Our knowledge of the limnology of the waters situated, roughly, between the tropics of cancer and of capricorn, has depended for a long time on the expedition-approach, and therefore developed in a rather irregular, haphazard way, with the personal incentive of a small number of individuals as the main driving force. Things slowly started to change in the 1950s, and at an accelerating rate in the 1960s and 1970s. The IBP, and later the SCOPE and MAB programs, whatever their shortcomings are or may have been, promoted in-depth research of a small number of tropical lakes. For one thing, they showed the need for the creation of in situ limnological research institutes. When, in the 1970s, limnological research facilities or their nuclei began to appear in the tropical zones of all continents, an interesting phenomenon occurred: while most of the young native limnologists had received their training in advanced centres or courses held in the temperate (and developed) climatic zones, quite a few of their former supervisors or their associates became interested in warm lakes and rivers as well, using the new or newly expanded local institutes. We are, today, still in this phase and it is, apparently, expanding even further. Although not all experiments of this kind lead to happy marriages, a few were quite successful, and several papers contained in the present volume are hoped to reflect this.

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1. Structure and dynamics of zooplankton communities, Alligator Rivers Region, N.T., Australia.- 2. Feeding in adult females of Argyrodiaptomus furcatus (Sars, 1901), Copepoda-Calanoida, of Lobo Reservoir (Broa), São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil.- 3. Some Crustacea Copepoda from Venezuela.- 4. Some remarks on the latitudinal distribution of Cladocera on the Indian subcontinent.- 5. A review of systematics, distribution and ecology of tropical freshwater zooplankton.- 6. Zooplankton associations in the swamps of southern Sudan.- 7. Ecological studies of Cladocera in the ricefields of Tanjung Karang, Malaysia, subjected to pesticide treatment.- 8. The freshwater zooplankton of Central America and the Caribbean.- 9. A study of the zooplankton community of Billings Reservoir São Paulo.- 10. Species composition and seasonal abundance of zooplankton in two Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes Lakes Abiata and Langano.- 11. Zooplankton composition of ten reservoirs in southern Brazil.- 12. The distribution of brackish water Calanoida (Copepoda) along the coasts of Brazil.- 13. An outline of the distribution patterns of the freshwater Copepoda of Israel and surroundings.- 14. Some comments on tropical littoral Cladocera, with a description of Alona incredibilis sp. nov.- 15. Attempt at ecological prognosis of the plankton in the man-made lake 'Parana Medio (Chapeton Transect)', Argentina.- 16. Physiological responses of the early zoeal stages of Palaemon pandaliformis Stimpson and Palaemon northropi (Rankin) to salinity variation.- 17. Consumption of zooplanktonic organisms by Astyanax fasciatus Cuvier, 1819 (Osteichthyes, Characidae) in Lobo (Broa) Reservoir, São Carlos, SP, Brazil.- 18. Spatial structure of the zooplankton community in the Cabo Frio region (Brazil)influenced by coastal upwelling.- 19. Assessment of factors influencing the composition, body size and turnover rate of zooplankton in Parakrama Samudra, an irrigation reservoir in Sri Lanka.- 20. Zooplankton feeding in the fish Trichogaster pectoralis Regan.- 21. The freshwater zooplankton of Thailand (Rotifera and Crustacea).- 22. Tropical lakes functional ecology and future developments: The need for a process-oriented approach.- 23. Influence of predation by fish and water turbidity on a Daphnia gessneri population in an Amazonian floodplain lake, Brazil.- 24. The impact of zooplankton status on the management of Lake Kinneret (Israel).- 25. The free-living inland aquatic nematodes of Africa a review.- 26. The effect of Cyanophyta upon zooplankton in a eutrophic tropical lake (Lake Valencia, Venezuela).- 27. Diel migration and vertical distribution of Cladocera in Lake D. Helvecio (Minas Gerais, Brazil).- 28. Biomass and production of Argyrodiaptomus furcatus, a tropical calanoid copepod in Broa Reservoir, southern Brazil.- 29. The nature and origin of the crustacean zooplankton of Sahelian Africa, with a note on the Limnomedusa.- 30. Description of Alona broaensis sp. nov. (Crustacea: Cladocera).- Epilogue: The future of tropical zooplankton studies.- General index.- Author index.