Recipient of the 1994 ECI prize in limnetic ecology. This book reflects Colin Reynolds' unusually wide-ranging research interests from pelagic in situ processes to unifying ecological concepts; from descriptions of pelagic vegetation to ecosystem dynamics; from assemblage structures and functions to cellular and molecular levels of organization. The heart of the book is the search for answers to the What can the pelagic microscopic vegetation teach us about general properties of living systems?