Within this text, the reader is attuned to the role biology can and should play in combating the alarming increase in water pollution. Both the urgency of the problem and the biological techniques that are being developed to cope with the water pollution crisis are scrutinized; what is and is not known about the problem is explained; past, present, and proposed control methods are analyzed; and promising new approaches to the effective biological conservation of our diminishing clean water resources are suggested. Initial chapters deal with the historical, social, technological, and legal background of the pollution problem as well as biological approaches used in water pollution control. Physical and chemical properties of water are described and the various types of water pollution and their effects on the aquatic environment are categorized. The core of the book consists of four sections that examine in detail the morphology and physiology of aquatic organisms, ecology of the individual organism, ecology of the individual organism, population ecology, and community ecology. In concluding chapters, it is shown how the field of biology may be applied to the solution of existing water pollution problems. A bibliography is included. (BL)