Tropical fish present some of the best examples of how new species evolve and how complex ecological communities are maintained. Their study has generated important new ideas on the roles of ecology and behaviour in the evolution of species and communities. This book brings together for the first time the results of widely scattered research on fish in tropical rivers, lakes and seas, research that has been stimulated by the splendid opportunities to observe the behaviour of fish in their natural habitats in the clear warm waters. The book opens with an overview of the ecology of tropical...

The complexity of ecosystems forms perhaps the greatest challenge for natural science. Even the first step to comprehensive analysis, namely a survey of the participating species, often forms a major obstacle. This makes it understandable that ecologists try to abstract general principles from the interrelationships of the multitude of species for use in their efforts to investigate ecosystem dynamics. Such 'unifying concepts' were the main theme of the 'First International Congress of Ecology' organized in The Hague in September 1974 by the International Association of Ecology (INTECOL),...