Limnology in Australia

ISBN-13: 9789401086363 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 688 str.

P. De Deckker; W. D. Williams

Opis

Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent. Water is our limiting resource. It might therefore be thought that our water resources would be the subject of the most intensive study. Certain aspects, it must be conceded, have received much attention, notably the availability of water in terms of actual quantity. The size of the surface water and the groundwater resource is well understood and indeed receives about as much study as can reasonably be expected in a country with as sparse a population and level of scientific manpower as ours. Although the importance of understanding the water resource in terms of quantity is widely accepted, what has not been generally appreciated is that for this resource to be 'available' to human society for all the different uses to which it is put, it is not sufficient that there exists within easy reach of the end users a certain total volume of water. For that water to fulfil its functions-for agriculture, industry, the home, recreation, biological conservation-it must be in a certain state: it must conform to certain chemical, physical and biological criteria, and what has not been sufficiently appreciated in Australian society is that the condition a water is in depends very much on the ecology of the waterbody in which it resides. There are waterbodies in the world, for example high-altitude glacial lakes, which are naturally so pristine that their water could be used for any purpose without treatment.

Recenzje

`Limnologists and others involved in the study and management of inland waters not just in Australia but worldwide will find this book a source of valuable and stimulating information. There is also much of interest for biologists in other spheres of research.'
Hydrobiologia, 148 (1987)

Spis treści

Physicochemical Studies.- Chemical limnology in Australia.- Optical limnology—a manifesto.- Differential mixed-layer deepening in lakes and reservoirs.- Biological and Ecological Studies.- Benthic microbial communities of Australian saline lakes.- Biological studies of meromictic lakes.- Adaptation to fluctuations rather than to extremes of environmental parameters.- Australian Rotifera: ecology and biogeography.- Some quantitative aspects of the life history of aquatic insects in temperate Australian rivers.- Chironomidae (Diptera) of Australia.- The ecological genetics of freshwater zooplankton in Australia.- Salt and water balance in the fauna of Australian athalassic waters.- The biology of Australian lampreys.- Effects of introduced fish in Australia.- Introduced cichlid fish in Australian inland waters.- Processes and Ecosystems.- Secondary production: shooting a halcyon for its feathers.- Stream benthic communities: persistent presumptions and current speculations.- Origin and fate of organic matter in Australian upland streams.- Boundary layers, flow microenvironments and stream benthos.- Ecology of temporary streams—an Australian perspective.- Diversity and abundance of the fauna in Yuccabine Creek, a tropical rainforest stream.- Some thoughts on the future of running-water research, with particular reference to Australia.- Aspects of diel vertical migration in zooplankton, and its enigma variations.- Entomostracan zooplankton communities of Australian freshwater lakes and ponds.- Understanding zooplankton communities in farm dams: the importance of predation.- Mound springs of the Great Artesian Basin.- The coastal dune lakes of eastern Australia.- Nutrients and plant biomass in Australian estuaries, with particular reference to south-western Australia.- Billabongs.- Limnology, the study of inland waters: a comment on perceptions of studies of salt lakes, past and present.- Management.- What happened to the Australian aquatic biota 18000 years ago?.- Reservoir sediments.- Modern and ancient sediments—data base for management of aquatic ecosystems and their catchments.- Anthropological limnology in the Land of Moinee.- Managing nutrients in aquatic systems: the eutrophication problem.- Design and analysis for assessment of water quality.- Ecotoxicology of lipophilic pollutants in Australian inland waters.- Aquatic macrophytes and man.- Conservation of Australian aquatic fauna.- A possible scenario for the future of Australia’s freshwater fish fauna.- The state of ecological research on the River Murray.