J Insect Conserv (2008) 12:583–584 DOI 10.1007/s10841-007-9120-7

BOOK REVIEW

F. R. Hauer, G. A. Lamberti (eds): Methods in stream ecology Academic Press, London [Elsevier], 2007, Paperback, £28.99, ISBN 978-0-12-332908-0, 896 pp. Garth N. Foster

Accepted: 20 September 2007 / Published online: 26 October 2007 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007

Most entomologists think of a methods book as Southwood’s Ecological Methods (now in its third revised edition; Southwood and Henderson 2000), with its copious illustrations of equipment, and its down-to-earth approach to organising a field study. So, it is rather a surprise to find a methods book that is more like a treatise, with much attention to scene-setting before getting on with the job. That should not rule out its usefulness as a guide, and the clue is in the preface, where the editors note that it ‘‘has been accepted worldwide as the basic text in stream ecology’’. The work has moved on from its first edition, which provided studies that could be completed in less than a day’s fieldwork, to ‘‘classroom-style exercises and research-level methods’’. A global standard for a student text is quite a claim. For the benefit of readers of this journal, the work must also be tested for its usefulness to entomologists and its application to conservation issues. The book is divided into six heady sections: physical processes; material transport, uptake and storage; stream biota; community interactions; ecosystem processes; ecosystem quality. Seventy authors have contributed, five of them from Canada, one from the UK and the rest from the USA. With so many authors there is a danger here that what sets out to be a manual-cum-course book can turn into a series of guest lectures or essays, and, of course, a team dominated by North Americans is going to have problems producing a truly global text. The first essay, by Jack Stanford, is elegiac in describing landscapes and riverscapes. But why does the book title indicate streams as the key feature when rivers predominate in the opening text? G. N. Foster (&) The Aquatic Coleoptera Conservation Trust, 3 Eglinton Terrace, Ayr, Ayrshire KA7 1JJ, UK e-mail: [email protected]

Noting the differences in definition of watershed, either the catchment basin in the States or the catchment boundary elsewhere, one began to wonder whether there was a subtle difference in the meaning of stream. The first exercise suggests that students might use a planimeter and the second moves onto the map wheel. A Southwoodian manual would take the opportunity to acquaint the student with the merits of these items, some students being left gasping on this first beach in the absence of any IT support. In fact the second chapter’s first exercise does have a little more information on how to use this equipment: this raises the issue of the extent of editorial control. Surely if both the first chapters rely on deskmapping exercises then a book on ‘‘Methods’’ ought to have a section devoted to just these basic techniques? The third chapter has methods requiring log-log, log-probability and semilogarithmic graph paper, though the possibility of accessing an appropriate computing package is mentioned. Again, many students need an introduction to the basic concepts of using such scales before taking the plunge. The fourth chapter, on the dynamics of flow, would take most students to new levels of understanding. They would find the next chapter, on temperature, light and oxygen, quite a relief, with a little basic chemistry and the knowledge that, in real life, everything can be blamed on the stick meter. The next chapter concerns groundwater and this and the following section, which covers solid and solute movement, support some obviously well-worked field exercises. So far so good, we have studies of physicochemical variables that are relevant to most stream systems across the world. Similarly, with heterotrophic bacteria, benthic algae and hyphomycetes of Section C, we have projects that could be adapted to most circumstances. The bacteriologist limits herself to detecting respiring bacteria by use of a dye that fluoresces red in their presence, and estimating

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productivity using radioactive leucine: she criticises some modern techniques for their detection of so much dead material, but surely there would have been an opportunity to test this with one of the many off-the-shelf kits for potability? As the plants and animals becomes more complex in Section C so the treatment becomes more exclusively North American, but with the treatment of insects so perfunctory that it might also apply in the Palaearctic. In the rapid keys in Appendix 20.1, adult beetles are just beetles, heteropteran bugs do not exist, but mayfly nymphs and caddis fare little better as to adequate illustrations. It was surprising to come across another ‘‘simplified key’’ in Appendix 25.1 designed to take one to the same groups but based on functional feeding groups: it has different illustrations and in some cases different end-points, for example two types of tipulid larva and an athericid, as opposed to one tipulid, a blepharocerid and an empidid in 20.1, but these differences do not seem to be based on functionality. The exercises on functional groups repeat much of what had been done in the more basic macroinvertebrate investigations in the earlier section. Have the editors not noticed these duplications of effort? The sampling equipment for macroinvertebrate sampling needs a little adaptation for what is commonly used in Europe. The mark-and-recapture exercise is a little thin, until it is realised that the intention

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is to mark caddis cases, with the complexities of the method cross-referenced to the section on fish. A further section on macroinvertebrate dispersal covers some of the equipment again, another overlooked editorial opportunity. Centre stage is the fish, North American ones being well illustrated in colour, those of other areas being covered by a list of references. European limnologists might be mortified to find very little mention of what for many is the raison d’eˆtre, a trout. Amphibia, an important component of European headwaters, get no mention, nor does any other legged vertebrate feature. In short an entomologist interested in conservation will derive nothing either entomological or conservationist from this book, but some educationists might well pick up some ideas for practicals concerning the basics of stream dynamics. However, when I asked three limnologists about whether they could get their students away from the computer long enough to use map wheels and planimeters I was met with derision fully confirming my initial concerns!

Reference Southwood TRE, Henderson PA (2000) Ecological methods, 3rd revised edn. Blackwell Science, Oxford