As an example of the first of these suggested new research areas, I can cite a 

 project that we at the University of Georgia have undertaken under contract 

 with a large industrial company. In this case the company proposes to build a 

 chemical plant on a site that is adjacent to an extensive area of natural 

 wetlands, both swamp forests and marshes, which we beUeve have considerable 

 capacity to assimilate and recycle nutrients and bio-degradable wastes. By both 

 inventory and experimental procedures we are in the process of determining 

 just what this "tertiary" treatment capacity is with the understanding that the 

 company will then design their in-house treatment facilities so as to remove the 

 toxic substances and release into the wetland environment only that which can 

 be assimilated. Such a procedure I Hke to call "reciprocal design" in that both 

 the industrial engineer and the ecologist have the same objective; namely, 

 essentially zero pollution after effluents have passed through both the 

 man-made and the natural filters. In this case, the company owns the wetlands 

 which, when used in the manner described, become a highly valued part of a 

 total waste management system. I believe there would be much to be gained if 

 EPA laboratories entered into "reciprocal design" contracts with industry, and 

 thus become partners, rather than adversaries in the pursuit of common goals. 



Merging econornics and ecology may prove difficult, but it does make 

 common sense since the two words have a common Greek root, "oikos" 

 meaning "household"; ecology Hterally is "the study of the household," and 

 economics "the management of the household." The trouble is that "nature's 

 house" is entirely external to "man's house" in current economic procedures, 

 so that the very valuable and necessary work of nature, such as the tertiary 

 treatment of wastes just discussed, is not included in economic cost-accounting 

 or in the workings of the market system. In discussing theory, I made a point 

 of the need to recouple the "houses" of man and nature, so we can follow up 

 by suggesting that the best practical way to do this is to find ways to 

 internalize into the economic system what are now considered to be the "free 

 goods and services" of nature. 



I will close by mentioning several special marine research challenges, since 

 this laboratory focuses on coastal and marine environments. Microbial 

 components and transformations in marine and estuarine environments are the 

 least known, yet the most important aspects when it comes to systems 

 metabolism and the impact of man-made perturbations. Microbial activities in 

 the anaerobic layers of sediments and how these activities are coupled with 

 those in the aerobic layers and water columns provide especially difficult, but 

 challenging, problems. The role of the sea in global cycles of carbon, nitrogen 

 and sulfur need further study. For example, the sea has not proved to be as 

 efficient a "sink" for CO2 released into the atmosphere by fuel-burning and 

 deforestation, as had once been predicted. Finally, the impact of estuaries and 



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