LIBRARY LETTERS
Authors: George D. G. 
Published: March 2003

LAKES AND DISLAKES

Lampert, W. & Sommer, U. (1997) Limnoecology: the ecology of lakes and streams. Oxford University Press, Oxford. xiv+382 pp., figs, tables, index. Hardback: Price £37.50. ISBN 0‐19‐509592‐8. This book is an English translation of a volume that was first published in German in 1992 and is the result of a collaboration between Winfried Lampert, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Limnology at Plon, and Ulrich Sommer, Professor of Biological Oceanography at the University of Kiel. The book was written in response to the criticism that most textbooks in ecology use examples that are drawn, almost exclusively, from terrestrial systems. The authors’ intention was to produce a book on limnology that would highlight fundamental principles and would thus be of interest to a much wider audience.

The first chapter, ‘Ecology and evolution’, develops the theme by explaining that one of the main aims of ecology is to investigate not only how organisms are adapted to their environment but also why they have developed particular adaptations. A number of important concepts, such as the difference between proximate and ultimate factors, are discussed and illustrated with examples drawn from the aquatic literature. The second chapter, ‘Methods of ecological research’, describes some of the methods used to test hypotheses and includes advice on the design of laboratory and field experiments. Some of this advice may appear elementary, but experienced researchers would do well to remember that ‘correlation analysis can be used to draw numerical, but not functional, relationships.’ Chapter 3, ‘Special features of aquatic habitats’, has clearly been included for the sake of completeness. The basic physical and chemical characteristics of lakes are discussed in time‐honoured fashion and a few pages devoted to the special characteristics of running waters. The organization of Chapter 4, ‘The individual in its habitat’, is rather unbalanced and clearly reflects the authors’ areas of special interest. The best sections in the chapter are those devoted to the functional responses of aquatic organisms and the feeding mechanisms of the microcrustacea. Chapter 5, ‘Populations’, combines an introduction to the basic principles of population ecology with a review of more recent issues, such as the concept of r and K selected organisms. The factors that control population size are discussed in a simple but informative way, and are illustrated with examples drawn from studies of phytoplankton and zooplankton. Chapter 6, ‘Interactions’, is the longest in the book and clearly reflects the author's interest in the temporal dynamics of planktonic crustacea. The chapter starts in a fairly traditional way by reviewing the competition models of Lotka‐Volterra and Tilman but then pursues a number of specialist issues, such the impact of chemical signals (kairomones) on the growth of rotifers. Chapter 7, ‘Communities’, is largely devoted to a discussion of the ‘top‐down’ versus ‘bottom‐up’ controversy that has preoccupied plankton ecologists for several decades. The authors provide a commendably dispassionate overview of the historical argument and highlight some recent studies that try to reconcile these opposing views. The chapter includes a brief discussion of the causes and maintenance of diversity and ends with a somewhat displaced account of the river continuum concept. Chapter 8, ‘Ecosystem perspectives’, is another chapter that appears to have been written as a matter of duty. The carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and silica cycles are, however, described before the authors return to the terra firma of plankton succession and the ‘climax’ concept. Chapter 9, ‘Final remarks’, is only three pages long but leaves the reader in no doubt as to why this book was written. The authors clearly view the recent trend towards more marketable ‘applied’ research with considerable concern: ‘The objective of this applied ecology is not the development of generalized theories, but the optimization of human living conditions.’ In a concluding paragraph, they point out that the relationship between ecology and environmental science can be compared to the relationship between physics and engineering. ‘Physics provides the fundamental materials from which the engineers make products.’ This is not a new definition of ecology, but we are left with the clear implication that this book would not have been written if the authors had spent most of their time working in the ‘engineering’ department!

Like any book, its structure and content is strongly influenced by the specialist knowledge of the writers. The authors are at their best when they describe recent developments in their own fields of interest. The least satisfactory sections are the chapters and sections devoted to lake physics, chemistry and the spatial organization of limnetic systems. For example, in Chapter 3 the authors include a figure that purports to show that small vertical variations in water temperature can produce micro‐layers of phytoplankton in the near‐surface ‘mixed zone’. Thermally induced layers of this kind are periodically recorded in lakes, but in this example there is no evidence of any physical discontinuities.

In 1892, Forel, a Swiss Professor, defined limnology as ‘the oceanography of lakes’. This book has not been designed as a textbook in that classical sense but provides an excellent introduction to those aspects of limnology that have a strong ecological bias. The book is well produced with clear line drawings and includes boxed sections of text that explain some technical issues in more detail. The translater should be congratulated for producing a text that reads very well in English and, as far as I can judge, conveys the philosophical as well as the factual message of the original text. Overall, it is a valuable, indeed elegant, addition to the existing English texts, which I would also recommend to those interested in general ecological theory.