This volume is derived from a symposium on High Latitude Limnology held
during the 23rd Congress of the Societas Internationalis Limnologiae in
Hamilton, New Zealand. The symposium stemmed from our belief that an
exchange of views between limnologists working in the north and south
polar zones would be timely and productive. Over the last decade there
has been a major increase in the limnological research effort in
Antarctica with the expansion of science programmes there by many
nations from both the northern and southern hemispheres. Freshwater
research has also continued to develop in the Arctic, stimulated by the
need for basic information to assess environmental impacts of the oil
industry, mining, urbanisation and other human activities. By bringing
together aquatic investigators from both poles we hope to draw attention
to the distinctive features that high latitude systems hold in common,
and to the marked contrasts between and within each zone. The dominant
impression from the assemblage of papers presented here is one of great
limnological diversity. The studies include clear, turbid and brown
water rivers in the sub Arctic (LaPerriere, Van Nieuwenhuyse &
Anderson); chlorophyte dominated streams in the maritime Antarctic
(Hawes); streams on the antarctic continent lined with thick
cyanobacterial mats (Howard-Williams & Vincent); meromictic waters in
the Arctic (Ouellet, Dickman, Bisson & Page) and Antarctic (e. g.