The autumn meeting of the London Freshwater Group was held on the
afternoon of 2nd November 2007 at the Natural History Museum. A
fantastic turn out of at least 80 participants, including a high proportion of
young freshwater ecologists listened to talks criss-crossing a range of
topics. Dave Williams (NHM) gave a fascinating talk on the origins of
diatom species in Lake Baikal and warming to the diatom theme Helen
Bennion (Geography, UCL) followed up with a comprehensive account
of how palaeolimnology is being used in connection with the EU Water
Framework Directive. Angela Gurnell (Geography, Kings College) then
gave as good a demonstration of the need for integrated
geomorphological-hydrological-ecological studies as I have ever seen
with a talk on the role of trees (both dead and alive) for hydrogeomorphic processes on the Tagliamento floodplain, Italy. After coffee
Suzanne McGowan (Geography, Nottingham) gave an interesting talk on
her collaborative work comparing fossil pigment data with long-term
phytoplankton records for Lake Windermere and was followed by Jenny
Shmid-Araya (Biology, QMUL) who provided us with much food for
thought on how well we have so far characterised stream food webs. Of
course the Broadstone stream was high on the agenda here. All speakers
received several questions from a lively audience and the lively nature of
the afternoon continued into a well attended and lively session in the pub!
The next LFG meeting with be on Friday March 14th 2008 (2 pm), most
likely at the Linnean Society of London. Please do contact me if you
would like to speak at this meeting (c.sayer@ucl.ac.uk). Also if you
would like to get onto the LFG mailing list please supply your e-mail to
Sarah Lynch (slynch_007@hotmail.com)
Carl Sayer (LFG secretary)