Northern Queens County, on western Long Island, has approximately 5% or less of its 145 km2 area occupied by vegetation that is still essentially natural. The history, climate, geology, and soil, of the region are discussed, and the importance of glacial geology in an understanding of the vegetation is emphasized. Vegetation is outlined for a series of upland, freshwater, and salt-influenced, types. The variants of the oak-dominated forest are presented in a table. The following freshwater vegetation types are listed: swamp and riparian forest, shrub swamp, marshes, and floating and submerged aquatic vegetation. Salt-influenced types include: tall cordgrass, salt meadow, and salt shrub swamp. The antiquity of this vegetation is suggested by its uniformity over a time-span of 50–60 or more years since its original description as natural vegetation. Extinct and endangered types are mentioned, and general sources of human impact on all persisting types are discussed. Recommendations are made for preservation, reclamation, and re-creation, of natural vegetation. Specifically, it is recommended that all persisting areas harbouring natural vegetation be preserved immediately and in perpetuity. It will be interesting to see, in due course, how effective this can be within the confines of one of the world's greatest conurbations. Consideration of topo-edaphic variation in planning for preservation is emphasized. This point is illustrated with reference to the major vegetation of northern Queens County, namely oak forest. Almost all of the typical ‘plateau upland’ forest has been lost, even though preservation of the diversity of the rich, but atypical, end moraine forests seems adequate.

It is hoped that this article will stimulate investigation into means of re-creating some of the original vegetation types, in order to provide as great a representation as possible, and to alleviate the human impact on the endangered surviving types.

Although mainly developed in the last ten years, the international trade in tropical marine aquarium fishes has now reached remarkable proportions; in the U. S. A. the annual sales of aquaria, aquarium supplies, and aquarium fishes, probably approach US$ 600 millions, while estimates of the numbers of marine aquarium fishes exported each year from the Philippines alone range from about 3 to over 30 millions, valued at approximately US$ 1.25 million to over 6 millions. The exporting areas include the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Mauritius, the U.S.A. (Hawaii and Florida), and several Caribbean islands. The main importing countries are the U.S.A., Hong Kong, West Germany, Japan, U.K., Italy, Belgium, Canada, Australia, France, Holland, and Switzerland.

Species extermination through this trade alone is scarcely conceivable, but local extinctions may occur, and indirect effects of collection of these fishes include accompanying destruction of the coral-reef habitat, changes in natural ecosystems, and the possibility of successful introduction of exotic species into areas where they did not occur previously (notably, Indo-Pacific species into the Caribbean). Clearly the trade will continue; but the current exploitation is inefficient, and controls must be applied both towards rational utilization of the resource and, as the most accessible and richest reefs are the most heavily exploited, towards a reduction of conflict between different uses of the resource.

Pollination interrelationships constitute vital, and often very precise, links in environmental productivity. The co-dependence of much of the native fauna and flora in these terms is cause for grave concern in the light of continuing environmental pollution. In New Brunswick, as an established case-history, wide-scale forest applications of the organophosphorus insecticide Fenitrothion have severely damaged the native pollinator fauna of lowbush blueberries, and. have apparently disrupted bird populations so that they have become unprecedented agricultural pests.

Unfortunately, little is known of the pollination interrelationships in natural or semi-natural environments. Very often the reproductive biology of the plants is incompletely known, and if pollen vectors are involved they, too, are unknown. This point is illustrated by assessing the state of knowledge of such showy plants as are emblematic in Canada (Table I).

Lethal Yellowing disease has been devastating Coconut, and presumably 14 other species of palms (including Palmyra and Date Palms), in mainland Florida since 1971. The urban environment has changed rapidly with the death of palm trees along streets, parks, and beaches. The disease is now present around the Caribbean Sea and presumably in West Africa.

Widespread injections of oxytetracycline into both diseased and healthy palms are now being carried out in Florida in an effort to control the disease temporarily. The vector has not yet been identified. ‘Malayan Dwarf’ variety and the newly developed ‘Maypan’ hybrid are resistant to the disease and are being used to replace more susceptible varieties.

The potential for environmental and economic disaster from the introduction of the disease to unaffected tropical countries, and the need for controlling its spread, are emphasized.