Probably the best-studied stream on earth. The result of unmatched long-term data taken by the Max-Planck outstation in Schlitz from the nearby Breitenbach stream since 1949, the special focus in this handbook and ready reference is on animal and microorganism occurrence and variation, as well as chemical and physical parameters. Probably the best-studied stream on earth. The result of unmatched long-term data taken by the Max-Planck outstation in Schlitz from the nearby Breitenbach stream since 1949, the special focus in this handbook and ready reference is on animal and microorganism occurrence and variation, as well as chemical and physical parameters. 1. History of the Limnologische Fluss-Station Schlitz (3 pp) 2. The Breitenbach and its catchment (6pp) 2.1 Study area 2.2 The stream and the catchement 2.3 Sampling sites 3. Environmental variables (25 pp) 3.1 Climate and weather 3.1.1 Global irradiation 3.1.1.1 Global irradiation in the catchment 3.1.2 Precipitation 3.1.3 Wind 3.1.4 Air temperature 3.1.5 Discharge ? falling- rising limb, flow duration curve, floods, substrate 3.1.6 Sediment and water temperature 3.2. Chemism 3.2.1 Alkalinity 3.2.2 pH 3.2.3 Oxygen 3.2.4 Dissolved inorganic components, N, P, Si, Cl 4. Detrital energy sources (12 pp) 4.1 Organic matter in streams 4.2 Particulate organic matter 4.3 Dissolved organic matter 5. Stream community (ca 170 pp) 5.1 Primary Producers 5.2 Bacteria and fungi 5.3 Fauna 5.3.1 Protozoa: Ciliata 5.3.2 Metazoa 5.3.2.1 Plathelmithes and Annelida 5.3.2.2 Nematoda 5.3.2.3 Mollusca 5.3.2.4 Arthropoda 5.3.2.4.1 Chelicerata: Hydrachnidida 5.3.2.4.2 Crustacea 5.3.2.4.3 Insecta Collembola Pterygota and minor groups Ephemeroptera Plecoptera Coleoptera Trichoptera Diptera 5.3.2.5 Chordata 6. Ecology: Ecophysiology - Behaviour - Life cycles (ca. 80 pp) 6.1 Crowding problems and feeding strategy of Tinodes rostocki (Trichoptera: Psychomyiidae), an epilithic and dominant caddisfly in middle and lower reaches of the Breitenbach 6.2 Life cycle adaptation of Agapetus fuscipes (Trichoptera, Glossosomatidae) to a first order stream 6.3 Importance of case construction for crawling behaviour and coexistence of three trichopteran scrapers from the upper reach of the Breitenbach 6.5 Interactions between scrapers and periphyton 6.6 Shredder - life cycles 6.7 Shredder - experiments 7. Ecosystem (ca. 60 pp) 7.1 Stream bottom 7.2 Aquatic insects emerging over an artificially changed stream bottom 7.3 Discharge patterns predominantly determine species abundance and community diversity 7.4 EPTD emergence in eleven years at four sites along the Breitenbach - effects of discharge and water temperature on the community 7.5 Modelling discharge and insect abundance with Artificial Neural Nets (ANNs) 7.6 Erlenbach and Breitenbach - a comparison 7.7 Production 7.8 Food chains and carbon flow 7.8.1 The organic matter budget of the Breitenbach 7.8.2 Bacteria in the food web system of the Breitenbach 8. Global change (9 pp) 9. References (70 pp) 10. Appendix: Species Lists