Bücher der Reihe Monographiae Biologicae

The idea for this book was born at the June 1996 meeting of the IDEAL Steering Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. IDEAL, an International Decade for the East African Lakes, had ended one round of field investigations, many of which had been centered on Lake Victoria.

Proceedings of the conference held in Bandar Seri Begawan, April 1993

What have we learnt about the Nile since the mid-1970s, the moment when Julian Rzoska decided that the time had come to publish a comprehensive volume about the biology, and the geological and cultural history of that great river?

The increasing world population is already causing intensive pressure on the most productive areas of the earth's surface. In this respect, the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, occupying about 11,000 million acres or 4,500 million hectares, roughly one third of the tota11and surface, pose a constant challenge to man's technological skill.

Maritime canals dissolve natural barriers to the dispersal of marine organisms, providing novel opportunities for natural dispersal, as well as for shipping-mediated transport. This book is the first to assess the impacts of the world's three principal maritime canals - the Kiel, the Panama, the Suez - as invasion corridors for alien biota.

This book describes the outstanding features of the ecology and bio geography of the Indian region, comprising former British India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ceylon and Burma.

This volume merges all geographical and paleogeographical data on all groups of the arachnofauna. Furthermore, amongst other topics the volume also includes chapters on the systems of arachnida, fossil orders, dispersal and dispersion, endemics and relicts, regional arachnogeography, cave and high altitude arachnida.

How many marine species are there in Costa Rica? Recent estimates of the numbers of species on coral reefs range from 1-9 million, so that the true number of marine species in Costa Rica is certainly far higher. Indeed the task of describing marine species is daunting - if there really are about 9 million marine species and Costa Rica has 3.

There is a paradox in hypertension: whereas the pathophysiological mechanisms of the disease have been related principally to a constriction of small arteries, most of the complications refer to damage of the large arteries, particularly at the site of the brain, the kidney and the heart. In the past, large arteries were poorly investigated in hypertension mainly in terms of change in blood flow. Recent studies clearly show that the large arteries are largely involved in the mechanisms of hypertension not only through changes in mean blood flow, but rather through changes in stiffness of the arterial wall. This aspect may be a key-point for the development of hypertensive complications. Subsequently, the goal of treatment may be not only blood pressure reduction but also improvement of structural and functional abnormalities of the large vessels. These therapeutic aspects are analyzed in detail in the present book.

Our understanding of the ecology of running waters has come a long way during the past few years. From being a largely descriptive subject, with a few under­ tones concerned with such things as fisheries, pollution or control of blackflies, it has evolved into a discipline with hypotheses, such as the River Continuum Concept (Vannote et a/. 1980), and even a book suggesting that it offers opportunity for the testing of ecological theory (Barnes & Minshall 1983). However, perusal of the literature reveals that, although some of the very early studies were concerned with large rivers (references in Hynes 1970), the great mass of the work that has been done on running water has been on streams and small rivers, and information on larger rivers is either on such limited topics as fisheries or plankton, scattered among the journals, or not available to the general limnologist. The only exceptions are a few books in this series of publications, such as those on the Nile (Rz6ska 1976), the Volga (Morduckai­ Boltovskoi 1979) and the Amazon {Sioli 1984), and the recent compendium by Whitton (1984) on European rivers, among which there are a few that rate as large.

The idea for this book was born at the June 1996 meeting of the IDEAL Steering Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. IDEAL, an International Decade for the East African Lakes, had ended one round of field investigations, many of which had been centered on Lake Victoria.

Since then a lot of research has been done on this and related topics. This book provides an overview of the main research results, and focuses on plant communities, vertebrate communities and evolutionary ecology, frugivory and seed dispersal, and forest dynamics and recruitment.

Many authors of this new book were participants at the workshop on diapause in aquatic invertebrates (Pallanza, Italy 2003). This book consists of two major parts: phenomenology of diapause and significance of this adaptation in scientific and practical uses.

357 Temperature . . . . . . . . . 360 Salinity and conductivity 363 Major ions . . . . . . . . . Lake Victoria . Lake Kioga . . Lake Tana . . 390 The Sudan plain . 395 Limiting factors . . . . . . . . 396 Rates of photosynthetic production 397 References . . . . Epilogue by ]. Rzoska 403 Authors Index . 407 Subject Index .

Maritime canals dissolve natural barriers to the dispersal of marine organisms, providing novel opportunities for natural dispersal, as well as for shipping-mediated transport. This book is the first to assess the impacts of the world's three principal maritime canals - the Kiel, the Panama, the Suez - as invasion corridors for alien biota.

Since then a lot of research has been done on this and related topics. This book provides an overview of the main research results, and focuses on plant communities, vertebrate communities and evolutionary ecology, frugivory and seed dispersal, and forest dynamics and recruitment.

Recent studies of residual sediments from existing and extinct lakes in tropical Africa have told us much about their age and the past history of their faunas and floras, from which we may deduce something about the climate and the conditions in the water in the past.

This volume merges all geographical and paleogeographical data on all groups of the arachnofauna. Furthermore, amongst other topics the volume also includes chapters on the systems of arachnida, fossil orders, dispersal and dispersion, endemics and relicts, regional arachnogeography, cave and high altitude arachnida.

Presents a broad treatment of the Pantanal, ranging from geology to flora, fauna, and the human presence.

A large part of this book is dedicated to the geology of the Pityusic Archipelago, followed by contributions on climate and geography.

The valley of the River Wye has long been famed for its natural beauty and the salmon stocks which the river supports.

It is therefore necessary to give a detailed picture of the regional background and limnological features of the lake (Parts I and II) before describing its planktic and benthic com munities (Parts III and IV) and the Vertebrate fauna of the lake and its surroundings (Part V).

Africa is not known as one of the more densely populated continents. Very few students of Africa have the opportunity - or the tenacity - to travel over these vast areas or into the hidden corners that lie beyond the well-known routes of Africa.

With 'Biogeography and Ecology in South America' as the general theme, a total of twenty-nine contributions by thirty authors is offered here in two volumes, being volumes 18 and 19 of the Monographiae Biologicae.