Editors: S.A. Shepherd, S. Bryars, I. Kirkegaard, P. Harbison and J.T. Jennings
Royal Society of South Australia
AU$120
The scale of this edited volume is highly impressive; 496 pages covering close to all you would want to know about Gulf St Vincent and the Adelaide marine environment, and more. The 38 chapters encompass a diverse range of topics that include geological history, sediments, physical oceanography, remote sensing, and the ecology of, and threats to, all major habitat types?saltmarsh, mangrove, plankton, subtidal reefs, intertidal shores, seagrasses, jetty piles, soft sediments, estuaries. Nine chapters are focused on important fishery species, while others discuss threatened and introduced species. In terms of comprehensiveness for regional coastal environments, only reports associated with Port Phillip Bay and Moreton Bay come close.
In common with most edited proceedings, the breadth of the various author contributions varies greatly, from brief summaries of available information on a particular taxon to major syntheses. Because of this variability and the difficulty in knowing the scope of any particular chapter, a brief summary or abstract outlining each chapter’s scope would have been useful but is not present. The lack of a summary is, however, only a minor quibble in relation to the overall value of the volume. Many of the chapters deserve to be widely cited, not just in South Australian context.
One of the more notable highlights for me is a summary chapter by Alan Butler on interactions between sessile invertebrate taxa on hard surfaces. Marine ecology has been hugely influenced by studies undertaken in Gulf St Vincent on sessile biotas of jetty pilings and Pinna shells, not just as model systems but also through the training provided to a generation of researchers when studying these communities. The number of prominent Australian marine ecologist who gained early skills while investigating under the tutelage of Alan Butler and his academic descendents is quite astonishing, not least Mick Keough, Rod Connolly, Andy Davis and Emma Johnson. Here we have the synthesis of the various studies.
Amongst the pleasures derived from browsing edited volumes such as this, which cover a wide range of topics, is the gleaning of interesting snippets that are normally hidden away outside directed literature searches. An example for me here is the chapter on acid sulfate soils by Fitzpatrick, Thomas and Merry, an accessible primer on this important topic. I also particularly liked the chapter on sharks and rays by Baker, Rodda and Shepherd, which amongst other things included a table listing the life history characteristics of local species, a table to which I will no doubt long refer.
The volume closes with an important chapter by Shepherd, Svane, Kirkegaard and Harbison (The Gulf Now, and its Management) that summarises threats and anthropogenic change across Gulf St Vincent in recent decades. The scale of this change is massive, as evident in repeated documentation in different chapters of population declines and increasing magnitude of threats. While this concluding chapter can be read as an epitaph for lost heritage and a plea for improved management, it also provides some cause for optimism. Fisheries management is improving, an expanded MPA network is in the wings, and community engagement in marine environmental issues is increasing through such programs as Reef Watch. In an era of rapid environmental change, this St Vincent volume represents an important case example for scientists and managers of what has been, what could have been, and what needs to be, done.
Reviewed by Graham Edgar