The Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society (AEHMS) was established in 1989 to encourage and promote integrated, ecosystemic and holistic initiatives for the protection and conservation of aquatic resources. The AEHMS is devoted to understanding ecosystem performance, function and management from integrated, multi-disciplinary and sustainable perspectives. Soon after its establishment the Society launched a peer reviewed international journal, Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, which is published regularly. The AEHMS also sponsors an international book series, Ecovision World Monograph Series, to focus on detailed treatises on environmental management.

During the decade of its existence, the Society has been extremely active globally, promoting and disseminating ecosystem health information, and organizing various symposia, conferences and ecoforums. The 7th AEHMS conference in Lyon, France is one of a series of conferences regularly organized by the Society. This meeting provided an excellent opportunity to launch a regional chapter in Europe, namely AEHMS-Europe, for networking and hence bringing together European scientists familiar with AEHMS's mission as a result of attending AEHMS conferences previously held in Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Italy, The Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland. The Lyon meeting was an excellent opportunity for the new venture because of its ideal location and the timeliness and relevance of the conference theme, ‘Scaling from local to global perspectives’.

Achievement of sustainable development entails integration of scientific approaches and environmental management, legislation, and policy making realities. Aquatic ecosystem management is a key element in this endeavour for sustainability, since water quality is an important prerequisite for human health and development. The health and integrity of aquatic ecosystems should therefore, not only be regarded as important on its own, but can also be seen as an indicator, or barometer, of success, on the way to sustainability. The conference succeeded in gathering international experts in the fields of ecotoxicology, ecology, limnology, oceanography, conservation, restoration, modeling and mathematics, who exchanged their views on tools, criteria and strategies involved in the assessment of aquatic ecosystem health. The meeting provided a focus for exploring the challenges raised in the fields we need to address: integrated concepts of aquatic ecosystem health, research and management, resilience and sustainability, and environmental management strategies at national and international levels.

More than 30 oral presentations (including the Vallentyne Lecture and 5 keynote lectures) and 45 posters were made by delegates from 19 countries (for details see program/abstracts) on various aspects of ecosystem health. The presentations were arranged in six sessions focusing on the following themes:

• Invasion of Exotic species: A global threat to the integrity of food webs and fisheries of the North American Great Lakes (Vallentyne keynote lecture)
• Physical, chemical and biological determinants of ecological functioning
• Advanced bioassay techniques and their management application
• Scientific inputs to environmental policies and management

The AEHMS does not publish proceedings of its conferences as such - the book of program and abstracts serves as a record of presentations. However, by tradition, the AEHMS does publish peer reviewed papers from its meetings either in its journal, Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management or in its book series, Ecovision World Monograph Series. As well, the Society has agreed, for the second time, to generate an electronic Proceedings at the request of the conference participants and the host. More than 10 papers have been included so far in the web Proceedings. While these papers underwent technical and linguistic editing by Society personnel in Canada, they are not peer reviewed and authors are totally responsible for its contents. The main objective of the electronic proceedings is to expedite the availability of abstracts as well as papers submitted for publication to our journal to larger readership. In the meantime, these papers are undergoing peer review, revisions and editing by the Society. It is planned to publish accepted papers in a special issue of Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management. The AEHMS has decided to post the Proceeding for a period of one year on its web site during which period the papers should be cited when referred in the following fashion:

Author..., 2004. title of the paper, In: Scaling from local to global perspectives, 7th AEHMS International Conference, AEHMS Web Proceedings #2, www.aehms.org

We hope that the book of program/abstracts posted on the AEHMS website together with the electronic Proceedings will provide sufficient information about the exciting conference held in Lyon. On behalf of the AEHMS I thank the authors for their contributions. Thanks are also due to A. Munawar, S. Blunt, L. Logasundaram, C. Irwin, S. Lawrence and M. Fitzpatrick for the technical, linguistic and copy editing of the manuscripts. Finally the hard work and efforts of Drs. M. Babut and B. Montuelle of Cemagref, Lyon, France is greatly appreciated for hosting the conference and for supporting the preparation of the web proceedings.

M. Munawar
President-Chief editor
Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society
Fisheries & Oceans Canada
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Munawarm@dfo-mpo.gc.ca