The new edition of this established textbook, now with full colour illustration, has been extensively revised and continues to provide a comprehensive, stimulating, readable and authoritative coverage of freshwater habitats, their communities and their functioning, the world over. The work will be of great value to undergraduate and graduate students, fellow researchers and water managers, and the plain language and lack of jargon should make it accessible to anyone interested in the functioning and current state of lakes and rivers.
Having taught and researched over fifty years and six continents, Professor Brian Moss makes here extensive use of his personal experience as well as the huge literature now available on freshwaters. This is the fifth edition of his textbook, which, since the first edition in 1980, has steadily evolved to reflect a rapidly changing science and environment. It places increasing emphasis on the role of people in damaging and managing freshwaters as we move into the Anthropocene epoch and face unprecedented levels of climate and other changes, whilst rejoicing in the fascination of what are left of near pristine freshwater ecosystems.
Professor Moss retired from the University of Liverpool following a career in Africa, the USA and the UK. He was awarded medals by the International Society for Limnology, of which he was President from 2007 to 2013, and The Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. He was given The Ecology Institute's Excellence in Ecology Prize in 2009 and the book written for that prize, Liberation Ecology, was awarded the British Ecological Society's best ecology book prize in 2013.
Table of Contents
Preface: why? xiii
1 The world as it was and the world as it is 1
1.1 Early ecological history 1
1.2 The more recent past 5
1.3 Characteristics of freshwater organisms 7
1.4 Freshwater biodiversity 8
1.5 A spanner in the works? 11
1.6 Politics and pollution 14
1.7 On the nature of textbooks 15
1.8 Further reading 17
2 Early evolution and diversity of freshwater organisms 18
2.1 Introduction 18
2.2 The freshwater biota 19
2.3 Bacteria 20
2.4 The variety of bacteria 22
2.5 Viruses 24
2.6 Two sorts of cells 25
2.7 The diversity of microbial eukaryotes 27
2.8 Algae 28
2.9 Kingdoms of eukaryotes 30
2.10 Further reading 37
3 Diversity continued: multicellular organisms in freshwaters 38
3.1 Introduction 38
3.2 Osmoregulation 38
3.3 Reproduction, resting stages and aestivation 39
3.4 Getting enough oxygen 41
3.5 Insects 41
3.6 Big animals, air‐breathers and swamps 42
3.7 Dispersal among freshwaters 44
3.8 Patterns in freshwater diversity 46
3.9 Fish faunas 49
3.10 The fish of Lake Victoria 51
3.11 Overall diversity in freshwaters 53
3.12 Environmental DNA 56
3.13 Further reading 57
4 Water: a remarkable unremarkable substance 58
4.1 Introduction 58
4.2 The molecular properties of water and their physical consequences 59
4.3 Melting and evaporation 60
4.4 How much water is there and where is it? 61
4.5 Patterns in hydrology 62
4.6 Bodies of water and their temperatures 66
4.7 An overview of mixing patterns 70
4.8 Viscosity of water and fluid dynamics 71
4.9 Diffusion 73
4.10 Further reading 73
5 Water as a habitat: some background water chemistry 74
5.1 Introduction 74
5.2 Polar and covalent compounds 74
5.3 The atmosphere 75
5.4 Carbon dioxide 76
5.5 Major ions 77
5.6 The big picture 81
5.7 Further reading 83
6 Key nutrients, trace elements and organic matter 84
6.1 Introduction 84
6.2 Concepts of limiting substances 85
6.3 Experiments on nutrient limitation 86
6.4 Nutrient supply and need 91
6.5 Phosphorus 91
6.6 Nitrogen 92
6.7 Pristine concentrations 93
6.8 Trace elements and silicon 96
6.9 Organic substances 98
6.10 Substance budgets and movements 101
6.11 Sediment-water relationships 104
6.12 Further reading 106
7 Light thrown upon the waters 108
7.1 Light 108
7.2 Effects of the atmosphere 109
7.3 From above to under the water 110
7.4 Remote sensing 114
7.5 Further reading 116
8 Headwater streams and rivers 118
8.1 Introduction 118
8.2 General models of stream ecosystems 118
8.3 The basics of stream flow 121
8.4 Flow and discharge 122
8.5 Laminar and turbulent flow 122
8.6 Particles carried 124
8.7 The response of stream organisms to shear stress 125
8.8 Community composition in streams 126
8.9 Algal and plant communities 127
8.10 Macroinvertebrates 128
8.11 Streams in different climates: the polar and alpine zones 132
8.12 Invertebrates of kryal streams 134
8.13 Food webs in cold streams 135
8.14 Stream systems in the cold‐temperate zone 137
8.15 Allochthonous sources of energy 139
8.16 Stream orders 140
8.17 The river continuum concept 141
8.18 Indirectly, wolves are stream animals too 142
8.19 Scarcity of nutrients 143
8.20 Warm‐temperate streams 144
8.21 Desert streams 147
8.22 Tropical streams 148
8.23 Further reading 152
9 Uses, misuses and restoration of headwater streams and rivers 154
9.1 Traditional use of headwater river systems 154
9.2 Deforestation 156
9.3 Acidification 157
9.4 Eutrophication 162
9.5 Commercial afforestation 163
9.6 Settlement 164
9.7 Engineering impacts 166
9.8 Alterations of the fish community and introduced species 168
9.9 Sewage and toxic pollution and their treatment 170
9.10 Diffuse pollution 174
9.11 River monitoring 176
9.12 The Water Framework Directive 177
9.13 Implementation of the Directive 178
9.14 Restoration and rehabilitation ecology 180
9.15 Further reading 183
10 Rich systems: floodplain rivers 185
10.1 Introduction 185
10.2 From an erosive river to a depositional one 187
10.3 Submerged plants 188
10.4 Growth of submerged plants 190
10.5 Methods of measuring the primary productivity of submerged plants 193
10.6 Enclosure methods 194
10.7 Other methods 195
10.8 Submerged plants and the river ecosystem 196
10.9 Farther downstream: swamps and floodplains 196
10.10 Productivity of swamps and floodplain marshes 198
10.11 Swamp soils and the fate of the high primary production 199
10.12 Oxygen supply and soil chemistry in swamps 200
10.13 Emergent plants and flooded soils 202
10.14 Swamp and marsh animals 204
10.15 Whitefish and blackfish 205
10.16 Latitudinal differences in floodplains 206
10.17 Polar floodplains 207
10.18 Cold‐temperate floodplains 208
10.19 Warm‐temperate floodplains 209
10.20 Tropical floodplains 211
10.21 The Sudd 212
10.22 Further reading 215
11 Floodplains and human affairs 216
11.1 Introduction 216
11.2 Floodplain services 218
11.3 Floodplain fisheries 220
11.4 Floodplain swamps and human diseases 222
11.5 Case studies: the Pongola River 226
11.6 River and floodplain management and rehabilitation 231
11.7 Mitigation: plant bed management in rivers 231
11.8 Enhancement 234
11.9 Rehabilitation 236
11.10 Inter‐basin transfers and water needs 238
11.11 Further reading 240
12 Lakes and other standing waters 242
12.1 Introduction 242
12.2 The origins of lake basins 244
12.3 Lake structure 248
12.4 The importance of the catchment area 254
12.5 Lakes as autotrophic or heterotrophic systems 255
12.6 The continuum of lakes 258
12.7 Lake history 263
12.8 Organic remains 267
12.9 General problems of interpretation of evidence from sediment cores 269
12.10 Two ancient lakes 270
12.11 Younger lakes 271
12.12 Filling in 276
12.13 Summing‐up 278
12.14 Further reading 278
13 The communities of shallow standing waters: mires,shallow lakes and the littoral zone 280
13.1 Introduction 280
13.2 What determines the nature of mires and littoral zones? 280
13.3 Temperature 281
13.4 Nutrients 282
13.5 Littoral communities in lakes 286
13.6 The structure of littoral communities 288
13.7 Periphyton 291
13.8 Heterotrophs among the plants 292
13.9 Neuston 295
13.10 Linkages, risks and insurances among the littoral communities 296
13.11 Latitude and littorals 297
13.12 The role of the nekton 299
13.13 Further reading 301
14 Plankton communities of the pelagic zone 304
14.1 Kitchens and toilets 304
14.2 Phytoplankton and sinking 306
14.3 Photosynthesis and growth of phytoplankton 309
14.4 Net production and growth 310
14.5 Nutrient uptake and growth rates of phytoplankton 311
14.6 Distribution of freshwater phytoplankton 312
14.7 Washout 314
14.8 Cyanobacterial blooms 314
14.9 Heterotrophs in the plankton: viruses and bacteria 319
14.10 The microbial pathway 320
14.11 Zooplankton 321
14.12 Grazing 324
14.13 Feeding and grazing rates of zooplankton 328
14.14 Competition and predation among grazers 328
14.15 Predation on zooplankters by invertebrates 330
14.16 Fishes in the open‐water community 333
14.17 Predation on the zooplankton and fish production 335
14.18 Avoidance of vertebrate predation by the zooplankton 338
14.19 Piscivores and piscivory 340
14.20 Functioning of the open‐water community 340
14.21 Polar lakes 342
14.22 Cold‐temperate lakes 343
14.23 Warm‐temperate lakes 346
14.24 Very warm lakes in the tropics 347
14.25 Further reading 349
15 The profundal zone and carbon storage 352
15.1 The end of the line 352
15.2 The importance of oxygen 353
15.3 Profundal communities 356
15.4 Biology of selected benthic invertebrates 357
15.5 What the sediment‐living detritivores really eat 359
15.6 Influence of the open‐water community on the profundal benthos 361
15.7 Sediment storage and the global carbon cycle 365
15.8 Further reading 370
16 Fisheries in standing waters 371
16.1 Some general principles 371
16.2 Some basic fish biology 372
16.3 Eggs 372
16.4 Feeding 374
16.5 Breeding 375
16.6 Choice of fish for a fishery 379
16.7 Measurement of fish production 379
16.8 Growth measurement 381
16.9 Fish production and commercial fisheries in lakes 383
16.10 Changes in fisheries: a case study 387
16.11 The East African Great Lakes 390
16.12 Fish culture 395
16.13 Stillwater angling 400
16.14 Amenity culture and the aquarium trade 403
16.15 Further reading 405
17 The uses, abuses and restoration of standing waters 406
17.1 Introduction 406
17.2 Services provided by standing waters 408
17.3 Domestic water supply, eutrophication and reservoirs 409
17.4 Eutrophication – nutrient pollution 410
17.5 Dams and reservoirs 415
17.6 Fisheries in new lakes 418
17.7 Effects downstream of the new lake 419
17.8 New tropical lakes and human populations 419
17.9 Man‐made tropical lakes, the balance of pros and cons 419
17.10 Amenity and conservation 421
17.11 The alternative states model 424
17.12 Ponds 426
17.13 Restoration approaches for standing waters: symptom treatment 426
17.14 Treatment of proximate causes: nutrient control 428
17.15 Present supplies of phosphorus, their relative contributions and how they are related to the algal crop 430
17.16 Methods available for reducing total phosphorus loads 430
17.17 In‐lake methods 434
17.18 Complications for phosphorus control – sediment sources 434
17.19 Nitrogen reduction 435
17.20 Habitat creation 436
17.21 Further reading 438
18 Climate change and the future of freshwaters 440
18.1 Introduction 440
18.2 Climate change 442
18.3 Existing effects of freshwaters 444
18.4 Future effects 449
18.5 Future effects on freshwaters 453
18.6 Switches and feedbacks 457
18.7 Wicked problems 464
18.8 Mitigation of global warming 468
18.9 The remedy of ultimate causes 468
18.10 Rewilding the world 474
18.11 Reforming governments 477
18.12 Further reading 479
References 483
Index 515
