This volume represents a selection of papers presented to the Tenth Symposium on Ostracoda held at Aberystwyth in the summer of 1988 on the theme of "Ostracoda and Global Events". It is the latest volume in a series of British Micropalaeontological Society publications. The major theme of both the symposium and the volume is topical and reflects the current interest in both the detection and the consequences of past global change. In the section of the book, "Ostracoda and Global Events", various authors, whose interests range from the Devonian to the present day, consider the ways in which Ostracoda can be used as indices and monitors of past environmental change. From our increasing knowledge of the biology and ecology of this group and their known usefulness in evaluating past environments, it may be only a short time before it is possible to use them in environmental modelling for the future. Although the major section of this volume is concerned with global events, papers of significance under a variety of other section headings indicate the diversity of research into fossil and Recent Ostracoda and the complexity and utility of the group. Other sections of the book are concerned with biology and genetics, biostratigraphy, deep sea, ecology, morphology, palaeoecology, palaeogeography, zoogeography and education. The volume aims to demonstrate the strength of Ostracod studies and also presents a vision for the future.