This thoroughly revised and updated edition is an authoritative and modern book useful to students, teachers, professionals and everyone else interested in environmental awareness, education, management and pollution controls.
It describes in detail water resources, storage, cycling, ecosystem function of marine, freshwater lakes, rivers and other wetlands, biological and physicochemical characterisations, kinds and causes of pollution and control devices. It also describes in detail the atmospheric factor, air pollution due to industrial, domestic and other sources, global changes, ozone depletion and UV-B enhancement effects and about air pollution control technologies. Soil pollution, problems of solid wastes, soil erosion and conservation, radioactive pollution, noise pollution, laws and international efforts on pollution controls are described in different chapters. Important topics of current interest like biological magnification, eutro- phication, ecotoxicology bioremediation, waste-water treatment, rising levels of CO2, CFCs, methane and other greenhouse gases are described in detail.
RS Ambasht was Emeritus Professor, INSA Honorary Scientist, CSIR Emeritus and INSA Senior Scientist; and Professor and Head, Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He taught ecology and environmental aspects for over 40 years, and was decorated with Birbal Sahni Gold Medal of IBS, Platinum Jubilee Lecture Award of ISCA, UGC-P, Saraswati National Award and Fellowships of the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences. He was on the board of the International Association of Ecology, secretary of ISTE, president of the National Institute of Ecology, and member of National Committee on Wetlands of the Environment Ministry. He wrote several books, book chapters and was editor of several prestigious publications. PK Ambasht is Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. An established researcher in enzymology, he has published several research and review papers in leading Indian and foreign journals. He holds BSc (Hons), MSc and PhD degrees of Banaras Hindu University where he worked as postdoctoral UGC research associate in science faculty, and as CSIR-Senior RA (pool scientist) in the Institute of Medical Sciences. He has also worked and published on medicinal plants of the Himalayas.