The present text compiles the latest research within the field of biology performed in the Baltic Sea area. The themes span from theoretical and philosophical aspects of the ecosystem concept over population and autecological studies to detailed descriptions of plant and animal physiology. Results from microcosm and mesocosm experiments as well as direct observations in field together bring insight of the special structure and function of the Baltic Sea ecosystem. How the spawning success of cod and spat are dependent of each other and environmental factors, the impact of alien species to the composition of plankton or benthic communities, the flip of phytobenthic to planktonic communities in lagoons and mechanisms triggering the change, pure descriptions of e.g. the Estonian coast and shallow off shore areas as well as strategies for the reproductive success of Fucus vesiculosus, and the influence of eutrophication of the different Baltic Sea areas and the fate of pollutants as radionucleids and PAH etc. and other themes are all discussed in the 24 original papers of this volume.

Oceanographic discontinuities (e. g. frontal systems, upwelling areas, ice edges) are often areas of enhanced biological productivity. Considerable research on the physics and biology of the physical boundaries defining these discontinues has been accomplished (see [I D. The interface between water and sediment is the largest physical boundary in the ocean, but has not received a proportionate degree of attention. The purpose of the Nato Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) was to focus on soft-sediment systems by identifying deficiencies in our knowledge of these systems and defining key issues in the management of coastal sedimentary habitats. Marine sediments play important roles in the marine ecosystem and the biosphere. They provide food and habitat for many marine organisms, some of which are commercially important. More importantly from a global perspective, marine sediments also provide "ecosystem goods and services" [2J. Organic matter from primary production in the water column and contaminants scavenged by particles accumulate in sediments where their fate is determined by sediment processes such as bioturbation and biogeochemical cycling. Nutrients are regenerated and contaminants degraded in sediments. Under some conditions, carbon accumulates in coastal and shelf sediments and may by removed from the carbon cycle for millions of years, having a potentially significant impact on global climate change. Sediments also protect coasts. The economic value of services provided by coastal areas has recently been estimated to be on the order of $12,568 9 10 y" [3J, far in excess of the global GNP.

These proceedings deal with the relationship between species composition of freshwater phytoplankton and the trophic gradient. Particular regard is paid to the composite question, what lives where and why? Overview papers report the state of the art and suggest that the trophic spectrum appears to be a probabilistic outcome of several dimensions of variability that impinge upon phytoplankton species selection. Studies on community structure span all latitudes from those of Antarctica to equatorial Brazil, and also include reports on light and nutrient gradients, pH and fish-stock effects on species composition. Seasonal and longterm phytoplankton dynamics in lakes of varying trophic status are also considered. Finally, studies on the taxonomy and autoecology of some groups (e.g. Volvocales, Chrysophytes and Euglenophytes) living at the extremes of the trophic spectrum contribute to our knowledge of this usually neglected phytoplankton. This is the first time that a book covers such a topic, and it will prove an excellent source of information to anyone working on phytoplankton ecology and ecological indicators. Limnologists in general, algologists and the technical staff at water authorities will all benefit by reading this book.

Interfaces between media, whether air-water or sediment-water interfaces or organisms themselves, pose considerable problems to marine organisms attempting to live at these boundaries. In the present volume, a number of authors address various aspects of these two topics. Locations under scrutiny range from intertidal areas to the deep sea, while both macro-and meiofaunal organisms are investigated. Distribution patterns and effects of variable temperatures, pressures, and salinities are analysed. Aspects of fouling induction and prevention are also addressed. This book is intended as a progress report from the 33rd European Marine Biology Symposium held in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, in September 1998.

This book is a generic revision of the entire caligid family, which has not been reviewed and revised since its establishment in 1834 by Burmeister. It includes detailed descriptions of all genera within the family along with a discussion on the taxonomic status of the genera previously belonging to the Euryphoridae and compiles an extensive array of information and literature regarding "sea lice" into one book. The external morphology, functional morphology, life history, and host-parasite relationships of the Caligidae are presented. A key to the genera of the Caligidae is provided. Because this family has become increasingly important due to their deleterious effects on fishes, especially cultured or farmed fishes throughout the world, aquaculturists have become very concerned about these sea lice .

This book covers the species attributed to the orders Cryptonemiales, Palmariales and Rhodymeniales. Each species description incorporates notes on ecology and distribution and is supported by one or more line illustrations. Keys to aid identification are also included. The synthesis of many years' research carried out by members of the British Phycological Society in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, London, this series of books covers all the British and the majority of northern Atlantic seaweeds.

Scotland is fortunate in being very richly endowed with natural fresh waters in the form of numerous lochs and rivers. These constitute on the one hand an attractive feature of the landscape and on the other a major resource for industry and recreation. Thus there are about 3800 lochs over4 ha in area and these form approximately 1.0% of the total surface area of Scotland. Com parable figures for England and Wales are 1700 lakes and 0.05% of the land surface, and in terms of volume. Loch Ness contains more water than all the lakes and reservoirs in England and Wales put together (Smith & Lyle 1979). Many of the Scottish lochs are large and clean and consequently are particularly valuable in resource terms. The decision as to which are actually the largest lochs is debatable, particularly when the main criteria of greatest surface area, length, volume and depth each gives a different water (Lochs Lomond. Awe, Ness and Morar respectively). These four then are certainly among the largest lochs in the country, but close to them in size come several other large waters, among which is Loch Shiel- which is exceeded in length only by Lochs Awe, Ness and Lomond. These five very large lochs (Frontis piece) form the group of waters selected for the comparative studies described in this volume.

A. Rorsch Member of the TNO Board of Management Like all living creatures man has from the very outset influenced the environment. Initially, the traces of human activity were hardly noticeable and so were their effects on the equilibrium of the ecosystem as such. However, as soon as man learned how to use tools, he was able to influence his surroundings more drastically, and to proliferate more rapidly. As a matter of fact that is the time when things went wrong, because a process was started off which was to continue with ever-increasing speed and on an ever increasing scale. The present condition of nature as a result of the activities of mankind is generally known. Whether it is an accident with a nuclear plant or the vanishing of tropical rain forests, acid deposition or the pollution of soil, water and air, environmental disasters almost seem to be the order of the day. It is striking that with all these - more or less arbitrary - examples the provision of energy plays a role. In this respect one can add an even more important energy carrier to the list, namely: crude oil."

Lake Ladoga is the largest lake in Europe and, with its surface of 17,891 km2 and volume of 837 km3, it ranks among the top fifteen of the world's freshwater bodies. The ecological condition of Lake Ladoga is of concern to several million people living in its surroundings. There is evidence of water quality degradation and gradual eutrophication of the lake during the past decades; on the other hand, pollution control measures have improved the situation in many of the most polluted sites near industrial effluent sources. The first international Lake Ladoga Symposium was held in St. Petersburg on 22-26 November, 1993. The symposium was attended by 160 scientists, and about half of the papers presented at the symposium have been edited for this book. The contributions are grouped under the following headings: Present state of Lake Ladoga; Hydrodynamics of Lake Ladoga and other large water bodies; Water quality and pollution; Ecological studies of Lake Ladoga biota; History of Lake Ladoga and rates of change in its environment; Research methods for large lakes. Besides providing up-to-date information on the state of the lake, the papers deal with studies of many other large lakes of the cold-temperature zone and the general problems and methods of large lake research. Furthermore, the book is a valuable source of reference to the voluminous Russian limnological literature.

This volume contains the Proceedings of The Crustacean Society Summer Meeting held between 20 and 24 September 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's premier event on crustacean biology and organized under the auspices of the Carcinological Society of Japan and The Crustacean Society. It reports presentations of plenary keynote addresses, special symposia, and contributed papers given at the meeting, all of which have been peer reviewed and edited. The book represents some of the best research from leading international researchers from all over the world and presents major reviews of all areas of crustacean research, including systematics, evolution, ecology, behaviour, development, physiology, symbiosis, genetics, biogeography, palaeobiology, fisheries, and aquaculture.

Water-dwelling relatives of the earthworm were the subject of an international symposium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in March 1988, where these 26 papers were presented. They were also published in Hydrobiologia volume 180 (1989). Contributors from Europe, North America, and Argentina consider a wide

This volume is a collection of papers concerning the biology of large branchiopod crustaceans: Anostraca, Conchostraca, and Notostraca. Many of the individual papers were first presented at the Third International Large Branchiopod Symposium (ILBS-3) held at the University of San Diego, CA, USA, July 15-18, 1996. Contributions on additional topics from participants at the symposium, and from colleagues not able to join us in San Diego, are also included. In addition, there is a supplement to the 1995 Checklist of the Anostraca'. The theme of the ILBS-3 was understanding and conserving large branchiopod diversity'. Researchers from around the world presented papers on a variety of topics related to conservation of large branchiopods, with contributions ranging from alpha-taxonomy and zoogeography to community structure and studies of ecology and evolution. One important issue developed in many of the papers in this volume is the need to advance our understanding of basic aspects of branchiopod biology throughout the world in order to enhance our efforts to conserve them. Although we have made important strides in understanding the biology of large branchiopods, we have, with few notable exceptions, made little progress in assuring the conservation of their diversity. We hope this volume will supply the reader with new ideas, and generate enthusiasm for research and public education efforts on behalf of branchiopod conservation.

For the first time, an effort to conduct coordinated interdisciplinary research on a vast and complex saline lake has been undertaken for the purposes of providing baseline data to guide restoration project activities. This volume compiles state-of-the-art science for the Salton Sea and will serve as the foundation for the next several generations of scientific inquiry for California's largest lake. The science presented here reveals the Salton Sea to be one of the most productive fisheries in the world, details why the Salton Sea is important to migratory and wintering birds, investigates the microbial world and reports numerous taxa new to science, and documents chemical and physical interactions which make this inland saline lake function.
This book is intended for specialists in saline lake research who are interested in all aspects of saline lake ecology.

Origin and Aims of this essay It was not by choice but by the misfortunes or fortunes of the last war, that I became involved with rivers. In December 1946 I obtained a lecturing post at the then Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum and the Principal of the college brought me to confluence of the two Niles and urged me to 'do something' on the biology of the river. I was very reluctant, my experience was limited to lakes in Poland up to 1939, and I did not know anything about work on rivers. The 'equipment' was a rowing boat, hired, and a 'home made' plankton net. This limited our first exploratory steps to the immediate vicinity of Khartoum. In both the White and Blue Nile we discovered the presence of a pure plankton. This was contrary to opinions expressed in the limited scientific literature available at Khartoum which stimulated our doubts and the search for the origin of this phenomenon. And so, early in our work, we became aware of the longitudinal sequence of events in running water, a fundamental feature of river ecology. of work were daunting; In the Nile, as in other long rivers, the difficulties the water courses stretch for thousands of kilometers south and north of our base, our work had to be done in time free from lecturing duties, no research grants were available.

Leonard C. Beadle In contrast to the more sta bie oceans, inland waters are, on the geological time scale, short-lived and are subject to great fluctuations in chemical composition and physical features. Very few lakes and rivers have existed continuously for more than a million years, and the life of the majority is to be measured in thousands or less. Earth movements, erosion and long-term climatic changes in the past have caused many of them to appear and disappear. No wonder then that most freshwater organism are especially adapted to great changes and many even to temporary extinction of their environment. Recent studies of residual sediments from existing and extinct lakes in tropical Africa have told us much about their age and the past history of their faunas and floras, from which we may deduce something about the climate and the conditions in the water in the past. The forces that have formed and moulded the African Great Lakes have been catastrophic in their violence and effects. They are not yet finished, but the present rate of change is, in human terms, too slow for direct observation of the ecological effects. The large man-made lakes are providing very good opportunities for studying the chemi cal and biological consequences of the initial filling but, once filled, they are artificially protected against major fluctuations.

stable or falling water levels, and permit differen tiation between gradual and sudden transgression The level of Lake Ontario was long assumed to of the shoreline. Vegetational succession reflects have risen at an exponentially decreasing rate shoreline transgression and increasing water solely in response to differential isostatic rebound depth as upland species are replaced by emergent of the St. Lawrence outlet since the Admiralty aquatic marsh species. If transgression continues, Phase (or Early Lake Ontario) 11 500 years B. P. these are in turn replaced by floating and sub (Muller & Prest, 1985). Recent work indicates merged aquatic species, commonly found in water that the Holocene water level history of Lake to 4 m depth in Ontario lakes, below which there Ontario is more complex than the simple rebound is a sharp decline in species richness and biomass model suggests. Sutton et al. (1972) and (Crowder et al., 1977). This depth varies with Anderson & Lewis (1982, 1985) indicate that physical limnological conditions in each basin. periods of accelerated water level rise followed by Because aquatic pollen and plant macrofossils are temporary stabilization occurred around 5000 to locally deposited, an abundance of emergent 4000 B. P. The accelerated water level rise, called aquatic fossils reflects sedimentation in the littoral the 'Nipissing Flood', was attributed to the cap zone, the part of the basin shallow enough to ture of Upper Great Lakes drainage. support rooted vegetation."

Water is Life. Freshwater is one of the most valuable commodities on our planet, and this resource should be managed in a sustainable way. Yet, we are less than careful in the way we use water and many of our non-marine, aquatic habitats are threatened by anthropogenic impacts. Eutrophication, for example, could well turn into one of the major social as well as economic problems of the 21st century.

Reduction of water quality also has a profound effect on the biota that depend on these water bodies, such as micro-organisms, plants and animals. Freshwater Biodiversity is a much underestimated component of global biodiversity, both in its diversity and in its potential to act as models for fundamental research in evolutionary biology and ecosystem studies. Freshwater organisms also reflect quality of water bodies and can thus be used to monitor changes in ecosystem health. The present book deals with all of these aspects of Aquatic Biodiversity. It comprises a unique collection of primary research papers spanning a wide range of topics in aquatic biodiversity studies, and including a first global assessment of specific diversity of freshwater animals. The book also presents a section on the interaction between scientists and science policy managers. A target opinion paper lists priorities in aquatic biodiversity research for the next decade and several reactions from distinguished scientists discuss the relevance of these items from different points of view: fundamental ecology, taxonomy and systematics, needs of developing countries, present-day biodiversity policy at European and at global scales. It is believed that such a platform for the interaction between science and sciencepolicy is an absolute necessity for the efficient use of research budgets in the future.

Lake Baikal is the oldest, largest and deepest lake in the world. Its unique animal life and the beauty of the surrounding landscapes are renowned.
The book discusses the sustainable development of the lake and its use as a model for the rest of the world. It consolidates existing data on the current state of the environment and economy of the region, develops a system of indicators of sustainable developments, makes recommendations on additional components to the existing monitoring system and considers a legal framework and instrument for its implementation.

This book tells a story of a large lake affected by agricultural and urban activities that have led to severe eutrophication problems with nuisance blue-green algal blooms. Although it is a case study of Lake Ringsjoen (southern Sweden), the background, problems and measures are applicable to many lakes throughout the world. From a limnological point of view, the Lake Ringsjoen story began more than 100 years ago, and during the last 20 years the sampling program has been intense, providing a unique data set on how a lake responds to human activities. However, the Lake Ringsjoen story is not only a case study, but also a historical record of the development of ecological theory and its application. Hence, the lake has been subject both to an extensive nutrient reduction programme and a biomanipulation by means of fish reduction. Here we aim at combining the unique limnological data set with the eutrophication process, the nutrient reduction programme and the biomanipulation in order to apply our empirical knowledge to future lake management measures.