Estuarine Comparisons compares the knowledge gained about many of the world's estuaries. The book compares the Pacific, Gulf, and Atlantic coast estuaries, and the physical, chemical, and biological parameters in estuaries throughout the world. The text also compares the features of North Sea, east and West Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific estuaries, as well as of pioneering work in the Chang Jiang estuary of China, one of the largest in the world. Comparisons of anadromous fisheries, estuarine microbiology, and many other interactive features over a wide variety of latitudinal and longitudinal variation are also encompassed. People interested in estuaries, including ecologists, will find the book invaluable.

For the inhabitants of many of the world's major towns and cities, estuaries provide their first and nearest glimpse of a natural habitat. Despite the attempts of man to pollute or reclaim it, the estuarine ecosystem continues to provide a fascinating insight into a natural world where energy is transformed from sunlight into plant material, and then through the steps of a food chain is converted into a rich food supply for birds and fish. When the previous editions of this book appeared, biologists were beginning to realize that the estuarine ecosystem was an ideal habitat in which to observe the processes controlling biological productivity. In the intervening period, many more estuaries and their inhabitants have been studied intensively. It is now possible to answer many of the questions posed by the earlier editions, and to pursue further the explanation of high productivity in estuaries and of energy utilization at different trophic levels within estuarine food webs. A significant amount of new information has also been accumulated on the human use and abuse of these habitats, particularly the effects of pollution. Although the world's seas are vast and may appear capable of receiving unlimited quantities of human effluent, such waste is often first discharged into the confined waters of estuaries. In practice, marine pollution is often essentially estuarine pollution. To reflect the huge impact of humans on estuaries, and to consider how we may either modify, remove or enrich the estuarine ecosystem, three completely new chapters have been prepared in this edition. These consider anthropogenic change (including pollution) in estuaries, the diverse uses and abuses of the estuarine habitat by man, and the methods used to study human induced changes in estuaries. Finally, this text examines the ways in which estuarine management can monitor, control or prevent the pollution and destruction of this fragile ecosystem.

Approx.509 pages

This volume presents the papers given at the meeting "Estuarine Management and Quality Assessment" held at Trinity College, Dublin in September 1983. The meeting was organised by the Environmental Sci ences Unit, TCD and the Estuarine and Brackish-Water Sciences Associ ation and was attended by delegates from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Holland and Portugal. The theme for the meeting was deliberately chosen in an attempt to bring together the various disciplines and interests in the field of estuarine quality, and the extent to which this objective was met may be judged from the diversity of the contributions. The meeting was arranged under three sub-headings which could be roughly summar ised thu- a) Modelling - as representative of the engineering hydrodynamicist approach. b) Impact - as representative of the biologist-type approach. c) Management - attempting to reconcile the different approaches to, and demands on, the estuary. In fact, since most contributions overlapped into the other two categories, the order in this volume has been changed somewhat from the meeting, and we feel that this book may be fairly presented as one unit. Contributions for which it was not possible to give full transcripts have been included, for completeness, as abstracts. In each session, an invited speaker summarised the state of the art, and the other speakers followed up by describing some new approach to or refinement of the problem.