John Smol has produced a very readable text on modern-day lake and river pollution problems and paleolimnologic approaches for providing insights into these problems. The breadth of coverage in this text is impressive. It begins with limnology and paleolimnology basics and quickly moves into a myriad of water quality issues ranging from mainstream topics such as eutrophication and acid rain to emerging issues ranging from species invasions to climate change. At each step, paleolimnologic approaches for gaining historic insight into the problem and potential avenues for addressing the problem are presented. Throughout the text, good use is made of applied research that has been conducted from around the world.
This text offers students studying paleolimnolgy, limnology, or aquatic ecology a nice blend of basic science and examples of applied research designed to address each water pollution issue. Professionals who make use of paleolimnologic data and/or may need to design studies to address pollution-related issues will also find this a valuable resource. I, for one, plan to recommend it to my colleagues because it provides a bit of a refresher on a wide variety of pollution problems, basic background on paleolimnologic approaches, and very useful perspectives on time scales and trends.