Limnology: Lake and River Ecosystems [Hardcover]

This is an excellent general reference text. Can not say enough about the excellent content of this text. But it is need of an edition update with information for lake mapping and restoration. Dr. C.L. Nelson of St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN has an excellent small text on physical limnology for the mapping aspect. This book does do an excellent job on the biological aspects of limnological work.

Wetzel's "Limnology" is almost certainly a fixture on the bookshelf of every limnologist in the country (perhaps even the world).

1) Review of this product as a reference book:

Wetzel has been a leader in the field of Limnology for decades. This book contains a combination of his vast personal experience with the enormous amount of information that has been generated through the end of the 1990s. The book, perhaps more approprately referred to as a tome, addresses virtually every sub-discipline included in the field of limnology. And, the book is well cited, with well over 100 pp of citations.

The book contains abundant examples, explanations, and descriptions of all things limnological. He has also beefed his treatment of rivers and streams, which was more or less missing in the 1st edition. Still, the strength of this book is clearly the information on ponds and lakes.

This is an outstanding reference book - I'd probably award it 4 or 4.5 stars if a reference is all it were used for (it is a bit out of date now).

2) Review of this product at a textbook:

My first limnology course used Wetzel's first edition...a much smaller book, and much more easily digested than either the second or third editions. That was in my first year of graduate school. Since then Wetzel's book increased in size by format and number of pages in the 2nd editon, and even moreso in the 3rd edition.

The third edition can be downright intimidating when you see it.

The third edition's usefulness as a reference book has increased greatly, but at the cost of reducing its usefullness as a text. I am still weighing my options about a text for my limnology class in the fall (I wasn't pleased with Kalff's offering - the book I used last time), but I wonder whether Wetzel's 3rd edition is just too big, too long, and too focused on being a reference book rather than a textbook.

I noticed that little has been updated in terms of figures...I still recognize many of the figures from the 1st edition that are still in the 3rd. The impression I get from this book is that this is more or less Wetzel's crowning achievement in terms of a complete treatment of the discipline, but that has been achieved mainly by adding to what he already had rather than by editing and updating. And, with a 2001 publication date, this edition is now in serious need of further updating and revision.

I wish someone would take this project on, update it, revise it, and whittle it down to a lean and mean useful text of perhaps 600 pages.

I'm still in a quandry about using it as a textbook.

I'm afraid that I have to give it 3 or 3.5 stars as a textbook because of its massive bulk, the intimidation factor, and it's being somewhat out of date.

All in all, I still like this book better than that of Kalff.

4 stars...

Well there is no doubt that this book contains a large amount of information, it CANNOT be used as an introductory text. It is much to difficult to comprehend, and Wetzel makes absolutely no effort to teach the concepts. Here merely presents a synthesis of limnological research.

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