Industrial seaweed use started in Brittany in the XVII century. Today, 700 species have been identified along 1000 km of shoreline, producing 10 million tons of biomass. In the Fourteenth International Seaweed Sumposium the latest developments in the area are discussed. The blending of molecular biology with traditional taxonomy is improving our understanding of phylogeny and species relationships among many of the important algae. A new generation of biologically-based management models is gradually incorporating field testing, concepts from ecological theory and principles from population biology. Prediction is being improved, and an appropriate balance is being struck between commercial exploitation and the preservation of wild seaweed resources. Cell and tissue culture of seaweeds is entering the mass-production phase. Field farming is now entering the large-scale production area. New, biologically active compounds are being described, obtained from algae, and new tools for the characterisation of phytocolloids are described. Microalgal blooms and toxins are also experiencing a flourish of new results.

This much revised and expanded edition provides a valuable and detailed summary of the many uses of diatoms in a wide range of applications in the environmental and earth sciences. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of diatoms in analysing ecological problems related to climate change, acidification, eutrophication, and other pollution issues. The chapters are divided into sections for easy reference, with separate sections covering indicators in different aquatic environments. A final section explores diatom use in other fields of study such as forensics, oil and gas exploration, nanotechnology, and archaeology. Sixteen new chapters have been added since the first edition, including introductory chapters on diatom biology and the numerical approaches used by diatomists. The extensive glossary has also been expanded and now includes over 1,000 detailed entries, which will help non-specialists to use the book effectively.

The Twelfth International Diatom Symposium stressed how diatoms can be used to assess the human impact on natural waters, without neglecting other important fields of research. As the frustules of many diatom species are relatively resistant to dissolution they are preserved in freshwater and marine sediments and provide a record of past environments on earth. In past decades they have been successfully used to reconstruct changes in water bodies evoked by changes in salinity, acidification and eutrophication. In the last few years diatom-inferred predictions of environmental variables have become much more quantitative. In the most recent research reports the strong separation between palaeolimnological and neolimnological diatom research is fading, as palaeolimnologists are increasingly using modern calibration sets to infer past states of the environment. This quantitative approach is also very suitable for prediction of future changes in the biota of surface waters. Also ecological changes due to climatic modification have been investigated more thoroughly recently. A very important new research topic is the occurrence of toxic diatoms, particularly along the coasts of North America. These proceedings are intended to be a balanced view of such modern developments in diatom research. They should also be of interest to non-specialists in diatoms, who can use the results of diatom research as a tool in a more general taxonomic, ecological and geological context.

Now in its second edition, Pollution of Lakes and Rivers provides essential insights into present-day water quality problems from an international perspective. Explains simply and effectively how lake sediments can be used to reconstruct pollution history Includes over 200 additional references and a new chapter on recent climatic change and its effects on water quality and quantity Tackles present-day water quality problems from an international perspective Previously published by Hodder Arnold PowerPoint slides of the artwork from the book are available from: http://post.queensu.ca/~pearl/textbook.htm Reviews: "This is a very well-written and wide-ranging volume that is both instructive and topical. It is likely to prove useful as an introduction to the general area, a reference source and for teaching purposes." (The Holocene, November 2008) "If you thought that paleolimnology was just mud, pollen, and diatoms then you will likely be both struck by the complexity of this field of research and grateful that John Smol, FRSC, has described it so clearly and broadly. Simply put, the second edition is an excellent book." ( Journal of Phycology, 2008) “This is a useful text. It provides a good level of detail so that the beginner in this area can appreciate what palaeolimnology can (and cannot) achieve. It goes beyond the simple introduction to provide a detailed understanding of how techniques can be applied ... This is a different take on the usual pollution text and would be of great use to those wishing to understand more from sedimentary records.” Taken from the British Ecological Society’s Teaching Ecology website "John Smol has extensive experience in this field of paleoenvironmental research which he combines well with his excellent written communication skills to produce a text that is easy to read but also thought provoking." (Quaternary Science Reviews, 2009) “The breadth of coverage in this text is impressive.” (Lake and Reservoir Management, 2009) “If I could speak with fluidity and clarity in my lectures as consistently as John Smol writes my students would be very grateful.” (Journal of Paleolimnology, 2009)