Ecohydrology of Water-Controlled Ecosystems addresses the connections between the hydrologic cycle and plant ecosystems, with special emphasis on arid and semi-arid climates. This important topic is treated by building suitable mathematical models of the physics involved and then applying them to study the ecosystem structure and its response to rainfall and climate forcing in different parts of the world, including savannas, grasslands and forests. It investigates the vegetation response to water stress (drought), the hydrologic control on cycles of soil nutrients, and the dynamics of plant competition for water. The book also offers insights into processes closely related to soil moisture dynamics, such as soil-atmosphere interaction and soil gas emissions. This book will appeal to advanced students and researchers from a large range of disciplines, including environmental science, hydrology, ecology, earth science, civil and environmental engineering, agriculture and atmospheric science.

Coral reefs are the 'rain forests' of the ocean, containing the highest diversity of marine organisms and facing the greatest threats from humans. As shallow-water coastal habitats, they support a wide range of economically and culturally important activities, from fishing to tourism. Their accessibility makes reefs vulnerable to local threats that include over-fishing, pollution and physical damage. Reefs also face global problems, such as climate change, which may be responsible for recent widespread coral mortality and increased frequency of hurricane damage. This book, first published in 2006, summarises the state of knowledge about the status of reefs, the problems they face, and potential solutions. The topics considered range from concerns about extinction of coral reef species to economic and social issues affecting the well-being of people who depend on reefs. The result is a multi-disciplinary perspective on problems and solutions to the coral reef crisis.

Fish are one of the most important global food sources, supplying a significant share of the world's protein consumption. From stocks of wild Alaskan salmon and North Sea cod to entire fish communities with myriad species, fisheries require careful management to ensure that stocks remain productive, and mathematical models are essential tools for doing so. Fish Ecology, Evolution, and Exploitation is an authoritative introduction to the modern size- and trait-based approach to fish populations and communities. Ken Andersen covers the theoretical foundations, mathematical formulations, and real-world applications of this powerful new modeling method, which is grounded in the latest ecological theory and population biology. He begins with fundamental assumptions on the level of individuals and goes on to cover population demography and fisheries impact assessments. He shows how size- and trait-based models shed new light on familiar fisheries concepts such as maximum sustainable yield and fisheries selectivity-insights that classic age-based theory can't provide-and develops novel evolutionary impacts of fishing. Andersen extends the theory to entire fish communities and uses it to support the ecosystem approach to fisheries management, and forges critical links between trait-based methods and evolutionary ecology. Accessible to ecologists with a basic quantitative background, this incisive book unifies the thinking in ecology and fisheries science and is an indispensable reference for anyone seeking to apply size- and trait-based models to fish demography, fisheries impact assessments, and fish evolutionary ecology.

The biodiversity of many ecosystems is under threat and although seas cover the majority of our planet's surface, far less is known about the biodiversity of marine environments than that of terrestrial systems. It is also not clear whether many of the patterns known to occur on land also occur in the sea. Until we have a firmer idea of the diversity of a wide range of marine habitats and what controls it, we have little hope of conserving biodiversity, or determining the impact of human activities such as mariculture, fishing, dumping of waste and pollution. This book brings together key studies from the deep sea and open ocean, to tropical shores and polar regions to consider how comparable the patterns and processes underlying diversity are in these different ecosystems. Marine Biodiversity will be a major resource for all those interested in biodiversity and its conservation.

Trundling along in essentially the same form for some 220 million years, turtles have seen dinosaurs come and go, mammals emerge, and humankind expand its dominion. Is it any wonder the persistent reptile bested the hare? In this engaging book physiologist Donald Jackson shares a lifetime of observation of this curious creature, allowing us a look under the shell of an animal at once so familiar and so strange. Here we discover how the turtle's proverbial slowness helps it survive a long, cold winter under ice. How the shell not only serves as a protective home but also influences such essential functions as buoyancy control, breathing, and surviving remarkably long periods without oxygen, and how many other physiological features help define this unique animal. Jackson offers insight into what exactly it's like to live inside a shell-to carry the heavy carapace on land and in water, to breathe without an expandable ribcage, to have sex with all that body armor intervening. Along the way we also learn something about the process of scientific discovery-how the answer to one question leads to new questions, how a chance observation can change the direction of study, and above all how new research always builds on the previous work of others. A clear and informative exposition of physiological concepts using the turtle as a model organism, the book is as interesting for what it tells us about scientific investigation as it is for its deep and detailed understanding of how the enduring turtle "works."

Marine environment can be affected by several pollutants such as the presence of elements and their chemical species, pharmaceuticals, nanoparticles and other emerging contaminants. Environmental monitoring can be assessed by genomics, proteomics (i.e. redox proteomics), chemical speciation analysis and metallomics, metabolomics as well as other advanced strategies. The present book is a useful methodological tool for researchers and specialists in the field of analytical chemistry, environmental sciences, biochemistry, genomics and toxicology. The book includes for the first time the methodological aspects and applications related to chemical speciation and -omics strategies applied to marine environment.

Ever-increasing interest in oceanography and marine biology and their relevance to global environmental issues create a demand for authoritative reviews summarizing the results of recent research. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review has catered to this demand since its founding by the late Harold Barnes more than 50 years ago. Its objectives are to consider, annually, the basic areas of marine research, returning to them when appropriate in future volumes; to deal with subjects of special and topical importance; and to add new subjects as they arise. The favourable reception and complimentary reviews accorded to all the volumes shows that the series is fulfilling a very real need. Volume 54 follows closely the objectives and style of the earlier volumes, continuing to regard the marine sciences-with all their various aspects-as a unity. Physical, chemical, and biological aspects of marine science are dealt with by experts actively engaged in these fields. The series is an essential reference text for researchers and students in all fields of marine science and related subjects, and it finds a place in libraries of universities, marine laboratories, research institutes and government departments. It is consistently among the highest ranking series in terms of impact factor in the marine biology category of the citation indices compiled by the Institute for Scientific Information/Web of Science.

Pelagic tunicates are fascinating for their beauty, remarkable in most cases for their curious and even bizarre life cycles, and often notable for extraordinarily rapid growth. Furthermore, in recent years their major importance in the economy of the sea has been recognized. Although the now outdated encyclopaedic texts of the 1930s dealt with pelagic tunicates, the results of much subsequent physiological and ecological work have only appeared in scattered articles. This book is unique in giving a modern account of the biology of pelagic tunicates, with much new and unpublished information. Different chapters treat such topics as the ecological impact of salp blooms, locomotion by jet propulsion, the affinities of different groups, and the abundance and distribution of each group. Updated classification and identification keys to every pelagic tunicate now known are included. The Biology of Pelagic Tunicates will be useful to all plankton workers, and may perhaps stimulate ecologists, physiologists, and geneticists to begin work on a somewhat neglected group of animals that offer some unusual advantages for different kinds of study.

Whether through loss of habitat or cascading community effects, diseases can shape the very nature of the marine environment. Despite their significant impacts, studies of marine diseases have tended to lag behind their terrestrial equivalents, particularly with regards to their ecological effects. However, in recent decades global research focused on marine disease ecology has expanded at an accelerating rate. This is due in part to increases in disease emergence across many taxa, but can also be attributed to a broader realization that the parasites responsible for disease are themselves important members of marine communities. Understanding their ecological relationships with the environment and their hosts is critical to understanding, conserving, and managing natural and exploited populations, communities, and ecosystems. Courses on marine disease ecology are now starting to emerge and this first textbook in the field will be ideally placed to serve them. Marine Disease Ecology is suitable for graduate students and researchers in the fields of marine disease ecology, aquaculture, fisheries, veterinary science, evolution and conservation. It will also be of relevance and use to a broader interdisciplinary audience of government agencies, NGOs, and marine resource managers.

The marine zooplankton is one of the most fascinating and diverse assemblages of animals known to biologists. This student manual provides a photographic guide to representative forms of the major groups from medusae and comb jellies to larval fish and squid. In it, only photographs of live and active organisms appear, giving a unique visual perspective. In this new edition, the authors have revised and updated the taxonomy and morphology so that combined with information on behavior and development, this book creates a vivid and essential reference.

This book explores the sea and its meanings from ancient myths to contemporary geopolitics, from Atlantis to the Mediterranean migrant crisis. Richard Hamblyn traces a cultural and geographical journey from estuary to abyss, beginning with the topographies of the shoreline and ending with the likely futures of our maritime environments. Along the way, the sea becomes a site of work and endurance, of story and song, of language, leisure and longing. By considering the sea as both a physical and a cultural presence, this book shines new light upon it, and its indelible place in the human imagination.

This Second Edition of Plankton is a fully updated introduction to the biology, ecology and identification of plankton and their use in monitoring water quality. It includes expanded, illustrated descriptions of all major groups of freshwater, coastal and marine phytoplankton and zooplankton and a new chapter on teaching science using plankton. Best practice methods for plankton sampling and monitoring programs are presented using case studies, along with explanations of how to analyse and interpret sampling data. Healthy waterways and oceans are essential for our increasingly urbanised world. Yet monitoring water quality in aquatic environments is a challenge, as it varies from hour to hour due to stormwater and currents. Being at the base of the aquatic food web and present in huge numbers, plankton are strongly influenced by changes in environment and provide an indication of water quality integrated over days and weeks. Plankton are the aquatic version of a canary in a coal mine. They are also vital for our existence, providing not only food for fish, seabirds, seals and sharks, but producing oxygen, cycling nutrients, processing pollutants, and removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. This new edition: contains a new chapter on Plankton in the Classroom has greatly expanded coverage of coastal and marine phytoplankton explains the role of plankton in aquatic ecosystems and its usefulness as a water quality indicator updates and details best practice in methodology for plankton sampling and monitoring programs brings together widely-scattered information on freshwater and coastal phytoplankton and zooplankton and provides a list of up-to-date references. Plankton is an invaluable reference for teachers and students, environmental managers, ecologists, estuary and catchment management committees, and coastal engineers.

In 1940 Steinbeck sailed in a sardine boat with his great friend the marine biologist, Ed Ricketts, to collect marine invertebrates from the beaches of the Gulf of California.

The expedition was described by the two men in SEA OF CORTEZ, published in 1941. The day-to-day story of the trip is told here in the Log, which combines science, philosophy and high-spirited adventue.

An exhilarating and highly entertaining read.

This timely volume provides a comprehensive account of the natural history of the organisms associated with the deep-sea floor and examines their relationship with this inhospitable environment--perhaps the most remote and least accessible location on the planet. The authors begin by describing the physical and chemical nature of the deep-sea floor and the methods used to collect and study its fauna. Then they discuss the ecology of the deep sea by exploring spatial patterns, diversity, biomass, vertical zonation, and large-scale distribution of organisms. Subsequent chapters review current knowledge of feeding, respiration, reproduction, and growth processes in these communities. The unique fauna of hypothermal vents and seeps are considered separately. Finally, there is a pertinent discussion of human exploitation of deep-sea resources and potential use of this environment for waste disposal.

This book provides an introduction to recent analytical and experimental studies of plant growth in the sea. The physiology and ecology of marine plants are, therefore, emphasized at the expense of a more traditional taxonomic or morphological treatment. The physics and chemistry of the marine environment are examined with specific reference to the requirements of marine plants, and much of the book concentrates on those aspects of their physiology which are unique to marine plants, or which help us to understand their ecology. Since over 90% of the species of marine plants are algae, most of the book is devoted to the marine representatives of this group, with examples from all oceans and coasts of the world where detailed work has been done. Phytoplankton and seaweeds are discussed together in chapters on photosynthesis, growth and productivity, and geographical distribution, in order to provide an integrated picture of the biology of marine plants in general. There is, however, a deliberate bias towards the seaweeds in certain chapters (e.g. morphogenesis, rocky shore ecology, economic utilization) since the ecology and physiology of these plants have received less attention in books at this level than has the ecology of phytoplankton. Marine angiosperms are also discussed alongside the autotrophic algae, and the ecological roles of bacteria and fungi in the sea are covered in a separate chapter.