Nematodes are incontestably the most numerous and the most diverse metazoans in freshwater habitats, and these properties bestow exceptional significance to their role in the environment. An array of functional roles has been attributed to them: they are grazers on bacteria and primary producers, regulators of decomposition of plant material, predators, prey for other animals, and closely associated symbionts of bacteria and other organisms. Freshwater nematodes are central in the context of environmental monitoring, pollution assessments, global warming and food webs, and this is increasingly being recognized. Moreover, the short generation time (a few days to months) of many species makes nematodes ideal for laboratory studies. This book offers guidelines for studying the ecology of free-living nematodes, including detailed protocols and case studies.

This book contains 22 chapters on various aspects of freshwater nematode ecology and taxonomy. Subjects covered include the techniques for processing freshwater nematodes, the composition and distribution of free living freshwater nematodes, their abundance, biomass and diversity, the production of freshwater nematodes, their feeding ecology, patterns in size structure of freshwater nematode communities, different nematode habitats, and computation and application of nematode community indices. It provides descriptions with figures of each taxon at the genus level and above to currently valid genera. For every genus, a complete list of species, with an emphasis on biogeography, is given for primarily freshwater taxa and a list of only those species reported from freshwater bodies is given for the genera that are considered primarily non-freshwater. This book is intended to provide a useful reference to students, beginners and established researchers in the field of freshwater nematology, benthologists, invertebrate biologists, limnologists, ecologists, microbiologists and soil biologists.

Nematodes are the most numerous metazoans in aquatic sediments. The majority of conducted studies on these aquatic forms focus mainly on those in marine and estuarine habitats. Nematodes from inland water bodies have been relatively forgotten or ignored.

Nematodes are the most wide spread multicellular animals in nature and analysis of nematodes in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments as well as their role and function in ecosystems, can be used for environmental monitoring. Compared to other organisms, they offer the greatest potential as bioindicators and can be used to study gene expression in relation to environmental challenges, to monitor changing impacts on the environment and in laboratory ecotoxicity tests. This volume addresses classical and molecular approaches to nematode community analysis, the contemporary field of nematodes as biosensors, as well as genomic aspects of nematode bioindicators. In addition, the case studies stress the importance of these bioindicators and demonstrate the commercial potential of these technologies.

"The third edition of Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates continues the tradition of in-depth coverage of the biology, ecology, phylogeny, and identification of freshwater invertebrates from the USA and Canada. This text serves as an authoritative single source for a broad coverage of the anatomy, physiology, ecology, and phylogeny of all major groups of invertebrates in inland waters of North America, north of Mexico." --Book Jacket.

Meiofauna are a diverse and numerous component of the fauna in freshwater ecosystems, but have been mostly ignored by freshwater scientists. Freshwater Meiofauna aims to raise the awareness of this enigmatic, microscopic component of the freshwater biota, by providing the first-ever, comprehensive review of their biology and ecology. The first section of the book gives indepth accounts of the systematics, morphological characteristics, life histories and ecological requirements of the main freshwater meiofaunal taxa (i.e. microturbellarians, rotifers, gastrotriches, nematodes, water mites, microcrustaceans and tardigrades). The second section then takes an integrated approach to review the current state-of-play in meiofaunal ecological research in freshwaters, addressing important issues, such as the importance of meiofaunal taxa in the trophic dynamics of freshwater ecosystems and the process underpinning the distribution patterns observed in meiofaunal assemblages. This book should appeal to a wide range of freshwater scientists, including novices in the study of freshwater meiobenthology and established researchers in freshwater ecology, for whom the meiofauna represent an unopened "black box". Our ultimate goal is that this book will serve to promote the idea that the zoology of freshwater habitats concerns more than just fish, macroinvertebrates and microbes.

Nematodes - Ecology, Adaptation and Parasitism is a collection of high-impact scientific chapters written by eminent researchers from all over the globe. The book discusses frontier areas of nematode biology, including ecological features, adaptability power, and parasitic nature of Phylum Nemathelminthes. The authors report on the comparative diversity, abundance, and bioindicative capabilities of nematode community structures in natural and contaminated habitats. The book also examines topics such as ecological significance and potential implications of entomopathogenic nematodes on sustainable pest control management, the parasitic adaptation of plant parasitic nematodes, and their interaction with other microorganisms. It also discusses the application of a new generation of chemical nematicides and herbal nematicides to control plant parasitic nematodes. This book is a valuable resource on the biology of nematodes and is useful for students, researchers, and scientists working in nematology.