Modelling Community Structure in Freshwater Ecosystems

The landmass on which we live is an integral part of our water catchment. In a number of European Member States, for example, the availability of water - sources depends on the activities of other upstream countries. There is an upward pressure on European water demand for public supplies (drinking water, recreation, etc. The book presents approaches and methodologies for predicting the structure and diversity of key aquatic communities (namely diatoms, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish), under natural conditions and under man-made disturbance. Such an approach will make it possible to: 1) set up procedures for robust and sensitive ecosystem evaluation, based on the prediction of the expected community structure; 2) model community structure in disturbed ecosystems, taking into account all the relevant ecological variables; 3) test ecosystem sensitivity to natural and anthropic disturbance; and 4) explore specific actions to be taken for the restoration of ecosystem integrity.