Trace-Element Contamination of the Environment investigates the global biological consequences of dispersal of trace elements that are mined from localized limited deposits in the environment. It considers the problem of trace-element contamination of the biosphere as an environmental pollution and as part of the ecological crisis as a whole.
Comprised of eight chapters, this volume begins with an overview of trace-element contaminants, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. It then discusses factors affecting the trace-element composition of soils, including sulfur, lime, and fertilizers. It explains as well the trace-element contamination of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, the sources of trace-element contamination of soils, and the availability of trace elements in the soil. The consequences of trace-element contamination of the soil, including its effects on crops and animals, are also discussed. The book also provides ways to prevent dispersal of metals in the environment.
This book is essential reading for undergraduates, law students, and those who are interested in environmental pollution by trace elements.
David Purves was a Scottish biochemist, playwright and poet, and a champion of the Scots language.
He joined the staff of the East of Scotland College of Agriculture in 1956, where he worked with the agricultural advisory service on problems associated with trace-element deficiencies and toxicities, and published a series of research papers on these problems over the period 1966 to 1986. This work was distilled in a scientific monograph entitled Trace-Element Contamination of the Environment, published by Elsevier in 1977 (with a revised edition in 1985). The book highlighted the implications for society and the biosphere of allowing metals to be dispersed beyond recovery, as environmental contaminants.
He was committed to the cause of the Scots language, taking a special interest in Scots spelling and grammar. His book, A Scots Grammar, published by the Saltire Society in 1997, was the first guide to Scots grammar to appear in print since 1921. A revised and extended edition was published in 2002.
Purves was elected Preses of the Scots Language Society in 1983 – holding the position until 1986 – and served as editor of Lallans, the only journal published entirely in Scots, from 1987 to 1995.
Two collections of his poems in Scots have been published: Thrawart Threipins in 1976, and Hert’s Bluid, Chapman, 1995.
Three plays in Scots, The Puddok an the Princess, The Knicht o the Riddils and Whuppitie Stourie, have been produced. The Puddok an the Princess won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1985 and subsequently ran to eight productions, including two tours of Scotland by Theatre Alba.
A translation and adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth into Scots (The Tragedie o Macbeth) was published in 1992, and was produced by Theatre Alba at Duddingston Kirk during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2002.