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Afrotropical Streams and Rivers

Structure, Ecological Processes and Management

  • 1st Edition - November 9, 2024
  • Latest edition
  • Editors: Tatenda Dalu, Frank Masese
  • Language: English

The Afrotropical Streams and Rivers: Structure, Ecological Processes and Management is a comprehensive guide that provides assessment of major rivers and tributaries in Africa… Read more

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Description

The Afrotropical Streams and Rivers: Structure, Ecological Processes and Management is a comprehensive guide that provides assessment of major rivers and tributaries in Africa. Unlike other books available, the editors present a thorough study of geomorphological, hydrological, biological, and ecological processes incorporating a range of plant and animal communities, while considering implications of human communities that depend upon them. This book, edited by a diverse cohort of researchers and/or scholars, is intended as an educational and practical guide for graduate students, researchers and scientists who focus on the biodiversity, conservation and management/policy issues of the African river systems.

Key features

  • Provides a comprehensive introduction to African freshwater rivers, their biota, and abiotic processes.
  • Contains unique case studies on African streams and rivers.
  • Organised around an interdisciplinary approach that covers the complex aspects of conservation and management of African river systems on the continent.

Readership

Graduate students, scientists and researchers working in the fields of ecology and limnology
Land use planners and water source managers, as well as NGO officials

Table of contents

1. African streams and rivers: an introduction

SECTION I: MAJOR RIVER SYSTEMS AND ASSOCIATED TRIBUTARIES

2. Major African river systems and their associated tributaries: An overview

3. Rivers of Southern Africa

4. Rivers of East Africa

5. Rivers of the Congo River Basin in Central Africa

6. Rivers of West Africa

7. Rivers of North Africa

SECTION II: PHYSICAL STRUCTURE AND ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES

8. Erosion and Accretion – Landscape Sculpting by Water

9. African River Hydrology

10. Physico-chemical environment

11. River riparian zones in sub-Saharan Africa: Processes, functions, and sustainability

12. Organic matter and nutrient dynamics

13. Primary production and ecosystem metabolism

14. Terrestrial-aquatic connectivity

SECTION III: BIOTA

15. Microbial and phytoplankton dynamics in freshwater rivers

16. Macrophytes

17. Macroinvertebrates

18. Fishes of Southern Africa

19. Birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians

20. Food web dynamics

SECTION IV: MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND THREATS

21. River management and governance

22. Rivers and people

23. Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change

24. Restoring freshwater ecosystems: lessons from case studies on riparian vegetation, aquatic weeds and freshwater fish

25. Anthropogenic threats

26. Woody plants encroachment and impacts on streamflow recharge in arid and semi–arid environments

27. Advances in Biomonitoring in Africa

28. Environmental flows

29. Overview and future prospects of African rivers research

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: November 13, 2024
  • Language: English

About the editors

TD

Tatenda Dalu

Dr Tatenda Dalu is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biology and Environmental Sciences and Leader of the Aquatic Systems Research Group at University of Mpumalanga, Honorary Research Associate at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, and a member of the Alien Species Risk Assessment Review Panel of South Africa and British Ecological Society Grants Committee. He is a United Nations Global Environment Outlook 7 Contributing Author, Associate Editor for Aquatic Invasions, African Journal of Ecology, BioInvasions Records, Ecology and Evolution and Frontiers in Water – Environmental Water Quality, and Editorial Board Member for Science of the Total Environment and Environmental Advances. He has Guest Edited for Frontiers in Water and Frontiers in Environmental Science. He is an expert in freshwater riverine, wetland and reservoir ecosystems mainly using phytoplankton, invertebrates, and fish as study organisms. He has previously co-edited two books for Elsevier on Fundamentals of Tropical Freshwater Wetlands: From Ecology to Conservation Management and Emerging Freshwater Pollutants: Analysis, Fate, and Regulation. Working with fellow research colleagues, Dr Dalu has identified and described two new species in South Africa (Copepod Lovenula raynerae) and Zimbabwe (Fairy shrimp Streptocephalus sangoensis).
Affiliations and expertise
School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Mpumalanga, Nelspruit, South Africa

FM

Frank Masese

Dr Frank Masese is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Science at University of Eldoret, Kenya, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. He is a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow and a Member of the Editorial Boards of Freshwater Biology, International Review of Hydrobiology, PLoS ONE and PeerJ. He has Guest Edited for Hydrobiologia, Frontiers in Water and Frontiers in Environmental Science. His research interests lie mainly in biodiversity assessments, ecosystem ecology and aqueous biogeochemistry, with a focus on riverine ecosystems. His studies straddle the terrestrial-aquatic domain, where he seeks to understand how landscape variables and human activities shape aquatic ecosystem structure and functioning. Working with fellow researchers, Dr Masese is in the final stages of developing a biological criterion for monitoring surface waters in Kenya.

Affiliations and expertise
Department of Fisheries & Aquatic Science, University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

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