Identification and Ecology of Freshwater Arthropods in the Mediterranean Basin

Dr. Alain Maasri is a freshwater ecologist at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (Berlin, Germany) and a research associate at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (Philadelphia, United States). He obtained his Bachelor's degree from the Université Saint Joseph in Lebanon and his Masters and PhD degrees from Aix-Marseille Université in France where he examined the ecology and functioning of Mediterranean streams. His research interests include freshwater biodiversity, community ecology, and functional ecology of stream macroinvertebrates. Dr. Maasri has been researching freshwater ecosystems and communities for over 15 years across the Mediterranean basin, Mongolia, and the United States of America.

Dr. James H. Thorp is a professor and senior scientist at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS, United States). Prior to 2001, he was a distinguished professor and dean at Clarkson University, department chair and professor at the University of Louisville, associate professor and director of the Calder Ecology Center at Fordham University, and research ecologist at Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. He received his Baccalaureate from the University of Kansas and Masters and PhD degrees from North Carolina State. Prof. Thorp has been on the editorial board of three freshwater journals and is a former president of the International Society for River Science. His research interests run the gamut from organismal biology to community, ecosystem, and macrosystem ecology. While his research emphasizes aquatic invertebrates, he also studies fish ecology, especially food webs related. He has published more than 150 research articles and 10 books, including five volumes so far in the fourth edition of Thorp and Covich's Freshwater Invertebrates.