Limnology Limnology Limnology ( ; from Greek λίμνη, "limne", "lake" and λόγος, "logos", "knowledge"), is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristics and functions of inland waters (running and standing waters, fresh and saline, natural or man-made). This includes the study of lakes, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, springs, streams, wetlands, and groundwater. A more recent sub-discipline of limnology, termed landscape limnology, studies, manages, and seeks to conserve these ecosystems using a landscape perspective, by explicitly examining connections between an aquatic ecosystem and its watershed. Recently, the need to understand
Forensic limnology Forensic limnology Forensic limnology is a sub-field of forensic botany, which examines the presence of diatoms in crime scene samples and victims. Different methods are used to collect this data but all identify the ratios of different diatom colonies present in samples and match those samples with locations at the crime scene. Diatoms are diverse microscopic algae with silica cell walls that have different characteristics such as color, shape, and size. There are 8,000 known species of diatoms (without taking into account the variety of subspecies that have specialized within their specific environments). Diatoms do not have specialized nutrient and