Book Reviews
Limnologiae in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1987. "Polar limnologists" discussed the distinctive features of the high latitude ecosystems of the north and south polar zones. The present volume (Developments of Hydrobiology 49, reprinted from Hydrobiologie 172) is derived from this symposium. The 22 papers written by 50 scientists give indications of the breadth of chemical, physical and biological research opportunities available t o polar limnologists and draw attention to some marked contrasts of freshwaters between or within the arctic and antarctic zones. The studies include clear, turbid, and brown water rivers in the subarctic, chlorophytes or blue-greens dominating in streams of the antarctic, meromictic waters in both zones, tundra ponds in the Yukon Delta area, hypersaline pools in Antarctica and a range of freshwater lakes.
The dominant impression from the assemblage of papers is one of great limnological diversity. Subjects such as geochemical and biogeochemical processes, nitrogen dynamics and cycling, effects of nutrient limitation, microbial communities, algal biomass and productivity, community structures of algae and invertebrates, the photon dependence of inorganic nitrogen transport by phytoplankton or patterns of energy storage in copepods were discussed.
The findings from these investigations could potentially offer insights into the structure and functioning of less extreme ecosystems elsewhere. Extreme environments such as polar lakes and rivers have been invoked as ideal experimental systems in which particular limnological properties are exaggerated and therefore more readily studied.