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CHOICE Review

An outgrowth of a 1979 national symposium on ``Algae as Ecological Indicators,'' this excellent compendium includes 14 papers on the use of algal bioassays in a variety of laboratory and environmental situations. Essays are separated under headings of freshwater ecosystems; toxic substances, heavy metals, and vitamins; industrial applications; and modeling. Each essay is written by a specialist as a subject of a literature review, and often contains useful techniques adaptable to the general laboratory and experimental results. Because of the nature of compiling a book with multiple authors addressing broad topics, some overlap is not only necessary, but in this case useful, in showing the depth of presentation. In other instances two papers complement each other; for example, the discussion on accumulation of heavy metals in seaweeds in Levine's paper, ``The Use of Seaweeds for Monitoring Coastal Waters'' and Whitton's essay, ``Algae as Monitors of Heavy Metals in Freshwater.'' Swift's paper on ``Algal Assays for Vitamins'' is an excellent synthesis on a subject not prominently addressed in the most recent literature. All together, this book is a well-edited compilation in an area of growing concern to all environmentallly concerned scientists. Recommended for all upper-division undergraduate and graduate biology libraries.-C.W. Schneider, Trinity College, Conn.