Synthesis And Modelling Of Intermittent Estuaries

Synthesis and Modelling of Intermittent Estuaries

This book reports on the findings of, and swnmarizes the conclusions from, the Port Hacking Estuary Project, a model-guided, multidisciplinary study of an estuarine ecosystem. The Project began in 1973, at a time when it was thought that environmental problems could be solved readily by assembling a multidisciplinary team of research scientists and having them co-ordinate their research around the construction of an ecosystem model. But a decade has passed and time has not been easy on this approach. The anticipated predictive dynamic models have not been produced and bitter argument has often marred the course of such studies. Yet the need to anticipate the flow of various chemical species (carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, toxicants) through the environment remains: the evidence is everywhere, from fertilization of urban lakes to acid rain. The magnitude of the problem ensures that funds will continue to be made available - although with short-term variations as perceptions swing. It is thus clear that although the difficulties are great, so is the need. It is from this background that we present this book. The Port Hacking Estuary Project involved some 15 - 20 research scientists over a period of 5 years. The goal was to research the flow of carbon into, within, and out of a small unpolluted estuary chosen for convenience rather than for its social significance. The idea was to use the information obtained from these studies to build a predictive dynamic model.

Synthesis and Modelling of Intermittent Estuaries

Immunochemical Approaches to Coastal, Estuarine and Oceanographic Questions

This volume represents a collection of pioneering papers introducing immunochemical techniques to the aquatic sciences. It is the product of a workshop entitled "Immunochemical Approaches to Coastal, Estuarine and Oceanographic Questions" held at the University of Southern Maine, Portland, Oct. 5-7, 1986. Funding from many sources made this workshop possible, and is gratefully acknowledged. The reader will note great variability in both the quality and scope of the papers which we have divided 'into four sections: I. Background material on the immune system (borrowed from a recent NIH publication) II. Background material related to aquatic sciences III. Techniques IV. Applications Readers familiar with terminology are directed to start with the original contributions related to aquatic sciences, page 21. Some of the contributions are abstracts only. Others are preliminary, for which we are grateful to the authors for their willingness to share recent sometimes tentative findings with a broader community. Some offer novel and tempting insights, but as they exist, lack adequate standards and controls. Others are thorough and represent major scientific contributions. The promise rests in generating and working with reagents of great specificity enabling orders of magnitude improvements in the sensitivity of our measurements. Authors also address the problems and limitations. We thank the numerous authors and reviewers. In support of every successful endeavor is someone of unusual savvy. For us, this has been David A. Phinney. His leadership, wisdom and wit have been important to the introduction of flow cytometry/sorting and immunochemistry into aquatic research.