Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems (eBook)

Philip "Sam" Lake is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and a Fellow of the Australian Centre for Biodiversity at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Much of his research has focussed on the effects that both natural disturbances (e.g. floods, droughts) and human-generated ones (e.g. pollution, catchment land-use change) have on the biota of freshwater systems. Recently, he has also been investigating the ecological processes involved in the restoration of degraded flowing waters.

Acknowledgements.

1. Introduction: The Nature of Droughts.

2. Types of Drought and their Assessment.

3. The Perturbation of Hydrological Drought.

4. Droughts of the Past: Dendrochronology and Lake
Sediments.

5. Water bodies, catchments and the abiotic effects of
drought.

6. Drought and Temporary Waters.

7. Drought, Floodplain Rivers and Wetland Complexes .

8. Drought and Perennial Aquatic Systems: Plants and
Invertebrates.

9. Drought and Fish of Standing and Flowing Waters.

10. Estuaries and Drought.

11. Human-induced exacerbation of Drought Effects on Aquatic
Ecosystems.

12. Conclusions.

References.

Index.

"This book provides a valuable source of information for
both freshwater ecologists and resource managers."
(Bulletin of the British Ecological Society, 1 June
2012)

"However, the extensive review of the global literature,
combined with the thorough discussions of drought-related concepts
and definitions, make this book useful for those working in aquatic
ecosystems worldwide." (Austral Ecology, 1
November 2012)

"It is balanced across taxa, habitat, and continents, and
provides insightful ideas to guide future research. As such,
it is an important contribution to aquatic science that is well
worth the read." (Society for Freshwater
Science, 1 July 2012)

"Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division
undergraduates and above." (Choice, 1 March
2012)

"Overall, it proves extremely useful to bring together the
material in the core chapters with the fairly extensive contextual
material in the surrounding chapters; no doubt this will benefit
many researchers needing an introduction to this topic. There is no
doubt that this book will be read widely and will likely provide a
basis and impetus for numerous future research
projects." (Freshwater Biology, 1 September
2012)

"This book is a major synthesis of what is known about
drought and aquatic systems. It is balanced across taxa, habitat,
and continents, and provides insightful ideas to guide future
research. As such, it is an important contribution to aquatic
science that is well worth the read." (Freshwater
Science, 16 July 2012)