Customer Reviews

Marine Ecological Processes

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This second edition came out in 95, some 10 years after the first edition. By the preface's rationale, it is surely overdue for the third edition.

However, for the undergrad, and perhaps too for the grad student in marine sciences, the bulk of this text should still be useful. It gives detailed explanations of marine ecosystems, and of their food chains. Key ideas like species diversity are explored at length. The text also looks at a very macro issue. The carbon cycle. In both aerobic and anoxic environments.

On a very topical subject, the large scale effects of long term atmospheric changes are predicted. Remember that this was written in 95. With the recent onslaught of new observational evidence for global warming, this section of the book cries out for updating. In 95, some of the conclusions were justifiably tentative, being based only on what was then known. Perhaps the conclusions can now be restated and expanded with more assurance?

Marine Ecological Processes is a clear and broad compendium of the present knowledge on biological oceanography. In my opinion it is, among the books on the subject, the one that presents a wider and deeper vision of biological oceanography. Although it is addressed mostly to graduate students, the complexity of the subjects dealt make it also valuable for more advanced researchers. In summary, is the kind of book that should be, as a basic consult guide, in the library of any oceanographer.