Preface. Introduction. The story of some shallow lakes. The abiotic environment. Phytoplankton. Trophic cascades. Vegetation. Managing the ecosystem. The limits of knowledge. References. Index. Symbols used. Legends to the figures.
`Much rarer are textbooks that so succinctly sum up the
state-of-the-art knowledge about a subject that they become instant
`bibles'. This book is one of these. It is probably one of the best
biological textbooks I have read. Scheffer masterfully pulls all
this information together under one cover and presents a coherent
account, which will serve as a benchmark for the subject. The
reader will not gain any great insight into the breeding biology of
pike from this book, nor learn much about dragonflies or newts.
They will, however, come to understand the essential nature of
shallow lakes or, as the author puts it, `how shallow lakes work'.
Overall, this book will be of great interest to practical and
theoretical ecologists, students and managers in all fields of
biology. All freshwater ecologists should certainly read it.'
Simon Harrison in Journal of Ecology, 86
`The book by Scheffer can be seen as a milestone in the recognition
of shallow lakes as a research topic in its own right. Scheffer
uses three approaches concurrently to unravel the functioning of
shallow lakes: 1) statistical analysis of large datasets from a
variety of lakes; 2) simple abstract models made up of a few
non-linear ordinary differential equations, which he calls
`mini-models'; and 3) logical reasoning based on a mixture of
results from fieldwork, experiments and models. What is new is that
Scheffer links mathematics very nicely with what one feels is a
correct description of the functioning of a shallow lake. Employing
logical reasoning, Scheffer combines all these sources of knowledge
into a general, coherent picture of the functioning of a shallow
lake.'
Wolf Mooij in Aquatic Ecology, 32
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