Modelling Community Structure In Freshwater Ecosystems

This volume presents approaches and methodologies for predicting the structure and diversity of key aquatic communities (namely, diatoms, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish), under natural conditions and under man-made disturbance. The intent is to offer an organized means for modeling, evaluating and restoring freshwater ecosystems.

This volume presents approaches and methodologies for predicting the structure and diversity of key aquatic communities (namely, diatoms, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish), under natural conditions and under man-made disturbance. The intent is to offer an organized means for modeling, evaluating and restoring freshwater ecosystems.

Providing many examples of how models can be implemented and interpreted, this book describes the biology of the life cycle and follows the transitions of individuals through stages in the life cycle. The focus is on models as tools.

Ecological Model Types brings an understanding on how to quantitatively analyze complex and dynamic ecosystems with the tools available today. Ecosystem studies widely use the notions of order, complexity, randomness, and organization, and are used interchangeably in literature, which causes much confusion. Better models synthesize our knowledge on ecosystems and their environmental problems, in contrast to statistical analysis, which only reveal the relationships between the data. This book brings together experts on ecological models to create a definitive work on how to understand our complex Earth. Bridges the gap between statistical analysis and synthesis of data, enhancing our understanding about ecosystems and their environmental problems Helps readers understand complex ecosystems by walking through the best modeling options to analyze and predict environmental effects Provides a detailed review of 14 model types, covering the breadth of options available for analysis at this time

Information technologies have evolved to an enabling science for natural resource management and conservation, environmental engineering, scientific simulation and integrated assessment studies. Computing plays a significant role in every day practices of environmental engineers, natural scientists, economists, and social scientists. The complexity of natural phenomena requires interdisciplinary approaches, where computing science offers the infrastructure for environmental data collection and management, scientific simulations, decision support documentation and reporting. Ecology, environmental engineering and natural resource management comprise an excellent real-world testbed for IT system demonstration, while raising new challenges for computer science. Complexity, uncertainty and scaling issues of natural systems form a demanding application domain for sensor networks and earth observation systems; modelling, simulation and scientific workflows, data management and reporting, decision support and intelligent systems, distributed computing environments, geographical information systems, heterogeneous systems integration, software engineering, accounting systems and control systems. This books offers a collection of papers presented at the 4th International Symposium on Environmental Engineering, held in May 2009, in Thessaloniki, Greece. Recent success stories in ecoinformatics, promising ideas and new challenges are discussed among computer scientists, environmental engineers, economists and social scientists, demonstrating new paradigms for problem solving and decision making.

Ecologists have long struggled to predict features of ecological systems, such as the numbers and diversity of organisms. The wide range of body sizes in ecological communities, from tiny microbes to large animals and plants, is emerging as the key to prediction. Based on the relationship between body size and features such as biological rates, the physics of water and the amount of habitat available, we may be able to understand patterns of abundance and diversity, biogeography, interactions in food webs and the impact of fishing, adding up to a potential 'periodic table' for ecology. Remarkable progress on the unravelling, describing and modelling of aquatic food webs, revealing the fundamental role of body size, makes a book emphasising marine and freshwater ecosystems particularly apt. In this 2007 book, the importance of body size is examined at a range of scales that will be of interest to professional ecologists, from students to senior researchers.

Freshwater field tests are an integral part of the process of hazard assessment of pesticides and other chemicals in the environment. This book brings together international experts on microcosms and mesocosms for a critical appraisal of theory and practice on the subject of freshwater field tests for hazard assessment. It is an authoritative and comprehensive summary of knowledge about freshwater field tests, with particular emphasis on their optimization for scientific and regulatory purposes. This valuable reference covers both lotic and lentic outdoor systems and addresses the choice of endpoints and test methodology. Instructive case histories show how to extrapolate test results to the real world.