Dynamic Aquaria: Building Living Ecosystems

In its third edition, this praised book demonstrates how the living systems modeling of aquatic ecosystems for ecological, biological and physiological research, and ecosystem restoration can produce answers to very complex ecological questions. Dynamic Aquaria further offers an understanding developed in 25 years of living ecosystem modeling and discusses how this knowledge has produced methods of efficiently solving many environmental problems. Public education through this methodology is the additional key to the broader ecosystem understanding necessary to allow human society to pass through the next evolutionary bottleneck of our species. Living systems modeling as a wide spectrum educational tool can provide a primary vehicle for that essential step.

This third editon covers the many technological and biological developments in the eight plus years since the second edition, providing updated technological advice and describing many new example aquarium environments.

Includes 16 page color insert with 57 color plates and 25% new photographsOffers 300 figures and 75 tablesNew chapter on BiogeographyOver 50% new research in various chapters Significant updates in chapters include: The understanding of coral reef function especially the relationship between photosynthesis and calcificationThe use of living system models to solve problems of biogeography and the geographic dispersal and interaction of species populationsThe development of new techniques for global scale restoration of water and atmosphereThe development of new techniques for closed system, sustainable aquaculture

1. Introduction

Part I: Physical Environment 2. The Envelope: Physical Parameters and Energy State 3. Substrate: The Active Role of Rock, Mud, and Sand 4. Water Composition: Management of Salinity, Hardness, and Evaporation 5. The Input of Solar Energy: Lighting Requirements 6. The Input of Organic Energy: Particulates and Feeding

Part II : Biochemical Environment 7. Metabolism: Respiration, Photosynthesis, and Biological Loading 8. Organisms and Gas Exchange: Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, pH, and Alkalinity 9. The Primary Nutrients—Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Silica: Limitation and Eutrophication 10. Biomineralization and Calcification: A Key to Biosphere and Ecosystem Function 11. Control of the Biochemical Environment: Filters, Bacteria, and the Algal Turf Scrubber

Part III: Biological Structure 12. Community Structure: Biodiversity in Model Ecosystems 13. Trophic Structure: Ecosystems and the Dynamics of Food Chains 14. Primary Producers: Plants That Grow on the Bottom 15. Herbivores: Predators of Plants and Omnivores, Predators of Plants and Animals 16. Carnivores: Predators of Animals 17. Plankton and Planktivores: Floating Plants and Animals and Their Predators 18. Detritus and Detritivores: The Dynamics of Muddy Bottoms 19. Symbionts and Other Feeders

Part IV: Ecological Systems in Microcosms, Mesocosms, and Aquaria 20. Models of Coral Reef Ecosystems 21. A Subarctic/Boreal Microcosm: Test of a Biogeographic Model 22. Estuaries: Ecosystem Modeling and Restoration: Where Fresh and Salt Waters Interact 23. Freshwater Ecosystem Models

Part V: The Environment and Ecological Engineering 24. Organisms and Natural Products: Commercial Ecosystem Culture 25. Large Scale Water Quality Management with Solar Energy Capture

Part VI: Summary 26. Microcosms, Mesocosms, and Macrocosms: Building and Restoring Ecosystems: A Synthesis