Limnology of humic waters: special theme or universal framework?

摘要

Humic waters are usually perceived as being brown in colour, reflecting a high content of allochthonous dissolved organic matter (DOM) originating from drainage of humified terrestrial detritus from the organic-rich soils in their catchments. Few countries can claim a greater proportion or abundance of humic waters than Finland, so when the SIL Congress came to Finland it is hardly surprising that the limnology of humic waters was selected as a special theme. When the SIL Congress was last held in Finland in 1956, the Chairman of the Organising Committee was Heikki Jaernefelt from the University of Helsinki. Jaernefelt, the first Professor of Limnology in Finland, might be considered the father of Finnish limnology. Besides his extensive research publications, he published a textbook (Jaernefelt 1958a) that, although based on Ruttner's classic book, was modified to take account of the special characteristics of Finnish waters. He also co-authored a plankton identification guide (Jaernefelt et al. 1963), which became familiar to many hundreds of Finnish university students and led directly to a more recent phytoplankton guide (Tikkanen 1986) that has received wide international use. During his lifetime Jaernefelt also achieved international renown, although his name is probably less familiar to modern limnologists than those of some of his international contemporaries. He was a founding member of SIL and was very active in the early development of the society.