The Lakes Handbook: Limnology and Limnetic Ecology

Rating:
Summary: The Lakes Handbook
Review: This book is the first of a two part series, edited by P. E. O'Sullivan of the School of Earth, Ocean and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth and C. S. Reynolds of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Windermere. The purpose of the book is "to provide a sort of turn-of-the-century progress report, which brings together the most recent perspectives on the interactions among the properties of water, the distinguishing features of individual basins and the dynamic interactions with their biota". The immediate inspiration for this book came from the Rivers Handbook, and it has attempted to follow the same organisational structure.

The objective of the book was to provide a point of reference for students and professionals alike, to provide a contemporary and accurate reflection of current understanding about lakes and lake ecosystem function. Overall, the book does provide a complete comprehensive account of the different physical and chemical natures of lakes worldwide. With 18 sections to the book, it contains extensive information that is kept concise throughout the content. The sections are sub divided into logical categories, and are not overloaded in each division in most sections. The quantity of helpful and clear conceptual diagrams and tables help to illustrate and explain the text. They are appropriately linked to the topic of the chapter and they assist in breaking up pages into more manageable reading. The extent of the references available at the end of each section makes it easy for the reader to identify further reading quickly and accurately. Because of the assortment of specialist writers contributing to the book, the sections differ in their coverage and complexity of the section subject and in their ease of reading. The book takes a general look at a thorough range of topics, whilst managing to be specialised at the divisions.

The book ranges in its content, and although some chapters would be a nice read for the beginner, I think the book would be ideally suited to professionals and advanced students who already have a background understanding and that are familiar with some aspect of lake ecology, and wish to build upon that knowledge to a more advanced level. The presence of chapters slightly more complex in the explanations, especially those chapters working through complex mathematical equations makes parts of the book quite hard going at times. A novice could be easily distracted by sophisticated and complex descriptive terminology in some chapters.

Conclusion
This is a well-structured and highly informative book, although on the whole slightly advanced for the beginner in lake ecology. For a more sophisticated learner, this is a nice concise book, with manageable chapters in a variety of specialist subject areas. The book, written by highly knowledgeable specialists in the area of lake research stands up to its promise of delivering "the most recent perspectives on the interactions among the properties of water, the distinguishing features of individual basins and the dynamic interactions with their biota". It does also provide contemporary and accurate reflection of current lake understanding, but has not really managed to cater for the less advanced student in the majority of the book. However, as far as a book specifically dedicated to the ecosystem functioning of lakes alone, there are not many other books that cater for this demand, and so this book will most likely become one of the major reference books for this subject.