this volume contains papers presented either in oral or poster form at the international symposium `limnology of mountain lakes, held at stará lesná (slovakia) between 1 and 7 july 1991. several papers covered contributions from the fields of physical and chemical limnology, palaeolimnology, zooplankton, phytoplankton and phytobenthos, and bacteria. acidification, a process affecting water chemistry and biota of many mountain lakes in europe was dealt with also. a series of papers on the lakes in sumava has highlighted different aspects of these lakes, which are in the last stage of acidification. other geographical areas covered extensively were the tatras and the alps.