Cladocerans are increasingly used in many fields of science and this volume covers a wide range of such topics. Cladocerans have a strong influence on freshwater ecosystems and in some aspects they can be used in biomanipulation projects. Their fast and easy asexual reproduction offers a wide range of possibilities for studies in many fields of research: genetics, ecology, ecotoxicology, etc. In some ways they are the Drosophila of the present day. Their global distribution makes them of special interest from a phylogenetic and biogeographic as well as an ecological point of view. Apart from the proceedings of previous symposia, there are no other books which cover the whole range of aspects. These proceedings update the last symposia as well as including completely new information on certain fields of research. Target groups are research scientists within ecology, systematic biology, evolutionary biology and population biology. The book could also be a useful source of information for special courses for students of the above mentioned topics.

Physiology of the Cladocera, Second Edition, is a much-needed summary of foundational information on these increasingly important model organisms. This unique and valuable review is based on the world's literature, including Russian research not previously widely available, and offers systematically arranged data on the physiology of Cladocera, assisting with explanation of their life and distribution. It features the addition of new sections and a vast amount of new information, such as the latest data on feeding, nutrition, pathological physiology, chemical composition, neurosecretion, and behavior, as well as hormonal regulation, antioxidants, and the biochemical background of effects of natural and anthropogenic factors. Additional expertly updated contributions in genetics and cytology, and a new chapter in embryology, round out the physiological chapters, and provide comprehensive insight into the state of knowledge of Cladocera and their underlying mechanisms. Cladocera crustaceans have become globally studied for many purposes, including genetic, molecular, ecological, environmental, water quality, systematics, and evolutionary biology research. Since the genome of Daphnia was sequenced and published, that system has gained much wider exposure, also leading to a rapidly growing awareness of the importance of understanding physiological processes as they relate to evolutionary and ecological genomics as well as ecogenomic toxicology. However, the physiological background on Cladocera has been fragmentary (including on the other 700 known species besides Daphnia), despite the extensive literature on species identification and morphology. This work addresses this issue by collecting and synthesizing from the literature the state of knowledge of cladoceran physiology, including discussion on both adequately and inadequately investigated fields, and thus directions of future research. - Summarizes fundamental information obtained in recent years, including on steroids, antioxidants, hormones, nanoparticles, and impact of wastewater of pharmaceutical industries - Provides the foundational information needed for scientists and practitioners from a variety of fields, including conservation and evolutionary biology, genomics, ecology, ecotoxicology, comparative physiology, limnology, zoology–carcinology, and water quality assessment - Features coverage of both Daphniids and representatives of other families, with attention drawn to little-studied aspects of their physiology, especially of those living in the litt oral zone - Includes guidance to the literature on cladoceran physiology in four languages - Discusses advantages and shortcomings of Cladocera as experimental animals and indicators of water quality

The Third International Symposium on Cladocera, papers from which make up this volume, covered recent findings on the behaviour, life history, population genetics, reproduction, chemical communication, predator-prey interactions, epibionts, taxonomy, phylogeny, palaeolimnology and biogeography of this animal group. The Cladocera occupy an intermediate position in lake ecosystems, both as plankton and benthic organisms. Their often high abundance and their function, as transfer organisms from algae and dead organic matter to macro-invertebrates and fish, make them one of the most important organisms to affect the biological processes in freshwater ecosystems. The Cladocera living among the plankton often have recognizable distribution patterns and migrations; their size and brief life cycles make them popular in laboratory experiments; their cyclic parthenogenesis makes them suitable for many aspects of population genetics; and they are present as microfossils in lake sediments. All these features confer a unique status on the Cladocera as model organisms in many aspects of modern systematics and ecology.

This volume surveys advances in the study of adaptive radiation showing how molecular characters can be used to analyze the origin and pattern of diversification within a lineage in a non-circular fashion.

Researchers in the field of ecological genomics aim to determine how a genome or a population of genomes interacts with its environment across ecological and evolutionary timescales. Ecological genomics is trans-disciplinary by nature. Ecologists have turned to genomics to be able to elucidate the mechanistic bases of the biodiversity their research tries to understand. Genomicists have turned to ecology in order to better explain the functional cellular and molecular variation they observed in their model organisms. We provide an advanced-level book that covers this recent research and proposes future development for this field. A synthesis of the field of ecological genomics emerges from this volume. Ecological Genomics covers a wide array of organisms (microbes, plants and animals) in order to be able to identify central concepts that motivate and derive from recent investigations in different branches of the tree of life. Ecological Genomics covers 3 fields of research that have most benefited from the recent technological and conceptual developments in the field of ecological genomics: the study of life-history evolution and its impact of genome architectures; the study of the genomic bases of phenotypic plasticity and the study of the genomic bases of adaptation and speciation.