THE TROPICS: ENVIRONMENTS AND HUMAN IMPACTS UNDERSTOOD AND REINTERPRETED

In the 1950s, few people had travelled widely through different parts of the tropics and interpretations on tropical landforms, soils, vegetation and climate largely rested on impressions gained from residence or long sojourns in particular tropical countries. Most academic geography on the tropics was then written by expatriates and lacked the perspective gained from long experience of tropical regions. Particular problems of understanding arose as people attempted to extrapolate from one part of the tropics to another. Since then, understanding has advanced enormously, largely through the efforts of tropical scientists working in their own institutions and through the greater technological ability to study tropical lands both remotely and through easier field access. The establishment of a number of field stations, aimed primarily at the biological sciences, but also facilitating the work of geographers, has been a major stimulus to this effort. Concerns over practical issues, particularly local development and global climatic change have prompted new avenues of research, many of which have been assisted by the great increase in data collection in tropical countries. For the future, South-South dialogue between tropical physical geographers is needed to improve their ability to ask meaningful questions so that they can contribute to teach the rest of their discipline more about serious applied and applicable geography.     

Control of Ion Balance in Water by Determining the Cation Content

Presented is an analytical method which enables a quick determination of the total cation content in water. In this method, total alkalinity is determined before passage, and mineral acidity after passage through the ion exchange bed. The sum of the two parameter values gives the total cation content in the water. Verification was carried out with model solution and natural water samples. The method makes it possible to verify the ion balance of the electrolytes, as well as to determine the salinity level (i.e. the concentration of dissolved substances) in the sample.     

Aquaculture intensification under land and water limitations

Two intensive aquaculture systems are described in which high yields are obtained for relatively low inputs of land area, water and supplementary feed. The one is a polyculture of a number of fish species in deep cotton irrigation reservoires (5–7 m deep) in Israel. The large volume of water in these reservoirs improves the oxygen regime and dilutes catabolites excreted by the fish. This allows the increase of fish density to 10,000–18,000 fish ha^–1. It also enables the increase of the resevoir's productivity by manuring with liberal amounts of animal wastes. Yields obtained in this system reach over 10 ton ha^–1 yr^–1 at very low feed conversion rates. The second system is practiced in Taiwan for the culture of red tilapia. Pond water is stirred mechanically by paddlewheels to create a gentle current around a central water outlet. This supplies ample oxygen and concentrates wastes in the center of the pond, from where it is removed twice daily, thus alleviating the build-up of catabolite concentration in the pond. Densities of fish amount to 215,000 to 430,000 fish ha^–1, and the yields are accordingly high reaching more than 200 ton ha^–1 yr^–1. The ecological principles involved in these systems are discussed.