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Paleolimnology is a rapidly developing science that is now being used to study a suite of environmental and ecological problems. This volume is the fourth handbook in the Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research book series. The first volume (Last & Smol, 200 I a) examined the acquisition and archiving of sediment cores, chronological techniques, and large-scale basin analysis methods. Volume 2 (Last & Smol, 200 Ib) focused on physical and chemical methods. Volume 3 (Smol et al., 2001), along with this book, summarize the many biological methods and techniques that are available to study long-term environmental change using information preserved in sedimentary profiles. A subsequent volume (Birks et aI., in preparation) will deal with statistical and data handling procedures. It is our intent that these books will provide sufficient detail and breadth to be useful handbooks for both seasoned …