BOOK REVIEW

Helena Guash, Antoni Ginebreda, Anita Geiszinger (Eds):Emerging and priority pollutants in rivers: bringing scienceinto river management plans

Philippe Garrigues

# Springer-Verlag 2012

Book’s topic This book is part of the very successful series“Handbook of Environmental Chemistry” founded in 1980 byProf. Otto Hutzinger and now managed by Prof. D. Barcelo(IDAEA-CSIC, Barcelona and ICRA, Girona) and Prof. A. G.Kostianoy (P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow).This book provides an overview of the main outcomes of theMarie Curie Research Training Network, so-called keybioef-fects. It includes recent scientific advances concerning thesampling, analyses, occurrence, bioavailability and effectscaused by emerging and priority pollutants in European rivers.The book also covers the river management plans in Europeand the newly developed techniques for water monitoring

purposes (chemical sampling, microbe and diatom indicators,biomarkers, ecological risk assessment). Each chapter pro-vides an introductory overview, detailed experimental proce-dures, case studies and perspectives.

Contents The book contains nine chapters, each approximate-ly 30 pages, and written by more than 60 contributing expertcontributors thus covering a broad range of methodologicalapproaches for assessing ecological alterations in aquatic eco-systems. The first chapter deals with the occurrence of phar-maceuticals in wastewater influent, effluent and sewagesludge, and the subsequent removal of pharmaceuticals duringconventional wastewater treatment systems. In chapter 2, theauthors provide an overview of bioavailability of organiccontaminants in freshwater sediments in the water phase andthe methods used for estimating bioavailability. Chapter 3describes the role of heterotrophs in biofilms, starting withan overview and then examples of direct and indirect effects ofpriority pollutants on bacteria and the microbial interactionswith pollutants. Finally, an upscaling to the potential implica-tions for ecosystem risk assessment is presented. Chapter 4deals with the use of fluorescence techniques to assess theimpact of toxins on the photosynthesis of the autotrophiccomponents of biofilms. This chapter includes a literaturereview on the subject, the various fluorescence techniquesdeveloped, and examples of in vitro applications and field.Chapter 5 explores the diatom-based monitoring of metalcontamination. An exhaustive overview presents the selectioncriteria and the various tolerance mechanisms. Applicationshave been performed using a large multi-country databasecombining diatom and metal information. Chapter 6 dealswith the concept of multibiomarker approaches for risk as-sessment in aquatic ecosystems. The general concept of theuse of biomarkers is presented and specifically defined for fishand invertebrates. Laboratory and field case studies are

BibliographyEmerging and Priority Pollutantsin RiversBringing Science into RiverManagement PlansVolume Editors: Helena Guasch,Antoni Ginebreda, Anita GeiszingerISBN: 978-3-642-25721-6Hardcover, 270 pages2012

P. Garrigues (*)Institut des Sciences Moléculaires, Université Bordeaux 1,Bordeaux, Francee-mail: p.garrigues@ism.u-bordeaux1.fr

Environ Sci Pollut Res (2012) 19:1869–1870DOI 10.1007/s11356-012-0958-1

presented and perspectives are discussed. Chapter 7 providesfield and laboratory investigations dealing with pollutanteffects on fluvial communities (biofilms, macroinvetebrates).Cause and effect relationships are also addressed and arecombined to monitor a metal-polluted stream. Chapter8 describes examples of integrated models that combine differ-ent environmental and biological variables to outline the mech-anisms behind interaction effects. The last chapter presents alarge survey of about 400 sites in which both chemical andecological status have been assessed using indices developedaccording to the EU Water Framework Directive.

Comparison with existing literature In the past decade, alarge number of books and journals have been publishedcovering chemical pollution and ecological alterations inaquatic ecosystems. “Emerging and Priority Pollutants: BringScience into River Management Plans” is not intended toreplace but rather complement others books that provide anarray of different aspects than those presented in these ninechapters. However, this monograph contains very up-to-dateinformation and focuses on using data for a more realisticecological risk assessment. It also provides an integratedvision of aquatic ecosystems. It also must be noted that thismonograph covers two special topics that are rather scarce inthe published literature: the elimination of emerging contam-inants during conventional wastewater treatment, and com-

munity indicators developed for heterotrophs, phototrophsand macroinvertebrates.

Critical assessment The use of aquatic chemical and biolog-ical descriptors and how to apply them to ecological riskassessment are of significant value for junior and seniorresearchers who want to learn about recent conceptual andmethodological water indicators. The format of each chapter isnot comparable, but they are well organized, easy to read andprovide abundant recent references. Because of the closerelationship between river pollution and regulations, a specificchapter dealing with EU and other international regulationscould have been of interest. Despite these few limitations, thismonograph is of great value for introducing different chemicaland biological approaches leading to river quality statusassessment.

Summary In the last two decades, significant progress hasbeen made in tracing contaminants (“ancient” and emerging)and in evaluating their effects on biota. “Emerging and prior-ity pollutants in rivers” provide an overview of methods usedfor assessing water quality status. The book is clearly writtenand comprehensive, with a good balance between conceptualdefinitions and field applications. Both environmental chem-ists and environmental toxicologists would benefit from thisvaluable source of methodological information.

1870 Environ Sci Pollut Res (2012) 19:1869–1870