Freshwater Biology

obowiązkowe

Substantive content:

1. Freshwater resources, hydrologic cycle, special structure of water; gradients of light, temperature and oxygen in lakes; mixis;

2. Individual in limnic and lenitic waters: adaptations, temperature and oxygen impact, sinking and swimming;

3. Environmental resources, chemistry of waters and its influence on organisms, mineral substances, dissolved and particular organic matter;

4. Ecology of population: density, seasonal variability, growth rate, spatial structure, r and K strategy in water animals, colonization of new sites;

5. Ecology of communities: interrelations between populations, competition, mechanical interactions, predators, life cycles, categories of populations (guilds, taxonomical, functional), „top-down” and „bottom-up” control, biomanipulation;

6. Species diversity: indices, biocoenotic laws, hypotheses of: intermediate disturbances, theory of redundant species;

7. Biocoenoses of pelagial: characteristics, role in water ecosystems, phytoplankton: diatoms, cyanobacteria, green algae; zooplankton: rotifers, ciliates, crustaceans; bacterioplankton;

8. Biocoenoses of lake littoral: neuston, phyton, psammon, pelon, xylon and zoon; characteristics of arenal zones; ecology of macrobenthos;

9. Communities of organisms in running waters: characterstics, fish riverlands; „river continuum” concept;

10. Ecology of water ecosystems: flow of energy and matter, cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon;

11. Eutrophication: reasons, sources of nutrients, internal loading; eutrophication consequences, method of assessment, prevention; lake susceptibility to degradation;

12. Threat from civilization: urbanization, alien species, introductions and invasions; impact of climate change;

13. Protection of water ecosystems: processes of self-purification, recultivation, protection of water flora and fauna;

1. Moss B. 2001. Ecology of fresh waters. Blackwell Science, 557 pp.

2. Lampert, W., Sommer, U. 2007. Lilmnoecology. Oxford University Press.

Forms and conditions of credit:

- 100% attendance on the lecture

- final report from the laboratory