Just remove the tyres

A review of "The Biology of Temporary Waters" by D Dudley Williams 

I spotted this book in "my" library the other day. I only skimmed it, but it looks extremely interesting!The "temporary waters" of the title include intermittent streams and ponds, episodic rain puddles, seasonal limestone lakes, the water-retaining structures of certain plants, and man-made container habitats. Watch out, they are all teeming with life! The author is pretty thorough, and no temporary water seems obscure enough to avoid his detection. The rain-filled cup of a mushroom is a "temporary water" and houses oligochaetes (a kind of worms). Rainfilled puddles in eastern Utah, Dry Creek in Oklahoma and large flower bracts of the genus Heliconia are also of considerabe interest. Waterfilled snail shells may house at least four species of rotifers, at least on Jamaica. On a more sinister note, 67% of water-filled snail shells in Tanzania were found to contain larvae of Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that spreads dengue fever. In the United States, rain-filled tyres (for instance at rural dumps in southeastern Illinois) are also veritable havens for mosquitos, in particular the notorious Asian tiger mosquito. However, if there's leaf-litter in the tyres, copepods might destroy 90% of the mosquito larvae. Why not just remove the tyres?! Somebody should notify the proper authorities in downstate Illinois...

OK, I admit I was fascinated.

However, this work is *not* a popularized work for the layman, but a serious and scholarly study. Chapter-headings include "Water temperature and turbidity", "Population dynamics" and "Importance and stewardship of temporary waters". Still, this is one of the few heavy scientific works I've seen which I'm actually prepared to buy and attempt to digest...provided somebody lowers the price!