Environmental Geochemistry: A Holistic Approach

✍ Scribed by John A. C. Fortescue (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 345
• Series: Ecological Studies 35
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

It is the policy of the federal Canadian Forestry Service to sponsor research initiatives from the private sector that are judged to be pertinent to its mandate and offer particular promise towards the optimal management of Canadian forest resources. This book is based on such an initiative. It represents the philosophy of the author himself and is in no way constrained by the views of the sponsoring agency. Over the past two decades Dr J. A. C. Fortescue has become well known at a number of research centers throughout the world. He has pioneered the approach to environmental understanding that is comprehensively developed in this text. The limitations of traditional compartmentalized approaches are depre­ cated and the case is made for a holistic rethinking of basic concepts and princi­ ples. Landscape Geochemistry is the disciplinary outcome that gives expression to this rethinking. It may be viewed as the minimum scale of conceptual approach necessary in the environmental sciences to solve present-day problems and to exploit future opportunities.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xvii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
General Overview....Pages 3-5
Outline of Historical Development of Geochemistry....Pages 7-17
A Philosophy for Environmental Geochemistry....Pages 19-27
Other Approaches to Environmental Geochemistry....Pages 29-40
Front Matter....Pages 41-41
Definitions of Concepts and Principles....Pages 43-49
Element Abundance....Pages 51-78
Element Migration in Landscapes....Pages 79-93
Geochemical Flows in Landscapes....Pages 95-108
Geochemistry Gradients....Pages 109-121
Geochemical Barriers....Pages 123-132
Historical Geochemistry....Pages 133-153
Geochemical Landscape Classification....Pages 155-171
Chemical Complexity and Landscape Geochemistry....Pages 173-190
Scientific Effort and Landscape Geochemistry....Pages 191-212
Space and Landscape Geochemistry....Pages 213-227
Time and Landscape Geochemistry....Pages 229-246
Landscape Geochemistry as a Totality....Pages 247-252
Front Matter....Pages 253-253
Practical Applications of Landscape Geochemistry....Pages 255-290
A New Paradigm for Environmental Geochemistry....Pages 291-305
Front Matter....Pages 307-307
Overview....Pages 309-315
Back Matter....Pages 317-347

✦ Subjects

Ecology; Mineralogy