Our understanding of calcium carbonate precipitation within freshwa-ter carbonate systems is being revolutionized by new quantitative ap-proaches at both field and laboratory scale. These systems cover a di-verse range of topical research areas including tufas, speleothems, stro-matolites and microbial processes. Progress by various international research groups has been impressive, with major contributions to such areas as climate change, absolute dating, carbon sequestration, and biofilm construction and precipitation. A diverse sample of interrelated research is presented that provides a tantalizing glimpse of the inter-play between microbial, geochemical and physical processes that con-trol the development of tufas and speleothems. This volume will provide a cross-disciplinary platform that will stimu-late further exchanges about new concepts, methodologies and interpre-tations associated with freshwater carbonates. In particular, it will help reinforce the importance of cross-discipline research: the driving force behind the new field of Geobiology