Helgoländer wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen by O. KinelReview by: A. D. McIntyreJournal of Animal Ecology, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Oct., 1978), p. 1023Published by: British Ecological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3693 .

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Reviews 1023

be involved in the early stages of a study. It is of course of particular relevance to the present debate and preliminary study on the use of tidal power in the Severn Estuary.

JOHN CORLETT

0. Kinel (1977). Helgolander wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, Volume 30. Pp.735 Symposium Proceedings DM90

This volume presents the Proceedings of an International Symposium on Ecosystem Research which took place at Helgoland in the autumn of 1976. It contains fifty-one papers (one in French, one in German, all the rest in English) arranged in seven formal sessions. The first session on General Aspects (with a varied range of topics including trophic concepts, ecosystem stability and modelling) and the second session on Experimentation (bringing in the use of cultures, tanks, and bags) serve as a good lead into the next four sessions, which are concerned with tidal, coral reef, benthic and pelagic ecosystems. The last formal session concentrates on pollution effects on ecosystems.

The coverage is comprehensive - estuarine marshes, mud flats and rocky shores; kelp beds and coral reefs; micro-organisms, meiofauna and macrofauna; primary production and energy flow.

The list of over 200 participants contains the names of many seasoned conference goers but the papers for the most part present new material and anyone concerned with marine communities will find much of interest in this collection. The presentation of such a vast amount of information in the space of a single week at the symposium must have taxed the assimilative capacities of even the most voracious seeker after knowledge and those who attended the sessions as well as those coming to the papers for the first time will welcome the publication of this volume.

From such a rich feast it would be invidious to select individual contributions for comment, but the closing paper may be indicated as a masterly summary of the proceedings capped by a penetrating commentary which focusses on the role of micro-organisms; the regulatory function of behaviour; the development of new experimental techniques and the more critical application of mathematical models as all topics deserving attention in the future.

The Helgoland symposium publications are justifiably well known and highly regarded as significant contributions to the literature of marine science and this volume maintains the standard.

A. D. MCINTYRE

H. Le Louarn & M.-C. Saint Girons (1977). Les Rongeurs de France. Pp. 164; line drawings, distribution maps. Institut national agronomique, Paris. Price FF 80.

This little handbook on the rodents of France is notable for its introduction to the population processes of small mammals, its keys to the identification of species, its careful accounts of their general biology and ecology, including maps of distribution, and its evaluation of their impact on man's economy. It does not pretend, in its small compass, to documentation of the facts presented but these facts are right up to date and others, as well as farmers and foresters, will benefit from a full digestion of them.

H. N. SOUTHERN

Ernest G. Neal (1977). Badgers. Pp. x + 322; photographs in colour & monochrome, line drawings, text-figures, maps. Blandford Press, Poole, Dorset. Price ?7.25.

This monograph represents the ultimate in the autecological approach; the ways of the badger in Britain have been studied in relation to all aspects of its environment and it is difficult to see how these researches could be pushed further on these lines.

However, as the author relates in his Preface, this is just what he felt when he published the original edition in 1948 and we can see in these pages just what a massive amount of information has accumulated in the interval. So there is still probably plenty of scope for badger enthusiasts, as recent work by Hans Kruuk illustrates.

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