Marine Ecology (ePub)

This book began life as a series of lectures given to second and
third year undergraduates at Oxford University. These
lectures were designed to give students insights as to how marine
ecosystems functioned, how they were being affected by natural and
human interventions, and how we might be able to conserve them and
manage them sustainably for the good of people, both recreationally
and economically. This book presents 10 chapters, beginning
with principles of oceanography important to ecology, through
discussions of the magnitude of marine biodiversity and the factors
influencing it, the functioning of marine ecosystems at within
trophic levels such as primary production, competition and
dispersal, to different trophic level interactions such as
herbivory, predation and parasitism. The final three chapters
look at the more applied aspects of marine ecology, discussion
fisheries, human impacts, and management and conservation.

Other textbooks covering similar topics tend to treat the topics
from the point of view of separate ecosystems, with chapters on
reefs, rocks and deep sea. This book however is topic driven
as described above, and each chapter makes full use of examples
from all appropriate marine ecosystems. The book is illustrated
throughout with many full colour diagrams and high quality
photographs.

The book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students at
colleges and universities, and it is hoped that the many examples
from all over the world will provide global relevance and
interest.

Both authors have long experience of research and teaching in
marine ecology. Martin Speight's first degree was in
marine zoology at UCNW Bangor, and he has taught marine ecology and
conservation at Oxford for 25 years. His research students
study tropical marine ecology from the Caribbean through East
Africa to the Far East. Peter Henderson is a Senior Research
Associate at the University of Oxford, and is Director of Pisces
Conservation in the UK. He has worked on marine and
freshwater fisheries, as well as ecological and economic impacts
and exploitation of the sea in North and South America as well as
Europe.