Mejofauna are a diverse and numerous component of the fauna in freshwater ecosystems, but have been mostly ignored by freshwater scientists. Freshwater Meiofauna aims to raise the awareness of this enigmatic, microscopic component of the freshwater biota, by providing the first-ever, comprehensive review of their biology and ecology. The first section of the book gives indepth accounts of the systematics, morphological characteristics, life histories and ecological requirements of the main freshwater meiofaunal taxa (i.e. microturbellarians, rotifers, gastrotriches, nematodes, water mites, microcrustaceans and tardigrades). The second section then takes an integrated approach to review the current state-of-play in meiofaunal ecological research in freshwaters, addressing important issues, such as the importance of meiofaunal taxa in the trophic dynamics of freshwater ecosystems and the process underpinning the distribution patterns observed in meiofaunal assemblages. This book should appeal to a wide range of freshwater scientists, including novices in the study of freshwater meiobenthology and established researchers in freshwater ecology, for whom the meiofauna represent an unopened “black box". Our ultimate goal is that this book will serve to promote the idea that the zoology of freshwater habitats concerns more than just fish, macroinvertebrates and microbes.
1. Microturbellaria, Jurek Kolasa.
2. Rotifera, Robert Lee Wallace and Claudia Ricci.
3. Gastrotricha, Maria Balsamo and M Antonio Todaro.
4. Nematoda, Walter Traunspurger.
5. Hydrachnidia (Water mites), Antonio Di Sabatino, Peter Martin, Reinhard Gerecke
and Bruno Cicolani.
6. Microcrustacea, Diana Galassi, Pierre Marmonier, Marie-Jose' Dole- Olivier
and Simon Rundle.
7. Tardigrada, Diane R. Nelson and Sandra J. McInnes.
8. The small scale ecology of freshwater meiofauna, Pamela Silver Margaret A.
Palmer, Christopher M. Swan and David Wooster
9. Freshwater meiofauna and surface water-sediment linkages: a conceptual framework
for cross-system comparisons, Andrew Boulton, Christine Hakenkamp, Margaret
Palmer and David Strayer
10. Changing times: the temporal dynamics of freshwater benthic microcrustacea,
Anne L. Robertson.
11. The geographical ecology of freshwater meiofauna, Simon Rundle, David Bilton,
Diana Galassi and Dennis Shiozawa.
12. Trophic relationships in temporary and permanent freshwater meiofauna, Peter
E. Schmid and Jenny M. Schmid-Araya.
13. The functional importance of freshwater meiofauna, Christine C. Hakenkamp,
Antoine Morin and David L. Strayer
14. CODA: The micrognathozoa - a new class or phylum of freshwater meiofauna?,
Peter Funch and Rein hardt MØbjerg Kristensen.
Subject index.
Taxonomic index.