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This volume reports on the findings of experts on tropical zooplankton gathered at a meeting in Kariba, Zimbabwe, in 1991. Some basic questions were asked on community composition and biodiversity in the tropics versus the non-tropics. Old ideas on the nature of zooplankton, which were found to be wider than the `classical' rotifers, cladocerans and copepods, as well as on the number of species in tropical waters, are now beginning to break down accordingly as more and more blank spots in the tropics are explored and as more in-depth studies on the zooplankton of tropical lakes are becoming available.
This volume contains a mix of papers discussing the two alternative controls (bottom-up and top-down) of zooplankton community structure and these constitute another step towards a coherent theory of tropical ecosystem theory.
List of contents
I. Factors determining biogeography and distribution.- The distribution and ecology of the fresh- and brackish-water medusae of the world.- The temperate-tropical gradient of planktonic Protozoa and Rotifera.- On the diversity of the Cladocera in the tropics.- Cladocera of coastal rivers of western Nigeria.- Distribution patterns of the Diaptomidae (Calanoida: Copepoda) in southern Africa.- Temperature-related distributions of Metadiaptomus and Tropodiaptomus (Copepoda: Calanoida), particularly in southern Africa.- Rotifers of Benin River, Nigeria.- Salinity and the distribution of rotifers in the Lagos Harbour - Badagry Creek system, Nigeria.- Zooplankton, fish and fisheries in tropical freshwaters.- II. Autecological studies.- Growth, production, and demography of Moina micrura in brackish tropical fishponds (Layo, Ivory Coast).- In situ metabolic budget for the calanoid copepod Acartia clausi in a tropical brackish water lagoon (Ebrié Lagoon, Ivory Coast).- Equiproportional temperature-duration responses and thermal influences on distribution and species switching in the copepods Metadiaptomus meridianus and Tropodiaptomus spectabilis.- Durations of development and production estimates by two crustacean zooplankton species, Thermocyclops oblongatus Sars (Copepoda) and Diaphanosoma excisum Sars (Cladocera), in Lake Naivasha, Kenya.- III. Community ecology.- Relative significance of direct and indirect effects of predation by planktivorous fish on zooplankton.- Seasonal trends in zooplankton densities in Sanyati basin, Lake Kariba: multivariate analysis.- Mean individual dry weight and length-weight regressions of Some zooplankton of Lake Kariba.- Chlorophyll budget in a productive tropical pond: algal production, sedimentation, and grazing by microzooplankton androtifers.- Comparative limnology, species diversity and biomass relationship of zooplankton and phytoplankton in five freshwater lakes in Kenya.- Changes in relative abundance of zooplankton in northern Lake Victoria, East Africa.- Zooplankton composition and abundance in two impoundments in Zimbabwe.- Evaluation of eutrophication control in Lake Chivero, Zimbabwe, by multivariate analysis of zooplankton.- The Kariba Discussion The Editors.
