Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems (eBook)

Effects and Responses

P. Sam Lake (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2011 | 1. Auflage
400 Seiten
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-4443-4179-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Droughts are a major hazard to both natural and human-dominated
environments and those, especially of long duration and high
intensity, can be highly damaging and leave long-lasting effects.
This book describes the climatic conditions that give rise to
droughts, and their various forms and chief attributes. Past
droughts are described including those that had severe impacts on
human societies. As a disturbance, droughts can be thought of as
"ramps" in that they usually build slowly and take time
to become evident. As precipitation is reduced, flows from
catchments into aquatic systems decline. As water declines in water
bodies, ecological processes are changed and the biota can be
drastically reduced, though species and populations may survive by
using refuges. Recovery from drought varies in both rates and
in degrees of completeness and may be a function of both refuge
availability and connectivity.

For the first time, this book reviews the available rather
scattered literature on the impacts of drought on the flora, fauna
and ecological processes of aquatic ecosystems ranging from small
ponds to lakes and from streams to estuaries. The effects of
drought on the biota of standing waters and flowing waters and of
temporary waters and perennial systems are described and compared.
In addition, the ways in which human activity can exacerbate
droughts are outlined. In many parts of the world especially in the
mid latitudes, global warming may result in increases in the
duration and intensity of droughts.

Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems is essential reading for
freshwater ecologists, water resource managers and advanced
students.

Autor

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.

Inhalt

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.

Rezensionen

"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)

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.6.2011
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Limnologie / Meeresbiologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Ökologie / Süßwasser • Ökosystem • Biowissenschaften • Freshwater Ecology • Life Sciences • Ökologie / Süßwasser • Ökosystem
• ISBN-10: 1-4443-4179-0 / 1444341790
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4443-4179-9 / 9781444341799