Book Description

Analyzing innovative laboratory and field studies on selenium (Se) in the ecosystem, this invaluable resource discusses the biochemical and geological cycling of Se, its worldwide distribution, and the factors controlling its fate and transport within and between major environmental media–furnishing a global assessment of selenium's complex environmental behavior.Selenium in the Environment focuses on Se management and remediation strategies, including agroforestry and vegetation management techniques, an algal-bacterial selenium removal system, and plant and microbial volatilization processes. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Oh for an editor
This second edition is just as full of typos as the first, an average of 1/page, from misuse of "it's" to alternation of the spelling of Monod (Monad), to slipping the superscript so 10^5 becomes 105. The illustrations are fine and clear, and subject to the same mispelling.
The author is with the USGeological Survey, which at least used to be a paragon of critical editing, and one had hoped for better proofing in this expansion of the widely used and acclaimed text. A book at this price that stands to be a long-lived authority should have received better.
The expansion is welcome, since geomicrobiology is advancing so fast that the first edition was already out of date. Much of the expansion is given to petroleum hydrocarbons (with a couple of pages on MTBE) and chlorinated solvents, some of which has again become dated since the second edition, already, some of which appears catering to school classes.
Some of the more mysterious questions of geomicrobiology are still avoided (e.g. how do microbes get into clayey deposits where pores are smaller than average bugs and pore throats are much smaller? did individuals get buried with the sediment and adapt to survive millions of years in virtual dormancy?). And Chapelle cannot quite bring himself to adopt the new divisions of Archaea and Bacteria, using the term bacteria to refer to both, in the old style, although he acknowledges the newer thinking.
Unfortunately, in such a small specialty, the existence of an authoritative edition discourages challengers, and we will no doubt wait another or ten years for another geomicrobiology text.
If you are thinking about this book as a reference, rather than a required text, you might look instead at the American Society for Microbiology's Manual of Environmental Microbiology, ed. Hurst, 1997, ASM Press. This is a collection of articles by 90 or so microbiologists that you can probably get used, is 900 p with considerably more breadth and depth than Chapelle, and is a bibliophile's delight. Chapelle has a section in Envir Microbio, which seems to be typo-free.
Envir Microbio also contains, for instance in a section on landfill processes, relatively extensive material on fermentation, which gets about a paragraph in Chapelle's book. Fermentation is very important in groundwater bioremediation, but typically gets short shrift because it is complicated and inefficient, and hard to track because it does not consume electron acceptors, and many of its products (typically acids) do not show up in traditional chemical analyses. Landfill engineers know a lot more about fermentation than geomicrobiologists.
Chapelle is also disappointing in not having stretched this edition to cover the budding discipline of isotopic fractionation in documenting microbial attenuation processes. To be sure, most of the published work using GC IRMS to separate and measure isotope ratios of individual organic compounds post-dates this second edition, but he must have been aware of these developments. He mentions some traditional isotopes to evidence evolution of some systems.

Chapelle's index is also skimpy. No page reference, for instance, for iron reducing bacteria, although he discusses them at some length, mentioning Geobacter chapelleii, named, deservedly, after himself.
But no scientific book goes as far as we would like down our special interests. Science literature is a work in progress, not a bible, and it is silly to expect The Book of Geomicrobiology & Geochemistry. I am not sending my Chapelle back. ... Read more

Book Description

Combines a timely review of the current understanding of subsurface contaminant transport and remediation with an insightful discussion of critical issues that demand future consideration. Presents in one volume the results of research from a variety of disciplines, including chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, and environmental science. Delineates the state of the science in colloidal, interfacial, and surfactant phenomena influencing natural migration and remediation of contaminants in the subsurface. A panel discussion indicates critical research needs relative to extending our understanding and management of soil and ground water resources. ... Read more

Book Description

Reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is imperative to stabilizing our future climate. Our ability to reduce these emissions combined with an understanding of how much fossil-fuel-derived CO2 the oceans and plants can absorb is central to mitigating climate change.In The Carbon Cycle, leading scientists examine how atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have changed in the past and how this may affect the concentrations in the future. They look at the carbon budget and the "missing sink" for carbon dioxide. They offer approaches to modeling the carbon cycle, providing mathematical tools for predicting future levels of carbon dioxide.This comprehensive text incorporates findings from the recent IPCC reports. New insights, and a convergence of ideas and views across several disciplines make this book an important contribution to the global change literature. ... Read more

Book Description

This book provides a basic introduction to sediment-heavy metal interactions and how sediment chemical data can be used to address environmental questions and issues. It is designed to promote self-teaching and is written so that students and professionals with a minimum of formal training in the environmental sciences can understand it. The book addresses all of the major physical and chemical factors that control sediment-trace element chemistry, as well as sampling and sampling design, data manipulation, and data interpretation.Following in the steps of the successful first edition, which was used as a text for a three day short course for U.S. Geological Survey professionals interested in sediment trace chemistry and its application to water quality issues, A Primer on Sediment-Trace Element Chemistry, 2nd Edition is ideal for academics, geochemists, chemists, hydrologists, environmental lawyers, and water quality professionals needing a comprehensive introduction to this field. ... Read more

Book Description

How large is the natural variation in concentration of the various elements in different media? How do the oft-cited "World average concentrations" in different media compare with actual analytical data? How low a detection limit do I need to attain if I want to analyse for an element in soils, sediments, water or plants? All these questions and many more can be answered by using this unique reference book. It collates data on the most important properties and uses of all naturally occurring chemical elements. It combines these with data obtained from actual analyses of different sample media (soil, stream sediment, stream water, ground water, plants, human body fluids). This combination of facts and actual data makes this book suitable for learning and teaching applied geochemistry as well. ... Read more

Book Description

Nonliving organic matter (NLOM) comprises the bulk of the organic carbon stored in the terrestrial biosphere and a major part of the organic carbon in the sea. Organic substances, which include litter, marine detritus, dissolved organic matter, and soil organic matter, have diverse effects on the Earth’s biogeochemical processes and serve as a major reservoir of biospheric carbon, which can be transformed to carbon dioxide, methane, and other "greenhouse" gases. Given this broad spectrum of effects, efforts to adapt to or perhaps benefit from global change require a better understanding and an ability to predict the role of NLOM in the global environment. The overall objective of this volume is to provide experimental and modeling strategies for the assessment of the sensitivity of the global carbon cycle to changes in nonliving organic pools in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The discussions in this volume consider how best to characterize and quantify pools and fluxes of NLOM, the role of NLOM cycling on a global scale, human and climatic perturbations of interactions between NLOM and nutrients, and biological, chemical, and physical processes that control the production and degradation of NLOM, with an emphasis on processes that affect the persistence of NLOM in the environment. One of the most unique aspects of this volume is that it represents extensive exchanges between leading international scientists from both aquatic and terrestrial backgrounds. It will be of particular interest to organic geochemists, microbiologists, ecologists, soil scientists, agricultural scientists, marine chemists, limnologists, and modelers. Goal of this Dahlem Workshop: to devise experimental and modeling strategies for assessment of the sensitivity of the global carbon cycle to changes in nonliving organic pools. ... Read more

Book Description

This textbook describes the physics of the plastic deformation of solids at high temperatures. It is directed at geologists or geophysicists interested in the high-temperature behaviour of crystals who wish to become acquainted with the methods of materials science in so far as they are useful to earth scientists. It explains the most important models and recent experimental results without losing the reader in the primary literature of materials science. In turn the book deals with the essential solid-state physics; thermodynamics and hydrostatics of creep; creep models and their applications in the geological sciences; diffusion creep; superplastic deformation and deformation enhanced by phase transformations. Five concluding chapters give experimental results for metals, ceramics and minerals. There are extensive bibliographies to aid further study. ... Read more

Book Description

Rare Earth Elements in Groundwater Flow Systems is the first volume of its kind entirely focused on the geochemistry of the lanthanide series elements in groundwater/aquifer environments. Consisting of ten chapters, each of which is an original, peer-reviewed contribution by some of the leading researchers in the study of the low-temperature geochemistry of rare earth elements, the volume addresses analytical techniques, water-rock interactions, aqueous complexation, and the reactions/processes that influence these heavy metals along groundwater flow paths.

Book Description

This collection clearly explains how to decipher and predict contaminant fate in the environment. It shows how to combine kinetic methods and molecular-scale spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to analyze mineral/water interfacial reactions in situ and obtain practical information on the mobility, speciation, and bioavailability of contaminants. ... Read more

Book Description

More than half of the world's petroleum is found in carbonate rocks, notably in the Middle East, the former USSR, and North America. These rocks show a bewildering variety of grains and textures, due to the wealth of different fossil organisms which contribute to their sedimentation and to the many diagenetic processes which modify textures and obscure the original deposits and fabric. Careful petrographic study with a polarizing microscope is a key element for studying carbonate sediments, as a comparison to field or core logging, and as a precursor to geochemical analysis.This atlas illustrates in full color numerous features of carbonate rocks and sediments, coverage far more extensive than in any general textbook. It is designed as a practical guide for identifying grain types and textures in carbonates and will appeal alike to undergraduate and graduate students and to professionals in both research and industrial laboratories. ... Read more