As many of you will be aware, a Congress of SIL (International Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology) will be held in Melbourne, Australia in 2001. We are hopeful that many of our colleagues from outside Australia will be able to attend the Congress. To encourage you to make the trip, we’d like to remind you of the variety of limnological environments that exist in Australia, and the main avenues by which you can learn more about the limnological research that is being undertaken here.
Although Australia is the driest inhabited continent, it has a remarkable limnological diversity, ranging from lakes that are ephemeral and saline in the outback to pristine deep-water ones in the highlands of Tasmania, from bubbling brooks in the mountains to long and lazy floodplain rivers, from monsoonal wetlands in the north to mediterranean-climate wetlands in the south-west and wonderful billabongs in the south-east.
How do you acquaint yourself better with Australian limnology, in preparation for your trip Down Under in four years’ time? There are two ways. The first way is to subscribe to the journal Marine and Freshwater Research. This journal is one of range of journals published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in cooperation with the Australian Academy of Science. The name of the journal changed in 1995, from the Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, to reflect the fact that material published in the journal was not restricted to papers relating only to the Australasian region. The journal publishes eight issues per year, amounting to some 110-140 original refereed papers dealing with physical oceanography and limnology, marine and freshwater chemistry, and marine, estuarine and freshwater biology and ecology. The personal subscription is merely $US120 and the institutional subscription is an equally reasonable $US350. Overseas subscribers receive their journals by air or economy air mail. In addition to articles and reviews, the journal publishes Special Issues on key aquatic themes. Some recent Special Issues have included Age Determination in Fish, Cyanobacterial Research in Australia, Sediment-Water Interactions (papers from the 6th IASWS symposium held in California), and Australian Wetlands. Further information on Marine and Freshwater Research can be obtained athttp://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/mfr >>> or from the Editor (e-mail: agrant@publish.csiro.au).
The second way is to join the Australian Society for Limnology. Membership is only $A65 for regular members and A$32.50 for students. For less that the price of a meal in a restaurant, you will receive the Newsletter (80-90 pages long) published quarterly, plus Special Publications issued by the Society. The most recent Special Publication was on Australian Mayflies. Further details on the Australian Society for Limnology can be obtained from its Home Page (http://www.ntu.edu.au/science/mdouglas/asl_home.html) or from me (e-mail: paulboon@vut.edu.au).
Paul I Boon
Chairman, Advisory Committee, Marine and Freshwater Research, Immediate Past President, Australian Society for Limnology