Wetlands are among the world's most valuable and most threatened habitats and in these
crucially important ecosystems the invertebrate fauna holds a focal position. Most of the
biological diversity in wetlands is found within resident invertebrate assemblages and those
invertebrates are the primary trophic link between lower plants and higher vertebrates (e.g.
amphibians fish and birds). As such most scientists managers consultants and students who
work in the world's wetlands should become better informed about the invertebrate components in
their habitats of interest. Our book serves to fill this need by assembling the world's most
prominent ecologists working on freshwater wetland invertebrates and having them provide
authoritative perspectives on each the world's most important freshwater wetland types. The
initial chapter of the book provides a primer on freshwater wetland invertebrates including
how they are uniquely adapted for life in wetland environments and how they contribute to
important ecological functions in wetland ecosystems. The next 15 chapters deal with
invertebrates in the major wetlands across the globe (rock pools alpine ponds temperate
temporary ponds Mediterranean temporary ponds turloughs peatlands permanent marshes Great
Lakes marshes Everglades springs beaver ponds temperate floodplains neotropical
floodplains created wetlands waterfowl marshes) each chapter written by groups of prominent
scientists intimately knowledgeable about the individual wetland types. Each chapter reviews
the relevant literature provides a synthesis of the most important ecological controls on the
resident invertebrate fauna and highlights important conservation concerns. The final chapter
synthesizes the 15 habitat-based chapters providing a macroscopic perspective on natural
variation of invertebrate assemblage structure across the world's wetlands and a paradigm for
understanding how global variation and environmental factors shape wetland invertebrate
communities.
