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The Science Behind the Headlines

A new book explores the science behind the drought, pollution, and water wars headlines of the 1980s. "Although eyecatching, these headlines provided a very shallow perspective of the news of the Bay during the period," says oceanographer and book editor James Hollibaugh. "The deeper story concerns dramatic advances in our understanding of the Bay as an ecosystem -an understanding both driven by and underscored by these headlines. "

In "San Francisco Bay: The Ecosystem" Hollibaugh gathers studies presented at the 75th annual meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1994, as well as a few written since. One goal of the book was to update the well-known 1979 bible of Bay science "San Francisco Bay: The Urban Estuary," edited by T.J. Conomos.

The new book is divided into four sections: Physical Processes, Water Proper ties and Quality, Ecosystem Function, and The Ecosystem. Within these sections, sample topics include the effectiveness of wildlife management programs; differences in the size and distribution of plankton populations within the Bay; metal contamination; and how currents actually circulate Bay waters. Contributors come from a broad range of scientific disciplines and a variety of academic institutions and government agencies. Much of the data presented has not been published before.

What underscores each report, whether its primary focus is on salinity stratification or on the organic matter that fuels the ecosystem's productivity, is how interrelated the information is: how no process, life-form or activity that takes place the Bay-Delta occurs in isolation. With this in mind, the greater is "the need," as Conomos writes in the foreword, "for credible, unbiased, scientific information" regarding the impact of human activity on the ecosystem.

Just as Hollibaugh describes the earlier work "The Estuary" as an essential "bible", so too will "The Ecosystem" come to be viewed as another "good" book.

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