M. Speight and P. Henderson: Marine ecology: concepts and applications

Abstract

This textbook is based on material used by the authors during their teaching of a marine ecology course to secondand third-year undergraduate students. The book is made up of ten chapters, an Appendix outlining ecological changes in the Hudson River ecosystem over several centuries (1600 to the present), an extensive and up-to-date reference list and an index, but the book lacks a glossary of terms. The failure of the authors to include a glossary is an unfortunate oversight, because several terms are not clearly defined the first time they are used; some terms will probably be unfamiliar to many undergraduate students, even if they have a basic grounding in biological sciences. An additional criticism might be that too many practical examples are sometimes given, meaning that it is occasionally difficult to pick up key information about concepts quickly and effectively. None the less, the overall structure of the book has been well thought out to provide students with a modern text that combines discussion of concepts with more descriptive passages. The sequencing of chapters is such that one leads logically to the next, and the writing style is generally crisp, compact and concise; senior undergraduate students with a good foundation in zoology, botany and ecology should not experience any great difficulties in comprehending the text. In addition, it is refreshing to come across a textbook that draws on examples from many regions of the world, rather than the more usual parochial selections from northern Europe or the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of USA; this should be good news for teachers and students from outside the confines of north-west Europe and North America. As is the case with many other student texts covering marine biology and ecology, this book opens with a chapter that provides a brief introduction to oceanography, giving information about physical and chemical characteristics of marine environments that impact on living organisms: depth, pressure, light, temperature, salinity, ocean currents, tides, waves and so on. Most of this is relatively familiar fare, presented in a fairly standard format, but there is also focus on ideas developed since the turn of the century. The chapter includes citation of several recent works, especially a number relating to the possible influences of climate change on oceanographic processes. Marine biodiversity is the theme