Recipient of the 1994 ECI prize in limnetic ecology. This book reflects Colin Reynolds' unusually wide-ranging research interests – from pelagic in situ processes to unifying ecological concepts; from descriptions of pelagic vegetation to ecosystem dynamics; from assemblage structures and functions to cellular and molecular levels of organization. The heart of the book is the search for answers to the question: What can the pelagic microscopic vegetation teach us about general properties of living systems?