Emerging global role of small lakes and ponds: little things mean a lot

Until recently, small continental waters have been completely ignored in virtually all global processes and cycles. This has resulted from the neglect of these systems and processes by ecologists and the assumption that ecosystems with a small areal extent cannot play a major role in global processes. Recent inventories based on modern geographical and mathematical approaches have shown that continental waters occupy nearly twice as much area as was previously believed. Further, these inventories have shown that small lakes and ponds dominate the areal extent of continental waters, correcting a centurylong misconception that large lakes are most important. The global importance of any ecosystem type in a…

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  National Science Foundation

  Award: DEB-94-21535