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Introducing the Environment Environmental Science and Engineering J.
Glynn Henry Gary W. Heinke
Article in BioScience · April 1997
DOI: 10.2307/1313082
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of planr biology. Ir is probably rhe
most accessib le text on the often
overly obtuse di scipline of plant
water re la ti ons. As suc h, it will
help to provide a much-needed
bridge between t he discipline and
related fields. Ind eed, anyo ne who
has ever watered a plant (or forgorten rot) wou ld certainly gain
appreciarion for w hat is going on
in side plants by even a casua l rea din g of t hi s book.
J O HN S PERRY
Department of Biology
Universit), of Utah
Salt Lake Cit)', UT 84112
References cited
Bo ye r .I S. 19 95. Measuring the water status of
p lants and so il~. San Diego (eA): Aca·
demic Press.
Hales 5.1727. Vegetab le Staricks. London:
W. and J. Inn ys and T. Woodward.
Reprinted .l.ondon: Scien tific Book Guild.
Kramer 1969. Pj"nT and soil water rclarion·
ships: a modern sy nthesis. New York:
McGraw· Hill.
_ _ .1973. Some reflectio ns after 40 ~'e ar~
in plant physiology. Annua l Review of
Plant Ph ysio logy 24 : 1-24.
_ _ . 1983. Wa rer relario ns o f planrs. Sa n
Diego (CA): Academi( Press.
258
Nobe l PS.1991. Physicochemical an d cnv ifonm<:nta i pla nt physiolog)'. San Diego
(CA): Academic Press.
T r ree :'vIT, K" mmanos AJ . 1980. Water stress
as an ecolngieal fa,·wr. Pages 2 37-26 1 in
Grace ./ , Fo rd ED , J a rviJ. PG, cds. Pla nts
and ,heir atmos pheric eli virolimclII . OJ(for d (UK): Blac kwell.
INTRODU CING THE
ENVIRONMENT
Environmental Sci ence and Engineer ~
ing. 2nd ed. J. Glynn Henry and
Gary W. Hei nke. Pr ent ice -Hall ,
Upper Saddl e Ri ve r, NJ, 1996. 778
pp ., iIIus. $8 \. 00 (ISBN 0 - 13120650-8 c1orh ).
Thi s ext reme ly w ide-ra ng ing book
is ime nded for an introduct o ry envi ronmental cou rse for undergraduates. Eight of the 16 chapters were
written by either one or both of the
two principal authors, J. Glynn
Henry a n d Gary W. Heinke, who
also were coauthors on tw o o ther
chapters. Seven other a urh o rs contribured t o the remaining chapters .
The essence of the boo k can be
glimpsed in the brief biograph ie s of
the contriburors provided in the
opening pages. Eight 3fe seasoned
engineers (c ivil, che mical , m echa ni ca l, and n uclea r) or p h ys ica l sc iencists, and o ne is a botanist. Mos t of
the contri bU To rs have exte nsive
records in undergraduate and g ra d ua t e teach ing, resea rch, pr og ra m development a nd admi ni srrar io n-parti cula rl y at the Univer s ity of
T oronto- and have served industry
and government at loca l, nariona i,
and inte rnational levels as consultants. Thi s experience co mes across
clearly in the text.
A ~trength o f the book is that it
goes beyond reporting routine engineering practi ce to paint a hroader
picture of the envi ronmenta l field by
including policy, management, and
ethical issues. Thi s approac h is incorporated rh ro ug hout t he book, bu t
it is especiall y ev ide nt in the five
chaptc rs of Parr I, " Ca uses o f Envi-
ronmental Problems\" which in~
eludes, for examp le, a chapter en·
t itled " Popu lati on and Econo mi c
Growth ...
Parr II, " Scientific Backgro und ,"
incorpora res a fcatu re ch a r is becoming fairl y comm o n in environme nta l
t ex ts: encapsulated introd ucro ry ma teria l from relevant field s. It consi st s
of four chapters: " Physics and Che mistry"; "Atmospheric Sciences";
"Microbiology and Epidemiology"; and "Eco logy." Th e c hapter
on ecology (chapter 9) is conventiona l
in that it is confined to natural ecosystems. Considering th e intended readership, a comparison of natura l ecosystems with "industria l ecosystems"
in terms of materials and energy flow
would have been instructive.
The first six of the seven chapters
of Part HI , "Technolog}' and Control ," dea l w ith th e more traditional
concerns of en v iro n me ntal enginee r ing, such as wa fer s u pp ly>warer and
air polluti on, a nd waste trea t ment .
The sevent h and final c hapter, however, retu rns to en viro nme nt a l man·
agemenr a nd incl udes sections on
sus ta inable deve lopment , environmental im pa ct assessment, and envi ronmental ethics.
The book takes a more int erna tional approach than a text written in the United States t yp ica lly
would. The author s includ e many
examples and statisti cs from not
only Canada, but a lso Europ e ,
Asia, and elsewhere. Transborder
prob le ms, such a s tho se between
Canada and the Unit ed Star es arc
a lso addressed . Th is in te rnat io na l
e m phasis f urt he r bro a d e n s th e
s tudent 's pers pecti ve.
Defi ni tio ns a re fr e quently provided , ofte n in boxes. Prac tic a l
examples (in cludi ng probl ems an d
so lut ions ) are given in ma n y places;
this quantitative approach is common to engineers. but the ability
to develop useful estimates is per haps unfamili ar t o some environmental science st ud ents . Figures,
tables, and black - and-whire p h o tos are liberally distributed throughout the text.
Most chapter s end with severa l
pages of problems and a page or so
of references. The problems include
both calcula ti ons and thought- pro vo kin g questions appropria te for a
wide range o f stude ncs. Ma ny of t he
BioScience Vol. 4 7 No.4
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Despite the generally broad coverage, there ;lre some om issions.
Phloem is not list ed in the index,
ye t its f un c ti o n is a basic problem
in wa ter re la ti o ns. Freezi ng stress
is noc ment ioned, d es pire its mechani s ti c patallels w ith drough t stress
a nd it s eco log ica l and agricultural
rel evance. Desert plants are missing, a lt houg h they are arguably
the most fascinating plants with
respect to warer relations. In general. there is bia s toward crops
and agricu ltur e, with less attention given t o natural syste ms. Turgor sensi ng mechanisms, molecular bases for stoma t a l action, and
d etails of abscisic acid effects are
a lso slighted. These and more topics could hav e been included witho ur m uc h add itional bulk. Pages
would hav e been save d by better
organization to avo id re pe t it io n
(es pecia ll y in chapters 6-8 ), more
ba la nce d coverage, and el iminatin g w hat I be li e ve we re unneces sa r y chap te r su mm a ries.
Kramer a nd Boyer a re to be commended for up d ating what has
been, and will continue to be, a
mosr valuab le resource for students
"IN Ttlt ~t6,l'lrJlI.,j~
I
April 1997
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references are fairly dated but still Not all relevant facts can be included, 14, "Solid Wastes"), Pseudomonas is
may be helpful, either bec,ause. of but all statements of "facts" should listed incorrectly as one of three main
their relevance or for the historical be correct. This is not easy, and thermophilic b~cteria.
Such inevitable shortcommgs
perspective they provide; some ne:" unfortunately errors appear in a
citations have been added to this number of places: for example, aside, the book is to be commended
edition. For many chapters, most of chapter 8, "Microbiology and Epi- for its extensive and quantitative
the cited publications are other text- demiology," says that cocci are coverage of a demanding field. Alibooks or government documents 0.1 ~m in diameter, that "all bac- encompassing, team-taught envi(perhaps reflecting the authors' con- teria have a rigid cell wall" (p. ronmental science courses typically
sulting orientation), so they do not 256), that Escherichia coli has a receive positive reviews from Stuintroduce students to the primary doubling time of 15-20 minutes at dents, bur with some legitimate
20°C, that bacteria in wastewater complaints. Similarly, we see this
literature.
The authors concede that the treatment are "in the stationary to all-encompassing text Ii1 a generbook is too long for a single-se- declining phase" (p. 264), and that ally positive light.
mester, four-credit course. For Lakes Tahoe and Baikal "are so
PETER F. STROM
comparison, Introduction to Envi- lacking in nutrients that they conMEL YIN S. FIN STEIN
ronmental Engineering and Science tain no microbial life" (p. 273). A
Department of Environmental Sciences
(Masters 1991) is 460 pages, description of activated sludge sysCook College, Rutgers University
whereas Environmental Pollution tems (chapter 12, "Water PolluNew Brunswick, N} 089()3-02JI
and Control (Vesiland et al. 1990) tion"), asserts that "of the biois 389 pages. Still, depending on logical floc that settles in the final
the prerequisites for and goals of a tanks ... about 25 to 40% is returned References cited
specific class, selective assignment to the aeration tank" (p. 457); ac- Masters G~I. 1991. Introduction to environmental engineering and science.
of chapters from this 778-page text tually, 70%-100% is returned, alEnglewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-Hall.
could overcome this problem.
though the volume returned is often Vesiland PA, Pierce JJ, Weiner RF. EnvironAs with any ambitious project, 25°;;)-40% of the influent flow. Later,
mental pollution and control, 3rd I'd. Boston (1'V1A): Burterworrh-Heincrn'lnn.
there is a risk of some weaknesses. in a discussion of composting (chapter
Of particular concern to readers of
BioScience may be the limited incorporation of biological sciences, together with the fact that the biology
is mainly presented by non biologists.
The chapter on microbiology, for
example, is combined with epidemiology and is heavily slanted to human health. The domain Archaea is
not mentioned in the classification
of microorganisms, and Rhizobium
is not included under nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The genera Salmonella
andMycohacterium are said to cause
typhoid fever and tuberculosis, respectively; it is not noted that just
one species from each genus is Involved. The single phrase concerning thermophiles states that they "can
grow at temperatures up to 99°C"
(p. 261), as though this were characteristic of thermophiles generally.
(A comparable nonbiological false
implication is that incineration temperatures are "insufficient to burn
or even melt glass ... " p. 591.)
Throughout the text, bacterial
"population" is used when "populations" or "community" is meant-a
problem that is, unfortunately, all
310PAAsf,
too common today even in biologitK (.{l.W£v us. ,\
J
cal literature.
Simplifying complex subjects to
provide an introductory text for beginning students is a daunting task. ([)1989 by Sidney Harris-"Einstein Simplified," Rutgers l..Jniversity Press.