Marine Ecological Processes

The oceans represent a vast, complex and poorly understood ecosystem. __Marine Ecological Processes__ is a modern review and synthesis of marine ecology that provides the reader with a lucid introduction to the intellectual concepts, approaches, and methods of this evolving discipline. Comprehensive in its coverage, this book focuses on the processes controlling marine ecosystems, communities, and populations and demonstrates how general ecological principles--derived from terrestrial and freshwater systems as well--apply to marine ecosystems. Global warming and increased eutrophication and wetland destruction in recent years has made the study of ecological processes even more important for the preservation of marine environments. This thoroughly updated and expanded edition will provide students of marine ecology, marine biology, and oceanography with numerous illustrations, examples, and references which clearly impart to the reader the current state of research in this field: its achievements as well as unresolved controversies. Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Front Matter....Pages 1-2 Primary Producers in the Sea....Pages 3-34 Production: The Formation of Organic Matter....Pages 35-60 Controls of Primary Production....Pages 61-112 Front Matter....Pages 113-115 Population Dynamics in Consumers....Pages 117-141 Competition for Resources Among Consumers....Pages 143-169 Use and Transfer of Organic Matter in Marine Food Webs....Pages 171-195 Consumption of Food Particles: Mechanics of Grazing and Predation....Pages 197-224 Food Selection and Capture by Consumers....Pages 225-258 Processing and Uses of Consumed Energy....Pages 259-308 Front Matter....Pages 309-310 Food Web Structure and Its Controls I....Pages 311-355 Food Web Structure and Its Controls II....Pages 357-393 Taxonomic Structure: Species Composition....Pages 395-405 Spatial Structure: Patchiness....Pages 407-436 Temporal Structure: Perturbation, Colonization, Succession....Pages 437-465 Front Matter....Pages 467-468 The Carbon Cycle 1: Production and Transformations of Organic Matter Under Aerobic Conditions....Pages 469-504 The Carbon Cycle 2: Reactions Under Reducing Conditions....Pages 505-528 Nutrient Cycles in Ecosystems....Pages 529-576 Changing Marine Ecosystems and Processes: Trajectories and Recovery....Pages 577-593 Coda....Pages 595-597 Back Matter....Pages 599-698 This book includes a comprehensive review of the processes controlling marine ecosystems, communities, and populations, as well as introduces concepts, approaches, and methods in the fast-changing fields of marine ecology and oceanography. This third edition maintains the structure of previous editions, introducing marine environments, dwelling on population, community, and ecosystem levels of organization, and emphasizing relevant biogeochemical and hydrodynamic mechanisms. The content is updated to include major features that new research has revealed in recent decades, but still highlights links to originators of critical ideas in the history of marine sciences. The greatest change in this edition is an expansion of each chapter to capture new awareness, and implications, of the rapid change affecting all aspects marine environments, driven by anthropogenic forces operating through climate and oceanographic mechanisms