Ecological Geography of the Sea - Softcover

Longhurst, Alan R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0124555594 ISBN 13: 9780124555594

Publisher: Academic Press Inc, 2001

Synopsis

This book presents an in-depth discussion of the biological and ecological geography of the oceans. It synthesizes locally restricted studies of the ocean to generate a global geography for the vast marine world. "Ecological Geography of the Sea" is the first comprehensive attempt to divide the ocean into distinguishable regions that permit detailed comparisons. Based on patterns of algal ecology, the book divides the ocean into four primary compartments, which are then subdivided into secondary compartments. The secondary compartments are identified and characterized by biogeochemical features including nutrient dynamics, continental shelf topography, and algal blooms. Because ocean-wide regional classification has broad impact on the way oceanographers and ecologists study ocean patterns, this book will have wide and long-term appeal. It divides the ocean into distinguishable regions that permit detailed comparisons and synthesizes locally restricted studies of the ocean to generate a global geography for the vast marine world. It appeals to a wide cross-section of marine biologists interested in the geography of the oceans.

About this title

Review:

"With special focus on algal ecology, this book takes a comprehensive look at specialized regional studies of biological and ecological geography and places them neatly within a global context. ...An impressive overview of the technical literature." --Joerg-Henner Lotze in NORTHEASTERN NATURALIST (June 2001) "It is extremely well documented and precisely written, and this is remarkable considering the diversity of sources and sometimes the contradictions Longhurst had to work with. Everyone will find something of interest in this book." --Yves Dandonneau in NATURE (July 1999) "We were all waiting for this book. ...The excellence of this book guarantees that the overall structure will remain, and that the well deserved eponym [Longhurst Areas] will stick." --Daniel Pauly, University of British Columbia, in TREE (March 1999) "...it is refreshing to find the insight and new ideas Longhurst has obtained from a limited set of basic principles and a broad focus. Longhurst beautifully shows us that the pelagic ecology of many ocean regions can be understood using a few fundamental concepts. With the coherent and simplified understanding presented in this book, everyone from the specialist to the layman will look at the ocean with new interest and appreciation. ...his synthesis will be used in biological oceanography for a very long time. It is an inspiring, 'I wish I could have done it,' book." --Sharon L. Smith in SCIENCE (January 1999) "...stimulating reading for anyone with a serious interest in ecology. ...I enjoyed this book very much. It is beautifully written and generally well presented. The book will be a standard text for years to come and I cannot see how serious students of oceanography could do without it." --Dave Raffaellii in JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY (1999) From the Pre-Publication Reviews: "The quality of this work is superb. It is not often that biogeography and the physical forces of the ocean come together in such a scholarly manner." --Charles S. Yentsch, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, West Boothbay Harbor, Maine "This book is a tour de force. Alan Longhurst has written the book that every marine biogeographer would aspire to write, yet only the exceptional few will have the breadth of experience, interpretive skills and overall competence to achieve... What emerges is a functional description of inshore and off-shore waters that will be an invaluable under-pinning to the design of experiments, the interpretation of results and the management of oceanic ecosystems well into the next millenium. It will be a book that all serious students of oceanography will have to possess, because not only will they constantly be referring to it, but also any library copies will be instantly purloined." --Martin Angel, Southampton Oceanography Centre, U.K. "A thorough and thoughtful work, and I think a wonderful gift to the next generation of oceanographers." --John Lazier, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada

About the Author:

After 4 years of war service and after graduating from the University of London in 1952, Alan Longhurst subsequently studied the ecology of benthic communities and demersal fish off tropical West Africa and New Zealand, and the ecology of oceanic zooplankton in the eastern tropical Pacific, the north Atlantic and the arctic archipelago of Canada. He has held both research and administrative posts in several laboratories and has had many less formal occupations, such as coordinating the EASTROPAC surveys or acting as Secretary, SCOR. He has published widely in the field of benthic and pelagic ecology, and concerning the ecological basis of fisheries. He is now retired and spends much of year in SW France, where he assists his wife in running a gallery of contemporary art, keeping a sharp eye out for oceanographers among their clients.

About this edition

• Publisher: Academic Press Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0124555594
• ISBN 13: 9780124555594
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 398