limnology

Lake Hawea, New Zealand

Limnology (pronounced /lɪmˈnɒlədʒi/, lim-NOL-uh-jee; from Greek: Λίμνη limne, "lake"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is often regarded as a division of ecology or environmental science. It is, however, defined as "the study of inland waters". This comprises the biological, chemical, physical, geological, and other attributes of all inland waters (running and standing waters, both fresh and saline, natural or man-made). This includes the study of lakes and ponds, rivers, springs, streams and wetlands.^[1] A more recent sub-discipline of limnology, termed landscape limnology, studies, manages, and conserves these aquatic ecosystems using a landscape perspective.

Limnology is closely related to aquatic ecology and hydrobiology, which study aquatic organisms in particular regard to their hydrological environment.

History

The term limnology was coined by François-Alphonse Forel (1841-1912) who established the field with his studies of Lake Geneva. Interest in the discipline rapidly expanded, and in 1922 August Thienemann (a German zoologist) and Einar Naumann (a Swedish botanist) co-founded the International Society of Limnology (SIL, for originally Societas Internationalis Limnologiae). Forel's original definition of limnology, "the oceanography of lakes", was expanded to encompass the study of all inland waters.^[2]

Prominent early American limnologists included G. Evelyn Hutchinson, Ed Deevey, E. A. Birge, and C. Juday.^[3]

Organizations

Journals

See also

Notes

References

Look up limnology in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Gerald A. Cole, Textbook of Limnology, 4th ed. (Waveland Press, 1994) ISBN 0-88133-800-1
• Stanley Dodson, Introduction to Limnology (2005), ISBN 0-07-287935-1
• A.J.Horne and C.R. Goldman: Limnology (1994), ISBN 0-07-023673-9
• G. E. Hutchinson, A Treatise on Limnology, 3 vols. (1957-1975) - classic but dated
• H.B.N. Hynes, The Ecology of Running Waters (1970)
• Jacob Kalff, Limnology (Prentice Hall, 2001)
• B. Moss, Ecology of Fresh Waters (Blackwell, 1998)
• Robert G. Wetzel and Gene E. Likens, Limnological Analyses, 3rd ed. (Springer-Verlag, 2000)

External links

• The History of Limnology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison: A digital resource documenting three generations of limnological research in Wisconsin. Much of the collection comes from the archives of the UW–Madison Center for Limnology. It focuses on three important pioneers of limnology, Dr. Edward A. Birge, Chancey Juday and Arthur D. Hasler, as well as Wisconsin research laboratories and field equipment. Presented by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center.
• Breaking new waters: a Century of Limnology at the University of Wisconsin: A special publication of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in celebration of a century of limnological research.
• Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

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