Suspensoids, hydrodynamics and chemical conditions in natural and man-made lakes

Abstract

The first serious study of the standing waters of southern Africa was that of Evelyn Hutchinson and his colleagues. They undertook an epic journey under extremely trying conditions, the scientific record of which was published in Archivy für Hydrobiologie in 1932. These were early days in the hydrological development of southern Africa and it was, as a result, perfectly logical that Hutchinson and his team should have chosen to record the limnological properties of what was then the most obvious feature of the limnological landscape, the endorheic pans. They lay scattered over the elevated pediplain, shimmering in the afternoon sunlight like pools of molten silver. Unfortunately their surfaces were to remain undisturbed by scientists for many decades following the initial studies; more important (or seemingly so) problems in the rivers and the increasing number of man-made lakes took precedence to the development of their limnology. Fortunately the challenge has been taken up by workers at the Universities of the Witwatersrand (Rogers et al in press) and the Orange Free State, and the surface waters of the pans are responding to the inquisitive instruments of modern limnology.