Central European Stream Ecosystems

Introduction
The Breitenbach and its Catchment
Environmental Characteristics
Detrital Energy Sources
Primary Producers
Bacteria and Fungi
The Fauna of the Breitenbach
Ecosystem Breitenbach
Summary

Rüdiger Wagner was scientific assistant at the Limnologische Fluss-Station Schlitz, a field station of the former Max-Planck-Institute for Limnology (now MPI for Evolutionary Biology) from 1978 to 2006. He obtained his scientific degrees from the Justus-Liebig-University (Gießen, Germany). Since then he is at the Institut of Biology, Univeristy of Kassel. He has authored over 250 scientific publication on aquatic insect taxonomy and ecology and on the analysis of long-term ecological data of freshwater insects. He is member of advisory boards and reviewer of professional journals, referee of universities and governments and has been honorary member of advisory councils in nature conservation. In 2007 he was awarded the `Meigen Medaille? of the German Society for General and Applied Entomology.

Jürgen Marxsen was scientific assistant at the Limnologische Fluss-Station Schlitz, a field station of the former Max-Planck-Institute for Limnology (now MPI for Evolutionary Biology) from 1977 to 2006. He obtained his scientific degrees from the University of Kiel. Since 2006 at the Department of Animal Ecology associated to the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition (IFZ) at the University of Giessen. His research activities include stream and groundwater microbial ecology, particularly the role of bacteria in the carbon flow, bacterial production, extra-cellular enzyme activity, application of molecular techniques to microbial ecology, impact of climatic change on running water microbial communities. He is member of editorial boards and ad-hoc referee for scientific journals and national funding organizations.

Since 1968 Peter Zwick was member of the staff of the Limnologische Fluss-Station Schlitz, a field station of the former Max-Planck-Institute for Limnology (now MPI for Evolutionary Biology) and was the scientific head from 1982 to 2006. He obtained his scientific degrees from the University of Kiel. P. Zwick is a world

"Particularly, the long-term data going back for more than 50 years are unique and are valuable resource for everyone in the world dealing with stream ecology." ( Acta Bo tanica Hungarica , 1 October 2012)

"Particularly, the long-term data going back for more than 50 years are unique and are valuable resource for everyone in the world dealing with stream ecology." ( Acta Bo tanica Hungarica , 1 October 2012)