Ecotones are interface zones between different ecosystems. Their ecological role and significance with regard to ecological management and conservation has become increasingly appreciated. For the management of freshwater resources, for example, an improved understanding of the role of land/inland water interfaces, will be essential for reducing negative human impacts by engineering, nutrient loading, siltation, etc. The management of ecotones, on the other hand, offers the possibility to control aquatic system processes via stock control of fish populations. Fish apparently are both...

Members of the family Cyprinidae dominate most of the aquatic habitats of Europe, from eutrophic warm water ponds to mountain lakes. The family comprises generalists and specialists, herbivorous, planktovorous and even one piscivorous species; slow-moving grazers as well as fast-swimming inhabitants of the pelagial of lakes. Due to their diversity and abundance, cyprinids play key roles in every ecosystem in which they occur. Being of little economic importance, however, the family has for the most part failed to arouse keen scientific interest.