Abstract
This chapter reviews the question of whether marine and terrestrial systems have such fundamentally different characteristics that metapopulation theory is useful only on land, or at least to require drastically different constructs in the concepts and models. But there are marine systems that possibly should not be seen as metapopulations. A nonexhaustive list of key research topics that need to be addressed to build a better understanding of metapopulation structure and dynamics in the sea is provided. The interaction between marine metapopulation ecology and management of living marine resources is also considered. Drawing upon metapopulation theory should continue to present new questions and guide new marine ecological research. Marine systems can, at the very least, increase the range of variation on the basic and universal set of population processes represented in metapopulation studies, and marine ecologists can substantially widen the pool of scientists focused on metapopulation issues.
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