Over his 40-year professional career, Stanley Dodson inspired students and collaborators with his ideas and example. He mentored numerous graduate students to complete their degrees (22 Ph.D., 24 Masters), and collaborated with scientists from all over the world. Stanley is best known for his research on the role of predators in structuring plankton communities (Brooks & Dodson, 1965), work started as an honors undergraduate project at Yale. This idea and the effects of predators on zooplankton morphology and behavior were further developed during Stanley’s graduate work with Tommy Edmondson and, subsequently, through his own graduate students. Stanley and his students also explored factors influencing species richness in lakes, including the roles of land use and environmental contaminants. During his entire career, Stanley worked on the systematics of cladocerans and copepods. Detailed studies on the morphological divergence of Diaptomus and Eurytemora species were in the works at the time of his accidental death in August 2009. Stanley was also a gifted professor of limnology and ecology, and wrote books to support these courses. Stanley was selfless in his service to numerous organizations and included 15 years on the editorial board of Hydrobiologia. A summary of his work and listings of Stanley’s bibliography and graduate students appear elsewhere (Havel, 2009).

Stanley is remembered by his friends for his imagination, wide-ranging interests in natural history, his sense of humor, and his kindness. When in China in 2008 with his wife Ginny and one of us (HJD), one of his last overseas trips, he surprised us as well as his Chinese hosts by giving proof of a deep knowledge of…tea! Not only did he thoroughly enjoy a tea tasting event organized in his honor, but his knowledge of Chinese tea varieties actually turned out to be deeper than that of many Chinese! But in addition, and in spite of the brief duration of his visit, his lectures made a lasting impression on a generation of young Chinese students, and he incisively inspired them with his advice.

In this special issue, we give tribute to Stanley with contributed papers by his former students, “grandstudents” (students of former students), and former collaborators and colleagues. Because he was currently collaborating with several former students, Stanley is coauthor on their papers. Some of these papers are still in preparation, and this volume came too early to include them, but they surely will eventually find their way to the scientific literature.

Several papers deal with the roles of predatory fish and water mites on zooplankton (Gliwicz and Stegen, respectively). The impact of hydrology on food webs is explored in streams below beaver dams (Fuller). Predator-induced defenses in phytoplankton are reviewed by Van Donk. Several papers explore biogeography, body size, and zooplankton composition in subtropical (Havens) and tropical regions (Dumont), as well as revisiting the factors that control the body size distribution of cladocerans (Hart). Biogeography is extended through examination of exotic and invasive species, and physiological and life history studies of snails and mussels in North America (Havel and Karatayev, respectively). A variety of papers explore the factors affecting species richness. Land use effects on community structure are explored in papers on zooplankton (Van Egeren) and ostracods (Allen). Land use effects are extended to the role of macrophytes on nitrogen cycling in streams (Forshay). Applications of Daphnia to bioassays of toxic contaminants are explored with studies of impacts of infections by chytrid fungi (Peñalva-Arana) and mechanisms controlling sex determination (Ignace), and reproduction (Miracle).