This is the first comprehensive
book on Tropical Freshwater Zooplankton. It covers the whole spectrum of Tropical
Freshwater Zooplankton and includes the non conventional group, the Ostracoda.
One chapter is devoted to miscellaneous groups like Chaoborus, Hydracarina,
Protozoa and some others that occur from time to time in freshwater zooplankton.
Another chapter, on the interactions of zooplankton and fisheries, should make
the book more useful to tropical fish culturists and fishery biologists. The
authors of the chapters on the different groups of zooplankton and fisheries
are authorities in these fields. They have also collaborated with the leading
researchers in the field from all continents and this work has benefited from
input of both younger scientists and senior collaborators working closely with
the authors in laboratories worldwide.
The text is written clearly and concisely in as simple a way as the material
permits, so that it can be used by workers who are not specialists in zooplankton,
and in developing countries. However, the material is comprehensive, authoritative
and up to date. The book is profusely illustrated with 121 plates (1119 line
drawings) and should enable users to obtain reliable diagnoses to species level
in many cases and also glean basic ideas about methodology, ecology, zoogeography
and classification. The book, though written by six authors, is completely integrated
as a guide to Tropical Freshwater Zooplankton.
This book should be of use to a wide variety of freshwater biologists, both
beginners and those already working in the field for some time. There is much
material that is relevant and up to date, some of it that is not familiar to
many students in the field. The literature coverage is designed to give a wide
perspective of research in the field without attempting to be exhaustive. Key
references are included so that the user can access almost all the literature
in the field but with special reference to the tropical region. This book should
be on the shelf of individual workers in zooplankton and especially in laboratories
where work on freshwater ecology and sytematics of the fauna is being carried
out. Libraries should have a copy available as a general reference for freshwater
biologists. Researchers and students of freshwater zooplankton, fishery scientists
and fish culturists in tropical regions will benefit from this wide-ranging
book.
Review