MODELS OF ECOSYSTEMS AND AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS: DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION

SUMMARY

An historical treatment of a number of principal events is given. This leads to an assessment of the current research approach in hydrobiology and its success in the development of process orientated ecosystem component models. With the contemporaneous development of similar models in hydrodynamics it is possible to link the two disciplines into an interactive framework. The recent work in the Hartbeespoort Dam project, Lake le Roux and Burrinjack Reservoir, Western Australia shows how valuable this approach has become, particularly as regards defining, with greater precision, the effects of variation in stability in the uppermixed layer of reservoirs upon the accumulation and dispersion of algal communities.