This book would not have been possible to write without a grant from The Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation (Canberra, Australia), awarded through its National River Health Program. We are grateful to both Dr Peter Davies (Director, NRHP) and Dr Nick Schofield (Program Manager – Water Resources) for their support for a fairly unusual project.

Various of our colleagues were asked to read and critique sections of the book. Thank you all for your candid and constructive criticism and for giving your opinions so freely. Your input made a difference:

1. Dr Kevin Cash (Environment Canada, Canada)

2. Dr Bruce Chessman (NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation, Australia)

3. Prof. David Dudgeon (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

4. Dr Rob Goudey (Victorian Environmental Protection Authority, Australia)

5. Dr Stuart Halse (WA Department of Conservation and Land Management, Australia)

6. Dr Chris Humphrey (NT Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist, Australia)

7. Dr Richard Marchant (Museum of Victoria, Australia)

8. Mr Leon Metzeling (Victorian Environmental Protection Authority, Australia)

9. Dr Steve Ormerod (Cardiff University, Wales)

10. Dr Vince Resh (University of California at Berkeley, USA)

11. Dr Mike Winterbourn (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)

We thank also an anonymous referee who commented on the entire manuscript and made many practical and valuable suggestions.

Steve Ormerod and David Bradley of the Catchment Research Group at Cardiff University made available data from a long-running experiment in ecological restoration, which has been used as an example throughout this book.