312 AQUATIC CLIMAX COMMUNITIES 



sive character of the climatic ones was stressed very early. In dy- 

 namic ecology, the edaphic communities become serai stages of the 

 climatic community or climax. 



The communities of small bodies of water, such as ponds, small 

 lakes, oxbow cut-offs of streams, and swamps, are merely serai stages 

 leading to the climax of the region. They illustrate numerous routes 

 by which such bodies of water may pass to the appropriate climax. 

 Since space permits the consideration of only general principles gov- 

 erning the terrestrial, marine, and fresh-water climaxes, it is not prac- 

 ticable to discuss the hydroseral stages of the terrestrial climaxes. 



Limnologists have not made use of these distinctions, which are 

 essential to dynamic ecology. The voluminous literature of this field 

 deals largely with lakes and ponds, which are early serai stages of the 

 deciduous and coniferous areas of North America and Europe (Welch, 

 1935:306). The nomenclature is detailed and characterized by many 

 adjectives. The large dictionary of terms prepared by Naumann 

 (1931:7-776) indicates the extent of the investigations in this field 

 (cf. Ekman, 1911, 1915; Needham and Lloyd, 1916; Shelford, 1918, c; 

 Borner, 1922; Lundbeck, 1926; Thienemann, 1926; Carpenter, 1928). 

 The work on streams has been less extensive, but is treated in the 

 general works cited. 



