Synopses & Reviews
The marine environment is the largest, most important, and yet most mysterious habitat on our planet. It contains more than 99% of the world's living space, produces half of its oxygen, plays a critical role in regulating its climate, and supports a remarkably diverse and exquisitely adapted array of life forms, from microscopic viruses, bacteria, and plankton to the largest existing animals. In this unique Very Short Introduction, biologist Philip Mladenov provides a comprehensive overview of marine biology, offering a tour of marine life and marine processes that ranges from the polar oceans to tropical coral reefs, and from shoreline mollusks to deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Mladenov also looks at a number of factors that pose a significant threat to the marine environment and to many of its life forms-threats such as overfishing, coastal development, plastic pollution, oil spills, nutrient pollution, the spread of exotic species, and the emission of climate changing greenhouse gases. Throughout the book he successfully weaves around the principles of marine biology a discussion of the human impacts on the oceans and the threats these pose to our welfare.
About the Series:
Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.
Review
"The account is up-to-date, pointing out new research in such areas as dissolved organic carbon, the El Niño cycle, and deep ocean biology, such as whale falls and the unexpected richness of the deep ocean bottom, discovered by the view from submersibles."--J.A. Mather, iCHOICEr
About the Author
Philip V. Mladenov is Director of Seven Seas Consulting in New Zealand. He has more than 35 years of professional experience in marine biological research, teaching, and exploration.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The marine environment
2. Marine biological processes
3. Life in the costal ocean
4. Polar marine biology
5. Marine life in the tropics
6. Deep ocean biology
7. Intertidal life
8. Food from the oceans
References
Further reading