The Pollution Biology of Aquatic Oligochaetes

 In aquatic ecosystems, the oligochaetes are often a major component of the community. Their relevance in sediment quality assessment is largely related to their benthic and detritivorous life habit. In this book, we aim to present the state of the a

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A specimen of Tubifex tubifex from the culture in the laboratory of Animal Ecotoxicology and Water Quality at the University of Basque Country. Photo: Pilar Rodriguez.

Pilar Rodriguez  •  Trefor B. Reynoldson

The Pollution Biology of Aquatic Oligochaetes

Pilar Rodriguez Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology Faculty of Science and Technology University of the Basque Country P.O. Box 644 Bilbao 48080 Spain [email protected]

Trefor B. Reynoldson Acadia Centre for Estuarine Research National Water Research Institute Environment Canada Acadia University P.O. Box 115 Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6 Canada [email protected]

There are instances where we have been unable to trace or contact the copyright holder. If notified the publisher will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity. ISBN 978-94-007-1717-6 e-ISBN 978-94-007-1718-3 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1718-3 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011934967 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Prologue

Some 30 years ago, Ralph Brinkhurst thought that it would be appropriate to prepare a volume pulling together the current state of knowledge on the biology of aquatic oligochaetes. This led to a meeting of those involved in oligochaete research and a subsequent volume which was the first Proceedings of the International Symposia of Aquatic Oligochaeta, held in Sidney, British Columbia in 1979 (Brinkhurst and Cook 1980) and was not a review but rather a summary of the state of the art of the studies on biology of aquatic oligochaetes at that time, including the biology of pollution. That first meeting in British Columbia initiated a triennial series of meetings and proceedings including ecotoxicology and pollution. In 1997, from these beginnings, Ralph suggested that we continue work that he had already initiated and over the ensuing period we have gradually completed this project both individually, in the rare periods that teaching or research projects has allowed us time, and also together. We have had to convince our family to meet in Canada, Spain, or Wales, for a few weeks every year from 1997, to move the work forward. For that we are very grateful for the indulgence of our families, for their patient and unconditional support over these years. As the work has taken longer than expected, the additions to and re-organisation of the original manuscript have been substantial and, while Ralph is not a co-author on the volume, we wish to acknowledge his role in both dev