The Algal Bowl Overfertilization of the World's Freshwaters and Estuaries

About this book

The greatest threat to water quality worldwide is nutrient pollution. Cultural eutrophication by nutrients in sewage, fertilizers, and detergents is feeding massive algal blooms, choking out aquatic life and outpacing heavy metals, oil spills, and other toxins in the devastation wrought upon the world's fresh waters. Renowned water scientists, David W Schindler and John R Vallentyne, share their combined 80 years of experience with the eutrophication problem to explain its history and science, and offer real-world solutions for mitigating this catastrophe in the making. For those who have lost sight of Vallentyne's 1974 first edition, Schindler's fully revised and expanded edition is an unambiguous road map for change.

Contents

Preface * The Algal Bowl * Lakes and Humans * Lakes are Made of Water * How Lakes Breathe * Phosphorus, the Morning Star * The Environmental Physician * Detergents and Lakes * The Year of NTA * Understanding Eutrophication from Experiments in Small Lakes * Changes in the Eutrophication Problem Since the mid-20th Century * Using the Fossil Record to Interpret Past Eutrophication * Recovery from Eutrophication * Eutrophication of Estuaries * Signs or Solutions? * Bibliography, Index

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Biography

David W. Schindler is Professor of Ecology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the first Stockholm Water Prize (1991) and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2006). John R. Vallentyne (deceased 2007) was Senior Scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada. He received the Rachel Carson Prize for his work.