This is the annual journal of the Marine Biological Association of Hong Kong. It contains papers on marine subjects of interest to all Asian biologists.

The occurrence of marine and freshwater toxins is a rapidly evolving problem due to ever-changing circumstances. Expanding international commerce is forcing cargo ships into virgin territory, deforestation and pollution violate the natural ecological balance, and a changing climate holds unknown potential to alter current factors and trigger toxic blooms in new forms, at new rates, and in new places. Fortunately, with notable advances in analysis technology, the body of knowledge in the field is equally dynamic. In just six years since the first edition, toxins that warranted only line listings, including pfiestra, gambierol, and polycavernoside, are now worthy of entire chapters, requiring a new edition to encompass the expanding scope of the field. Emphasizes Human Response to New Toxins Gathering contributions from international experts, Seafood and Freshwater Toxins: Pharmacology, Physiology, and Detection, Second Edition provides an overview of the current state-of-knowledge from several perspectives. Incorporating toxicology, chemistry, ecology, and economics, the book covers the biological aspects of the bloom and the effects and actions of each toxin with emphasis on human response. This edition includes more information on detection and analysis, toxicological information on previously little known toxins, and food safety issues. Incorporating Pharmacological, Legal, and Economic Aspects, this book— Begins with general information on risk assessment and analytical techniques Cover several categories of toxins by function and biomechanism Considers potential pharmacological applications and the use of toxins as precursors to therapeutic drugs Highlights the legal and economic perspectives of toxic incidence in industrial activity and international regulation and monitoring programs Describes new toxins by their individual chemical structure, ecobiology, metabolism, detection methods, determination, pharmacology, and toxicology

Is ecological knowledge relevant to environmental policy and if so, to what extent and in what way? After a series of oxygen depletion events in coastal waters in the 1980s, North Sea states acted to reduce inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus to the North Sea. The book analyzes the role of scientists and scientific information, as well as civil servants, in the formulation and implementation of these decisions.

Harmful Algal Blooms: A Compendium Desk Reference erläutert die Grundlagen der schädlichen Algenblüte (HAB) und bietet die notwendigen technischen Informationen, wenn es um unerwartete oder unbekannte schädliche Ereignisse in Zusammenhang mit Algen geht. Dieses Fachbuch behandelt die Gründe für die schädliche Algenblüte, erfolgreiche Management- und Monitoring-Programme, Kontroll-, Präventions- und Minderungsstrategien, die wirtschaftlichen Folgen, Gesundheitsrisiken sowie die Folgen für die Nahrungskette und Ökosysteme. Darüber hinaus bietet es ausführliche Informationen zu den häufigsten HAB-Arten. Harmful Algal Blooms: A Compendium Desk Reference ist ein unschätzbares Referenzwerk für Manager, Einsteiger in das Fachgebiet, Praktiker mit eingeschränkten Zugang zu wissenschaftlicher Literatur und alle, die schnell Zugriff auf Informationen benötigen, insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund neuartiger oder unerwarteter HAB-Ereignisse. Die drei Herausgeber gehören zu den weltweit führenden Forschern auf dem Fachgebiet. Führende Experten haben ebenfalls zu diesem Fachbuch beigetragen, das sich zu einem wichtigen Referenzwerk des Fachgebiets entwickeln wird, zumal das Thema immer mehr an Bedeutung gewinnt.

A massive phytoplankton bloom, locally termed "brown tide", suddenly appeared in Long Island marine bays in 1985, colored the water a dark brown, decimated eelgrass beds and caused catastrophic starvation and recruitment failure of commercially important bay scallop populations. These "brown tide" blooms, caused by a very small, previously undescribed chrysophyte alga, have directly affected the estuarine environments of three northeastern American states: Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. other phytoplankton blooms such as "red tides" caused by dinoflagellates and "green tides" from chlorophytes as well as blue-green algae blooms have long been recognized and studied world wide, however, the unusual nature of these "brown tide" blooms caught the interest of many people. Scientists were particularly intrigued by the discovery of a previously unknown microalga which provided the opportunity to learn more about small microalgae, picoplankters, which are usually ignored due to the difficulty in identifying species. A symposium entitled, "Novel Phytoplankton Blooms: Causes and Impacts of Recurrent Brown Tides and Other Unusual Blooms", was convened on October 27 and 28 at the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island, with 220 registrants and nearly 50 scientific papers presented by researchers from the united States as well as Europe. The conference documented unusual bloom occurrences of recent and past years on a worldwide basis as well as northeast regional recurrences of the previously unknown "brown tide" blooms.