This is a comprehensive treatise on meiobenthology, the science of small animals which live, often disregarded even by zoologists, in huge numbers in all aquatic sediments. Covering all the scientific literature on the subject, particular emphasis is placed on ecological and systematic aspects. After a survey of the biotope conditions and important methods, the animals are introduced in a systematic account. This is followed by a report on the meiobenthos in relevant biotopes. The book concludes with an analysis of the productive role and the position of meiofauna in the food web and perspectives for future research.

The Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science contains 350 alphabetically arranged entries. The topics include cave and karst geoscience, cave archaeology and human use of caves, art in caves, hydrology and groundwater, cave and karst history, and conservation and management. The Encyclopedia is extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, diagrams, and tables, and has thematic content lists and a comprehensive index to facilitate searching and browsing.

For the first time in limnofaunistic bibliography, the present taxonomic knowledge about the different clades of chelicerata having adapted to an aquatic or amphibious lifestyle along various evolutionary pathways is brought together in an overview for the Central-European fauna. A total number of 746 taxa is covered, over 99 % of these at species level. In Volume 7/2-1 altogether 211 species are treated - 70 species of spiders, 7 species of Astigmata (3 of which to be identified only at family, genus, resp. species group level), 17 species of Oribatida, 27 species and one subspecies of Halacaridae, 45 species of terrestrial Parasitengona (4 of which to be identified only at genus level) and 45 species of Hydrachnidia (4 Stygothrombioidea, 3 Hydrovolzioidea, 16 Hydrachnoidea and 22 Eylaoidea). Volume 7/2-2 deals with 179 species of Hydrachnidia (58 Hydryphantoidea and 121 Lebertioidea). This third volume (Volume 7/2-3) includes taxonomic keys and ecological information for 355 species of the two highly diverse Hydrachnidia superfamilies Hygrobatoidea (241 species and one subspecies) and Arrenuroidea (113 species). The chelicerata volumes of this series are a basic tool for all limnologists interested in diversity and ecology – in particular for biologists investigating the ecotones between ground and surface water, between bottom substrata and open water, and between water and land.

Recent studies on diverse aspects of the biology of clitellate works (oligochaetes and leeches) are found in the Proceedings of the most recent International Symposium on Aquatic Oligochaete Biology - from development to population dynamics and from ultrastructure to evolution. The majority of the contributions, which have a very broad geographic scope, are investigations of the biology and ecology of oligochaete works in natural and polluted waters.

Groundwater has long been an object of intense scrutiny. Only recently have methods become available that permit ecologists, hydrologists, and environmental scientists to assess the biotic and abiotic status of these all-important aquifers. - The dynamics of water movement through complex subterranean ecosystems - The biological organization and the factors that constrain these ecosystems - Alluvial and karst ecosystem functions - Contamination, management, and remediation

This book offers a comprehensive study of species- and genus-level diversity and chorology of the global freshwater fauna to date. It gives a state of the art assessment of the diversity and distribution of Metazoa in the continental waters of the world.