Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry [Hardcover]

Francis H. Chapelle (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 047134852X | ISBN-13: 978-0471348528 | Publication Date: October 26, 2000 | Edition: 2

Up-to-date coverage and a unique, multidisciplinary approach

The ongoing effort to protect our valuable ground-water resources necessarily involves scientists and engineers from many disciplines. Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry, Second Edition is designed to bridge the historical lack of communication among these disciplines by detailing-in language that cuts across specialties-the impact of microorganisms and microbial processes on ground-water systems.

Carefully revised to reflect the many recent discoveries that have been made in the field, the Second Edition begins with an overview of microbiology, ideal for hydrologists and others who may lack formal training in the field. These initial chapters systematically cover the kinds of microorganisms found in subsurface environments, focusing on their growth, metabolism, genetics, and ecology.

The second part of the book offers a hydrologic perspective on how microbial processes affect ground-water geochemistry in pristine systems. It also introduces the different classes of ground-water systems, and gives an overview of techniques for sampling subsurface environments. Readers gain an understanding of biogeochemical cycling in ground-water systems-in coverage unique to this book-and how ground-water chemistry can be used to study microbial processes in aquifer systems.

The final section of the book deals with the biodegradation of human-introduced contaminants in ground-water systems, with an up-to-date review of the physiology, biochemistry, and redox conditions that favor biodegradation processes.

Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry, Second Edition is important reading for geoscientists, hydrologists, and environmental engineers, as well as for water planners and lawyers involved in environmental issues. It also serves as a compelling text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in ground-water chemistry.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A timely contribution to protecting our valuable ground-water resources. Divided into three sections, it begins with a basic overview of microbiology, detailing the kinds of microorganisms present, the bacterial growth, metabolism, genetics and microbial ecology in ground-water. Part 2 discusses microbial abundance and distribution of microorganisms, sampling techniques, biogeochemical cycling and geochemical modeling. Lastly, it deals with microbial processes in aquifers that have been chemically contaminated, a subject of great interest because bioremediation--using microorganisms to detoxify pollutants--is a potentially useful and cost-effective technology. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

The difficult struggle to protect our valuable ground-water resources necessarily involves scientists and engineers from many disciplines. To prevail in this effort, these practitioners—including microbiologists, hydrogeologists, geoscientists, and environmental engineers—must have a common understanding of essential ground-water quality issues and problems. That includes a basic grasp of how microorganisms and microbial processes affect the chemistry of ground water in both pristine and chemically stressed aquifer systems. Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry marks the first attempt to bridge the historical lack of communication among these disciplines by detailing—in language that cuts across specialties—the impact of microorganisms and microbial processes on ground-water systems. To bring these diverse practitioners together, the book has been organized in three parts, with each section addressing the information needs of specific disciplines. The first six chapters of Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry provide an overview of microbiology that’s geared to geoscientists who may lack formal training in the field. Here, the book systematically covers the kinds of microorganisms found in subsurface environments, focusing on their growth, metabolism, genetics, and ecology. The second part of the book, which covers four chapters, speaks both to geoscientists and to microbiologists. It offers a hydrologic perspective on how microbial processes affect groundwater geochemistry in pristine systems—an important topic for geochemists since most ground-water reservoirs have not been chemically affected by human activities, and naturally occurring microbial processes have major impacts on water quality. At the same time, Part Two introduces microbiologists to the different classes of ground-water systems, and gives an overview of techniques for sampling subsurface environments. In addition, microbiologists gain an understanding of biogeochemical cycling in ground-water systems—in coverage that’s unique to this book—and of the classic geochemical modeling techniques that are used to study microbial processes. The final three chapters of Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry focus in on microbial processes in contaminated ground-water systems—a topic of central concern to environmental scientists. In this concluding section, microbiologists see how degradation processes depend upon the hydrologic and geochemical environments within which they operate. Having achieved a basic knowledge of microbiological and biochemical concepts from the earlier chapters, geoscientists are fully prepared for this treatment of microbial acclimation and the biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons and halogenated compounds. Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry is as graphically impressive as it is far reaching. High-quality, computer-generated illustrations, of particular appeal to visually oriented geoscientists, can be found throughout the book. Equally important is the book’s unusually comprehensive bibliography, which, like the text itself, spans the relevant science and engineering disciplines. The importance of Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry to geoscientists, hydrologists, and environmental scientists has been amply documented. The book should also be required reading for water planners and lawyers involved in environmental issues. It will also serve as a compelling text in upper undergraduate and graduate courses in ground-water chemistry. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (October 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047134852X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471348528
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #682,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #79 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Chemistry > Geochemistry

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, February 10, 2010

By 

Michael B. McGrath - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry (Hardcover)

I am a civil engineer involved in the removal of nitrogen from ground water and the environment. I find this text to be an invaluable resource. Many of our land use laws rely on regulations derived on the basis that chemistry is the biggest change maker in ground water. This book, in understandable English, proves that bacteria are the dominant force in the changes in ground water. I would highly recommend this book to any engineer or regulator that is involved in the removal of nitrogen from groundwater and the environment. In fact, I would say it is required reading for engineers and regulators

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Oh for an editor, April 29, 2003

By 

T W Gulliver (Longmont, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry (Hardcover)

This second edition is just as full of typos as the first, an average of 1/page, from misuse of "it's" to alternation of the spelling of Monod (Monad), to slipping the superscript so 10^5 becomes 105. The illustrations are fine and clear, and subject to the same mispelling.
The author is with the USGeological Survey, which at least used to be a paragon of critical editing, and one had hoped for better proofing in this expansion of the widely used and acclaimed text. A book at this price that stands to be a long-lived authority should have received better.
The expansion is welcome, since geomicrobiology is advancing so fast that the first edition was already out of date. Much of the expansion is given to petroleum hydrocarbons (with a couple of pages on MTBE) and chlorinated solvents, some of which has again become dated since the second edition, already, some of which appears catering to school classes.
Some of the more mysterious questions of geomicrobiology are still avoided (e.g. how do microbes get into clayey deposits where pores are smaller than average bugs and pore throats are much smaller? did individuals get buried with the sediment and adapt to survive millions of years in virtual dormancy?). And Chapelle cannot quite bring himself to adopt the new divisions of Archaea and Bacteria, using the term bacteria to refer to both, in the old style, although he acknowledges the newer thinking.
Unfortunately, in such a small specialty, the existence of an authoritative edition discourages challengers, and we will no doubt wait another or ten years for another geomicrobiology text.
If you are thinking about this book as a reference, rather than a required text, you might look instead at the American Society for Microbiology's Manual of Environmental Microbiology, ed. Hurst, 1997, ASM Press. This is a collection of articles by 90 or so microbiologists that you can probably get used, is 900 p with considerably more breadth and depth than Chapelle, and is a bibliophile's delight. Chapelle has a section in Envir Microbio, which seems to be typo-free.
Envir Microbio also contains, for instance in a section on landfill processes, relatively extensive material on fermentation, which gets about a paragraph in Chapelle's book. Fermentation is very important in groundwater bioremediation, but typically gets short shrift because it is complicated and inefficient, and hard to track because it does not consume electron acceptors, and many of its products (typically acids) do not show up in traditional chemical analyses. Landfill engineers know a lot more about fermentation than geomicrobiologists.
Chapelle is also disappointing in not having stretched this edition to cover the budding discipline of isotopic fractionation in documenting microbial attenuation processes. To be sure, most of the published work using GC IRMS to separate and measure isotope ratios of individual organic compounds post-dates this second edition, but he must have been aware of these developments. He mentions some traditional isotopes to evidence evolution of some systems.

Chapelle's index is also skimpy. No page reference, for instance, for iron reducing bacteria, although he discusses them at some length, mentioning Geobacter chapelleii, named, deservedly, after himself.
But no scientific book goes as far as we would like down our special interests. Science literature is a work in progress, not a bible, and it is silly to expect The Book of Geomicrobiology & Geochemistry. I am not sending my Chapelle back.