and in combination, are discussed in the remaining chapters. Chapter topics include atmospheric chemistry and crop growth; soil and weather effects on source-sink interactions; atmospheric CO2 and its effect on terrestrial vegetation; elevated CO2 and air pollutants in wintertime; stomatal behavior of plants exposed to air pollution; resistance mechanisms in plants; phenolic compounds in defense against air pollution; biochemical basis for toxicity of ozone; plant response to atmospheric sulfur; root physiology and air pollution; wood development and air pollution; seed growth and air pollution; forest growth and air pollution; and diagnosis of forest decline; as well as others.
The last chapter provides a useful four-page list on potential areas of research. I suspect the authors had to cut this chapter short as their list could undoubtedly be expanded 10-fold (Chapter 17 ends with its own "needed research" list). Perhaps one of the most important contributions of this book is not so much to cite potential cause and effect scenarios but to elucidate countless potential research stratagems.
Although an enormous amount of information is presented in each chapter, the book assumes a certain understanding of basic principles of plant response to air pollution. The in-depth treatments may prove overwhelming for those new to the field of air pollution and plants. A less rigorous approach to basic principles is found in plant stress from air pollution" (Treshow and Anderson, 1989). However, "Plant Response" is highly recommended for those who need facts, data, and primary observations.
For many years air pollution research focused on trying to eliminate variables and concentrated instead on a single pollutant. Although these types of studies are quite important in demonstrating cause and effect relationships, they do not mimic real-world, ambient, atmospheric conditions in which air pollutants are continuously interacting with native, crop, and forest plant communities. Although air pollutant interactions, which can produce synergistic, additive, or antagonistic effects in plants, are briefly mentioned in a few chapters (e.g., pp 136, 138, and 241), 1 was disappointed that this book did not include an entire chapter on this topic because of the importance of understanding how pollutant interactions can affect plant response. In Chapter 2, Krupta states that "greater emphasis should be directed to experiments conducted in open, ambient environments so as to increase our confidence in the results we obtain." Such research needs to be done but this is complex stuff! I couldn't help but reflect back on Gleick's (1987), discussion of the "Butterfly Effect," the impossibility of predicting weather for more than a few days, and the nonlinearity, and hence extreme complexity of most dynamic systems observed on earth. The botanists and atmospheric scientists who study air pollution and plants certainly have their work cut out. - R. John Little, Sycamore Environmental Consultants, Inc., Sacramento, CA
Literature Cited
Gleick, J. (I987). Chaos. Making a new science. Penguin Books, NY.
Plants of Desert Dunes. A. Danin. 1996. ISBN 3-540-59260-1 (cloth US$99.00) 177 pp. Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 - This slim volume provides a pleasant introduction to the plants that grow on desert dunes. In most books on the flora of and regions it is the succulents that steal the stage. This book, which deals solely with habitats associated with unconsolidated sand, focuses on plants adapted to survive the rigors of an inherently unstable substrate. Physical processes associated with dune formation and structure and the interaction between wind movement of sand and the growth habits and dispersal mechanisms of plants forms the introduction to the book. We learn the various ways that sand particles can be transported and how their accumulation around vegetation results in the formation of nebkas. The central portion of the book is devoted to "plant case histories and ecomorphological types" - specifically, "species requiring sand accumulation," "species resistant to deep sand cover or removal,"
"species actively resistant to sand deflation," etc. Within each of these subsections, particular attention is given to how the growth and development of individual species allows them to survive their particular microhabitat. I was particularly intrigued by the species that require sand accumulation. The growth of these perennial grasses is actually stimulated becoming covered in sand, typically resulting in the production of nodal active roots.
Discussion of how microbiotic crusts develop on sands were a welcome addition. 'Me final portion of the book compares plants of desert dunes with those of coastal dunes. I enjoyed the very international coverage of dune habitats and species and will be sure to pack this book on my next trip to the Eureka Valley in California or hopefully someday on a trip to either the Namib or the Negev deserts. Because individual species are discussed in detail, it will be a valuable addition to any local flora. Finally, this volume is well illustrated - both with photographs and diagrams. I learned a lot reading it and it has greatly enhanced my appreciation of the rigors and the ingenuity of the plants that grow on desert dunes.N.M. Holbrook, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Atlas of Nevada Conifers: A Phytogeographic Reference. David Alan Chariet. 1996. ISBN 087417-265-9 (paper US$35.00) 320 pp. University of Nevada Press, Reno NV 89557.
As with many reference books, the Atlas does not provide lively reading material: most of the book consists of maps and tables of data. The Introduction and a short, 1-2 page vignette on each species are the major sections of prose. The vignettes provide a nice summary on each species distribution in and around the state. Although the vignettes also provide selected information about a plants ecology, this type of information is limited in the book, and Charlet refers readers to appropriate texts that provide more details on ecology, natural history, and taxonomy of conifers.
The overall organization of the book is appropriate. Data are organized logically by species, which in turn are nested within genus, then within family. For each species, Charlet typically provides, in order, the short summary vignette, a distribution map, then tables of data. Many of the species also have detailed line drawings of foliage and cones by Bridget Keimel. However, several organizational details are irritations that make this reference book unnecessarily difficult to use. First, the numerical codes for each mountain range that are shown on the index map on page 2 are not explained until pages 307-315. Second, it is difficult to cross reference between the distribution map and data tables for each species: the distribution maps for individual species do not have mountain range designations, whereas the data tables are organized by mountain range. To cross reference between the data tables and maps, a reader would have to memorize the location of 314 mountain ranges, or constantly flip between the index map on page 2 and the numeric codes on pages 307-315. Even someone, like ourselves, who is familiar with some of the mountain ranges in Nevada will find it difficult to track information without flipping back and forth among the distribution map, index map, and appendix. Third, to make this reference guide more complete, line drawings of all the species would have been useful, and it would be nice to have these sketches show a single needle or needle bunch, a needle cross section, and a seed in addition to the general foliage and cone drawings.
The importance of the Atlas to most readers will be its meticulous, comprehensive data set. Because the book lacks a comprehensive interpretation of the data in a plant geography context, its utility to a general reader will be very limited. None-the-less, this compilation of data is useful to scientists interested in where a particular conifer grows, both by elevation and by latitude-longitude. For example, the Atlas has been a useful tool for our research on the modem and paleo-distributions of plants in the Great Basin. - Robert S. and Cheryl L. Nowak, Department of Environmental and Resource Sciences, University of Nevada, and Intermountain Research Laboratory, US Forest Service.
Treshow, M. and F. K. Anderson. (1989). Plant stress from air pollution. John Wiley & Sons, NY.
Nevada. Charlet then compiled his and previous records of each conifers presence into 2 reference materials: a distribution map for each species and a series of data tables that summarize collection information and observations for each species by mountain range.