This volume gives an insight into what a group of contemporary plankton biologists think about the utility, virtues, strengths and theoretical and practical weaknesses of J.H. Connell's Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis within the context of phytoplankton ecology. The sequence of papers in this volume moves from particular case studies to more general and finally theoretical approaches.

Inhalt
Hutchinson's heritage: the diversity-disturbance relationship in phytoplankton.- Disturbance events affecting phytoplankton biomass, composition and species diversity in a shallow, eutrophic, temperate lake.- Stress and disturbance in the phytoplankton community of a shallow, hypertrophic lake.- Diversity and succession of the phytoplankton in a small lake over a two-year period.- Phytoplankton succession and diversity in a warm monomictic, relatively shallow lake: Lake Volvi, Macedonia, Greece.- Hypertrophic phytoplankton and the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis.- Disturbance-diversity relationships in two lakes of similar nutrient chemistry but contrasting disturbance regimes.- Importance of intermediate disturbances for the species composition and diversity of phytoplankton in two very different Berlin lakes.- Seasonal succession of phytoplankton and its diversity in two highly eutrophic lakes with different conditions of stratification.- Seasonal fluctuations in the diversity and compositional stability of phytoplankton communities in small lakes in upper Bavaria.- Ecology of the phytoplankton of the River Moselle: effects of disturbances on community structure and diversity.- Some notes about the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis and its effects on the phytoplankton of the middle Orinoco river.- Effects of the water discharge on periphyton abundance and diversity in a large river (River Danube, Hungary).- The influence of different disturbance frequencies on the species richness, diversity and equitability of phytoplankton in shallow lakes.- Scales of disturbance and their role in plankton ecology.- Notes on compositional diversity.- Intermediate disturbance in the ecology of phytoplankton and the maintenance of species diversity: a synthesis.- Generalindex.