ty (Chapter 1); The planktonic system of surface waters (Chapter 2); The benthos of continental shelf and littoral sediments (Chapter 3); Salt-marshes, mangrove-swamps and sea-grass meadows (Chapter 4); Rocky shores and kelp forests (Chapter 5); Coral reefs (Chapter 6); Pelagic and benthic systems of the deep sea (Chapter 7); Fish and other nektron (Chapter 8); Ecology of life histories (Chapter 9); Speciation and biogeography (Chapter 10); The marine ecosystem as a functional whole (Chapter 11); and Human interference and conservation (Chapter 12). Each chapter is supported by useful publications cited in the text, but you have to turn to the end of the book to find the full references. As an undergraduate text, it would have been better, perhaps, to have some suggestions for further reading at the end of the chapter. Similarly, I would like to see some stimulus questions, to test the student’s ability to synthesise and understand the topics covered, at the end of each chapter. Apart from this, the authors are to be congratulated on this new edition. It is an essential text for all marine ecologists and / or biologists and I shall recommend this new edition with great enthusiasm.
Malcolm B. Jones Department of Biological Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK
P I I : S 0 0 2 2 - 0 9 8 1 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 4 6 - X
Phycology
3rd edition, by Robert Edward Lee; Cambridge University Press. Cambridge UK; 1999; x1614 pp.; GBP 24.95, US$ 44.95 (paperback), GBP 60.00, US$ 100.00 (hardback); ISBN 0-521-63883-6 (paperback), ISBN 0-521-63090-8 (hardback).
The third edition of this well-known text enters an increasingly crowded marketplace of books which provide a more or less detailed account of the algae from a primarily taxonomic and morphological perspective. Thus, in addition to the second edition of Bold and Wynne (1985), there is the more recent very detailed account of van den Hoek et al. (1995) from the same publisher as the present volume.
nine chapters on classes in the Division Heterokontophyta (Chrysophyceae, Synurophyceae, Dictyophyceae, Pelagophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Raphidophyceae, Xanthophyceae, Eustigmatophyceae, and Phaeophyceae). This taxonomic allocation of chapters reflects Dr Lee’s interest in the algae with chloroplast endoplasmic reticulum, since the nine classes of Heterokontophyta are accorded a chapter each, while the four classes of Chlorophyta are subsumed into Chapter 5, although this chapter is the longest in the book. While the omission of the Bolidophyceae (Heterokontophyta: the sister class, on molecular phylogenetic evidence, of the Bacillariophyceae) can certainly be excused on the grounds that it was only validly described in 1999 (Gouillou et al., 1999), it is odd that the Chlorarachniophyta are not mentioned. This Division is of interest as containing the only algae derived by secondary endosymbiosis of a green alga in a non-photosynthetic phagotroph, which have two chloroplast endoplasmic reticulum membranes and, like the Cryptophyta which also has two chloroplast endoplasmic reticulum membranes whose plastid originated from a red alga, a nucleomorph (see van den Hoek et al., 1995).
The Preface to the third edition (p. ix) gives the background to the choice of material for this third edition relative to the two earlier editions. Thus, the polyphyletic origin of the (divinyl)chlorophyll-b-containing prokaryotes is acknowledged by subsuming the Prochlorophyta (more properly chloroxybacteria or oxychlorobacteria) in the chapter on the cyanobacteria, although the chlorophyll-d-containing Acaryochloris is not mentioned (for a recent review, see Hu et al., 1999). The decision agreed in discussion with Paul Kugrens: p. ix) to deal with fewer generic examples in the third edition resulted in shorter chapters on the red and the green algae than in earlier editions.
My specific comments (below) on the contents of the book should be considered in relation to my interests, which are broadly complementary to, rather than overlapping with, those of Dr Lee. I, therefore, concentrate on the physiological and ecophysiological aspects of the text; these may indeed be the aspects which are most relevant to many of the readers of this book who are also publishers in, and / or readers of, the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. It is in the nature of specific comments that they appear somewhat critical; I must emphasize that this is not my overall impression of the book as a whole, as my concluding comments show. My specific critique follows.
(1) Although the time between the second and third edition of the book is referred to on p. ix as the decade of nucleotide sequencing, the text maintains a mixture of classic (non-cladistic) and molecular phylogenetic approaches to the phylogeny and taxonomy of the algae, and does not have a discussion of the various kinds of evidence used in, and philosophical background to, the taxonomic and phylo-genetic conclusions
(2) p. 33. The comments about the mechanism of acid tolerance are not in complete accord with physical and chemical principles.
(3) p. 57. Most informed recent commentators believe that the Archaean atmosphere was less reducing than the predominantly CH4 and NH3 atmosphere suggested here.
(5) p. 74. The equation for photosynthesis with H S as electron donor should have2 light as a substrate on the left-hand side; as written, light is shown as a catalyst (as in rhodopsin, cryptochrome or phytochrome action) like chlorophyll rather than as a substrate.
(6) p. 78. The qualitatively major metallic cofactor in all nitrogenases (MoFe; VFe; Fe only) is Fe; fortunately this is included in the equation on p. 79.
(7) p. 79. The equation (Fig. 2.11) for N fixation is not balanced; 10 electrons, at a2 reducing potential corresponding to reduced ferredoxin or flavodoxin, are needed on the left-hand side.
(8) p. 79. The statement about the role of diazotrophy by Trichodesmium in contributing one quarter of the nitrogen to the world ocean is ambiguous; is this one quarter of the total nitrogen fixation, or one quarter of the total combined nitrogen assimilated by marine primary producers? These are values which differ by at least 100-fold.
(9) p. 81. While agreeing that 2-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase activity is not commonly found in cyanobacteria, it is of interest that the complete genome sequence of Synechocystis PCC 6803 has a gene encoding this enzyme (Kaneko et al., 1996). (10) p. 87. I do not concur with the notion that diffusion gradients are steeper around small cells than those around larger cells. Diffusion boundary layer thicknesses are smaller around smaller than larger cells, and the allometry of maximum specific growth rate with cell volume among algal cells means that, other things being equal, diffusion gradients are less steep around smaller cells (Raven, 1984; Falkowski and Raven, 1997).
(11) p. 93. 4 lines up. The first ‘cyanophages’ should be ‘cyanobacteria’.
(12) p. 114. lines 14–17. This is a false antithesis. Both subunits of RUBISCO are encoded in the plastid genome of red algae, and in the genome of plastids e.g. of heterokonts, which are clearly derived from those of red algae by secondary endosymbiosis (Falkowski and Raven, 1997).
(13) p. 122. There is electrical evidence for ion movement through pit connections in (unparasitized) Griffithsia (Raven, 1984).
(14) p. 124. It is unfortunate that further credence is given to the hypothesis of Digby
2 22 1
(1977) by citing it here. The conversion of HCO3 to CO3 and H is not a redox 2 2 reaction, but rather an acid2base reaction. The equation 2HCO3 12e ↔2
1 22 2
H 12CO3 is not balanced, or correct; the 2e should be removed. The
2 2
reduction of HCO3 yields formate (H?COO ), not carbonate! Furthermore, the 2 22
net conversion of HCO3 to CO3 in the cytosol would represent a disequilibrium situation unless (as is extremely unlikely) the cytosol pH is much higher than that
2 2
in sea water (as is implied by the equation showing OH and HCO3 production 22
from CO3 in sea water).
(15) p. 146. In view of the exponential attenuation of light by sea water, it is essential that the percentage of surface photon flux density which penetrates to the quoted depth (one metre for far-red, 10 metres for red) is specified.
1
(17) p. 220. It could be mentioned that siphonein and siphonoxanthin are not only found in the Caulerpales, but also in some deep-water macrophytic members of the Ulvales and the Cladophorales.
(18) p. 248. It might be worth mentioning that vegetative meiosis is also a feature of the life cycles of members of the Batrachospermales (Rhodophyta), as is suggested on p. 149.
(19) p. 256. The assertions about the production of much greater biomass of unicellular algae than of higher (land?) plants (presumably per unit time) needs qualification in terms of the energy subsidies and other resource subsidies needed to achieve this production. Fortunately, the area of sewage lagoons on earth is less (at the moment!) than that of crop plants.
(20) p. 333. The evidence in agreement with the ‘startle’ hypothesis of the anti-biophage action of bioluminescence in dinoflagellates needs expansion in terms of the diel variation of herbivory of non-bioluminescent dinoflagellates (and other algae) through the light-dark cycle.
(21) p. 421. It is possible to quantify the energy needed for Si uptake by diatoms to a greater extent than is attempted here.
(22) p. 440. It would be helpful to have some suggestions as to a mechanistic basis (e.g. reduced diffusion boundary layer thickness, and hence greater potential flux of nutrients to the surface of the diatom mat) for the faster growth of benthic diatoms in fast-flowing than in slow-flowing freshwater streams.
(23) p. 466. Do mannitol and glucose really accumulate solely in the plastids of the Xanthophyceae (Tribophyceae) during photosynthesis? If they do, then the osmotic balance of the cell dictates significant osmotic swelling of the plastids and shrinkage of the rest of the cell. Is this observed?
(24) p. 487. Why does desmarestence have H at the junction of the ring and the side-chain? Convention has it that H in this position is taken for granted, and only a substituent other than H should be indicated.
(25) p. 489. I cannot understand why Fucus sperm attractant (fucoserratin) is excluded from the generalization that ‘all of the sexual hormones in the brown algae are C8 to C11 olefins’ (unsaturated open-chain hydrocarbons containing at least one double bond), most of them incorporating a five- or seven-membered ring structure? Fucoserratin is 1,3,5 octatriene (C olefin) and thus fits the definition, even bearing8 in mind that it lacks a ring structure (the definition has the proviso ‘most of . . . ’). (26) p. 501. It is clear that the source of acidity in some members of the Desmarestiales (and, indeed, members of the Ectocarpales) is not malic acid. Achieving pH 2 as a result solely of the dissociation of malic acid would be difficult, granted the pKa1 and pKa2 values of malic acid. In-so-far as it is possible to attribute acidity to a specific low pK acid in a mixture of cations and anions in cell vacuoles, thea acidity of the cell contents of certain brown algae is a function of sulphuric acid. The evidence which has accrued over the four decades since the pioneering work of Eppley and Bovell (1958) is summarised by Sasaki et al. (1999).
(27) p. 502, line 4. The meaning would be better rendered by exhausting rather than exhaustive.
availability (more in deep-mixed waters in winter than in the upper mixed layer of stratified waters in summer) in interpreting the seasonal changes in composition of Laminaria (Falkowski and Raven, 1997).
(29) pp. 542–543. I appreciate that there is a subjective element in determining what taxa are selected for consideration, but why is the Himanthaliaceae more prominent than the Hormosiraceae, Notheiaceae or Seirococcaceae?
(30) pp. 543–544. The Sargasso Sea is much closer to the coast of Central America than to that of North-West Africa.
(31) p. 558. There is no mention of fatty-acid esters of fucoxanthin as major carotenoids of the Prymnesiophytes (p. 13 of van den Hoek et al., 1995).
(32) pp. 573–574. There is no mention of breakdown of DMSP (dimethylsulfonio-propionate) as the source of acrylic acid in Phaeocystis (Kienne et al., 1996).
These comments notwithstanding, the text reads well, and provides a comprehensive and comprehensible overview of the algae which would be of most use to many readers of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. The book has a good index, a valuable glossary, and is well referenced. It is commendably free of typographic errors. However, a few mis-matches of terminology can be found. Thus, the ‘new’ Emiliania huxleyi (pp. 571, 572, 574, 575) co-exists with the ‘old’ Coccolithus huxleyi (pp. 570, 574), and the ‘new’ ribulose bisphosphate is intermingled with the ‘old’ ribulose diphosphate. At the production level, my copy lacked page numbers on pp. 461–465 and pp. 558–559; these are pages with text, rather than on pages introducing ‘Parts’ which are conventionally not numbered. Furthermore, my copy had blurred typeface on several pages between 520 and 541.
With the provisos mentioned above, I recommend this book as good value for money for marine biologists and ecologists who need a guide to the biology and taxonomy of O -evolving primary producers in the ocean.2
J.A. Raven Biological Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4 HN, UK
References
Bold, H.C., Wynne, M.J., 1985. An introduction to the algae. Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Digby, P.S.B., 1977. Photosynthesis and respiration in the coralline algae, Clathromorphum circumscriptum
and Corallina officinalis and the metabolic basis of calcification. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 57, 1118–1124.
Eppley, R.W., Bovell, C.R., 1958. Sulfuric acid in Desmarestia. Biological Bulletin 115, 101–106. Falkowski, P.G., Raven, J.A., 1997. Aquatic photosynthes. Blackwell Science, Malden, Mass.
´ ¨
Gouillou, L., Chretiennot-Dinet, M.-J., Medlin, L.K., Claustre, H., Louiseaux-de Goer, S., Vaulot, D., 1999.
Bolidomonas: a new genus with two species belonging to a new algal class, the Bolidophyceae
(Heterokonta). Journal of Phycology 35, 368–381.
¨
Kaneko, T. et al., 1996. Sequence analysis of the genome of the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 II. Sequence determination of the entire gene and assignment of potential protein-coding regions. DNA Research 3, 109–136.
Kienne, R.P., Visscher, P.T., Keller, M.D., Kirst, G.O. (eds) 1996. Biological and environmental chemistry of DMSP and related sulfonium compounds. Plenum, New York.
Raven, J.A., 1984. Energetics and transport in aquatic plants. A.R. Liss, New York.
Sasaki, H., Kataoka, H., Kamiya, M., Kawai, H., 1999. Accumulation of sulfuric acid in Dictyotales (Phaeophyceae): taxonomic distribution and ion chromatography of cell extracts. Journal of Phycology 35, 732–739.
van den Hoek, C., Mann, D.G., Jahns, H.M., 1995. Algae. An introduction to phycology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
