Author Description

It has become clear over the last decade that it is not possible to solve environmental problems in a simplistic fashion: the complex nature of the matter requires quantification. Environmental science and ecology have, thus, become a quantitative science because of the need for, e.g., estimations of environmental impacts, effects of pollution and evaluation of environmental data on residue levels, etc. The development of computers has made it feasible to handle such complexes as ecosystems with many interacting variables and processes. There are many handbooks available in chemistry and physics, but this is the first one for ecology and environmental sciences allowing one to carry out estimations and calculations. With over 2,100 tables, organized in seven sections, this book thus aims to fill a gap in the current literature by providing extensive tables, data and parameters needed by modellers, theoretical scientists, environmental managers, ecologists, toxicologists, and so forth. Original references are given for all data as the user may wish to critically evaluate the basis for the data. A comprehensive index has been included to facilitate the use of this handbook.