Description
Springer Biochemical Ecology of Water Pollution by Patrick Dugan
Biochemical ecology is here presented only in the context of water pollution. This is not to minimize the importance of land animals and plants in their environment or the significance of air pollution as it relates to ecology. It merely indicates that water pollution is a problem of sufficiently broad magnitude to warrant consideration by itself. Water pollution is a problem which requires the attention of a variety of disciplines. The presentation tends therefore to follow the problem ap proach, as do most interdisciplinary topics. An appreciation of various viewpoints is needed among chemists, ecologists, economists, engineers, lawyers, limnologists, managers, microbiologists, and politicians, whose communications are often "hung up" in each other's jargon. Perhaps the presentation is too elementary at times. This was done in an attempt to bridge the diverse backgrounds of those concerned with the subject. It is hoped that engineers, economists, biologists, public servants, and others will gain a greater appreciation of the interrelationship of gross observations and biological events that occur at the cellular and molecular level. Lack of such understanding is, to a large extent, the reason for our present environmental condition. At other times the presentation is perhaps too technical. This was done on the assumption that some information on chemical details may not be readily available but is desirable for an "in depth" appreciation of the biochemical events encountered in water pollu tion._x000D_ Table of contents :- _x000D_
I The water pollution problem.- 1. Significance of Pollution.- 2. Pollutional Concerns, Causes, and Concepts.- 2.1. Disease Production.- 2.2. Organic Pollutants.- 2.2.1. Oxygen Consumption.- 2.2.2. Organic Nutrients.- 2.3. Mineral Pollutants.- 2.3.1. Mineral Nutrients.- 2.3.2. Acid Mine Drainage.- 2.3.3. Toxic Industrial Waste Minerals.- 2.3.4. Radioactive Minerals.- 2.3.5. Mercury Pollution.- 2.4. Pollution by Recalcitrant Molecules.- 2.5. Heat Pollution.- 3. Water in Perspective to Population and Pollution.- 3.1. Hydrologic Cycle, Water Availability, and Use.- 3.2. Population Growth and Its By-products.- 3.2.1. First-Order Pollution.- 3.2.2. Second-Order Pollution.- II Biochemical Considerations.- 4. Biochemical Aspects of Water Pollution.- 5. Ecological Concepts.- 5.1. Symbiosis.- 6. Water, Its Properties, Biochemistry, and Biological_x000D_
Implications.- 6.1. Water Chemistry.- 6.2. Bound Water.- 6.3. Biological Implications of Bound Water.- 6.4. Solutions, Suspensions, and Colloids.- 6.5. Surfaces and Adsorption.- 7. Degradation of Organic Pollutants.- 7.1. Hydrolysis of Polysaccharides.- 7.2. Hydrolysis of Proteins.- 7.3. Hydrolysis of Fats.- 7.4. Carbohydrate Dissimilation.- 7.4.1. Anaerobic Decomposition.- 7.4.2. Methane Fermentation.- 7.5. Amino Acid Dissimilation.- 7.6. Oxidation of Fatty Acids and Alcohols.- 7.6.1. Beta Oxidation.- 7.6.2. Omega Oxidation.- 8. Hydrocarbon Oxidation.- 8.1. General Aspects.- 8.2. n-Alkanes.- 8.3. Alkenes.- 8.4. Cycloalkanes.- 8.5. Aromatics.- 8.6. Methane, Ethane, and Methanol Oxidation.- 9. Recalcitrant Molecules.- 9.1. Isoalkanes.- 9.2. Synthetic Anionic Detergents.- 9.3. Hydrocarbon Derivatives.- 9.3.1. Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Pesticides.- 9.3.2. Lignin.- 10. Cycling of Nutrients.- 10.1. Cycling of Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Phosphorus.- 10.2. Cycling of Carbon.- 10.3. Cycling of Nitrogen.- 10.4. Cycling of Sulfur.- III Major ecological Problems.- 11. Biochemistry of Acid Mine Drainage.- 11.1. Production of Acid.- 11.1.1. The Role of the Thiobacillus-Ferrobacillus Group of Bacteria in the Formation of Acid Mine Drainage.- 11.1.2. Mechanism of Action of the Microbiological Production of Acid from Reduced Iron and Sulfur Compounds.- 11.2. Consideration of Mechanisms of Pyrite Oxidation.- 11.3. Biological Means of Treatment and Abatement.- 11.3.1. Treatment.- 11.3.2. Pretreatment.- 11.3.3. Abatement.- 12. Pollution and Accelerated Eutrophication of Lake.- 12.1. Lake Sediment Formation.- References._x000D_