Ancient lakes are exceptional freshwater environments that have continued to exist for hundreds of thousands of years. They have long been recognized as centres of biodiversity and hotspots of evolution. During recent decades, speciation in ancient lakes has emerged as an important and exciting topic in evolutionary biology. The contributions in this volume deal with patterns and processes of biological diversification in three prominent ancient lake systems. Of these, the famous East African Great Lakes already have a strong tradition of evolutionary studies, but the two other systems have so far received much less attention. The exceptional biodiversity of the European sister lakes Ohrid and Prespa of the Balkans has long been known, but has largely been neglected in the international literature until recently. The rich biota and problems of its evolution in the two central lake systems on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, in turn, have only lately started to draw scientific attention. This volume aims at deepening the awareness of the unusual biological diversity in ancient lakes in general, and of the role of these lakes as natural laboratories for the study of speciation and diversification in particular. It should stimulate further research that will lead to a better understanding of key evolutionary processes in these lakes, and to knowledge that might help in mitigating the deterioration of their diversity in the future.

This volume contains the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC) that was held in Cusco, Peru in 2018. It disseminates recent advances in the areas related to the structural analysis of historical and archaeological constructions. The challenges faced in this field show that accuracy and robustness of results rely heavily on an interdisciplinary approach, where different areas of expertise from managers, practitioners, and scientists work together. Bearing this in mind, SAHC 2018 stimulated discussion on the new knowledge developed in the different disciplines involved in analysis, conservation, retrofit, and management of existing constructions. This book is organized according to the following topics: assessment and intervention of archaeological heritage, history of construction and building technology, advances in inspection and NDT, innovations in field and laboratory testing applied to historical construction and heritage, new technologies and techniques, risk and vulnerability assessments of heritage for multiple types of hazards, repair, strengthening, and retrofit of historical structures, numerical modeling and structural analysis, structural health monitoring, durability and sustainability, management and conservation strategies for heritage structures, and interdisciplinary projects and case studies. This volume holds particular interest for all the community interested in the challenging task of preserving existing constructions, enable great opportunities, and also uncover new challenges in the field of structural analysis of historical and archeological constructions.