Ecology and Biogeography in Sri Lanka
Ecology and Biogeography in Sri Lanka

Author: C.H. Fernando

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 511

ISBN-13: 9400965451

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When the late Professor Joachim Illies suggested in 1980 that I edit a volume of the Monographiae Biologicae on Sri Lanka, I was glad to accept the challenge. Although I had spent only six years of my research and teaching career in Sri Lanka, I had made personal contact or corresponded with many scientists who had worked in, still work in, or who have studied material from Sri Lanka. The present domicile of the authors of the chapters in this volume shows the wide geographic spread of interest in Sri Lanka, and indicates also the dispersion of Sri Lankan scientists like myself. Sri Lanka has had a relatively long history of indigenous scientific research in the natural sciences. From the early work of Kelaart (1852, Prodromous Fauna Zeylanicae, Ceylon Govt. Press, 250 pp.) to the present time, there has been a more or less sustained research effort in the natural sciences. The Colombo Museum, which celebrated its centenary only a few years ago, and the world famous Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, served as repositories and bases for continued research on the fauna and flora. There are a number of land marks in these studies.

The Importance of Aquatic-Terrestrial Ecotones for Freshwater Fish
The Importance of Aquatic-Terrestrial Ecotones for Freshwater Fish

Author: F. Schiemer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 9401733600

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Ecotones are interface zones between different ecosystems. Their ecological role and significance with regard to ecological management and conservation has become increasingly appreciated. For the management of freshwater resources, for example, an improved understanding of the role of land/inland water interfaces, will be essential for reducing negative human impacts by engineering, nutrient loading, siltation, etc. The management of ecotones, on the other hand, offers the possibility to control aquatic system processes via stock control of fish populations. Fish apparently are both excellent indicators of ecotone quality as well as determiners of its structure and function.

Restoration and Management of Tropical Eutrophic Lakes
Restoration and Management of Tropical Eutrophic Lakes

Author: M V Reddy

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2005-01-09

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 1482294486

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This book is an essential knowledge base for both ecological restoration and management. Although tropical lakes are not identical, and therefore require individually developed and restoration and management practices; there are general principles in both restoration and management that can be derived from the case histories in this book and the li

Tropical Zooplankton
Tropical Zooplankton

Author: Henri J. Dumont

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 940173612X

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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.