Ecology of Meromictic Lakes

This volume presents recent advances in the research on meromictic lakes and a state-of-the art overview of this area. After an introduction to the terminology and geographic distribution of meromictic lakes, three concise chapters describe their physical, chemical and biological features. The following eight chapters present case studies of more than a dozen meromictic lakes, showing the variety of physical and biochemical processes that promote meromixis. The result is a broad picture of the ecology and biochemistry of meromictic lakes in tropical and cold regions, in man-made pit lakes and euxinic marine lakes, and in freshwater as well as hypersaline lakes. In the final chapter the editors provide a synthesis of the topic and conclude that the study of meromictic lakes also offers new insights into the limnology of inland lakes. The book appeals to researchers in the fields of ecology, limnology, environmental physics and biophysics.

Autorentext

Volume Editors

Ramesh D. Gulati, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO), 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands, r.gulati@nioo.knaw.nl

Egor S. Zadereev, Institute of Biophysics, SB RAS, Akademgorodok, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, egor@ibp.ru

Andrei G. Degermendzhi, Institute of Biophysics, SB RAS, Akademgorodok, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, ibp@ibp.ru

Inhalt

Introduction: Meromictic Lakes, their Terminology and Geographic Distribution.- Physical Features of Meromictic Lakes: Stratification and Circulation .- Chemical Setting and Biogeochemical Reactions in Meromictic Lakes.- Biological and Ecological Features, Trophic Structure and Energy Flow in Meromictic Lakes.- Comparative Study of the Stability of Stratification and the Food Web Structure in the Meromictic Lakes Shira and Shunet (South Siberia, Russia).- Rogoznica Lake, an Euxinic Marine Lake on the Adriatic Coast (Croatia) that Fluctuates Between Anoxic-Holomictic and Meromictic Conditions.- Lake Cadagno, Microbial Life in Crenogenic Meromixis.- Laguna de La Cruz, an Iron-Rich Karstic Meromictic Lake in Central Spain.- Meromictic Pit Lakes: Case Studies from Spain, Germany and Canada, and General Aspects of Management and Modeling.- Tropical Meromictic Lakes: Specifics of Meromixis and Case Studies of Lakes Tanganyika, Malawi, and Matano.- Mono Lake: Plankton Dynamics over Three Decades of Meromixis or Monomixis.- Mexican Meromictic Lakes: What we Know so far?- Conclusion: Ecology of Meromictic Lakes.