Central European Stream Ecosystems: The Long Term Study of the Breitenbach

Pollution of freshwater resources becomes an issue in virtually every country undergoing an industrialization process. While the main emphasis has been for many years on lakes due to their limited capacity of self-renewal, streams and rivers attract increasing attention due to their importance for agriculture, fisheries, drinking water reserves and as feeder of freshwater lakes and reservoirs. There are many factors influencing the ecology of streams, only some of them relating to direct anthropogenic influences and it is important to have reliable long term data on natural occurring variations in order to better estimate the `default’ status of a stream and to judge the influence of modern anthropogenic influences.

The Breitenbach is one of the best-studied streams on earth, as the nearby Max-Planck Outstation in Schlitz was founded in 1949 and scientists there have been collecting data ever since.

Central European Stream Ecosystems: The Long Term Study of the Breitenbach is the result of this research, and special focus has been placed on animal and microorganism occurrence and variation as well as chemical and physical parameters. Already this data influences the discussion of the `good ecological state’ reference values and it will be in particular useful to analyze the effect of global warming on the ecology of streams.

An invaluable data basis for modeling purposes, this important book is a useful resource for everyone in the world dealing with stream ecology, for example limnologists, ecologists, biologists and hydrologists.