An insider's description of the comprehensive Census of Marine Life and what it reveals about a seriously threatened ecosystem.

Over the 10-year course of the recently completed Census of Marine Life, a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations has collaborated to improve our understanding of marine biodiversity - past, present, and future. Providing insight into this remarkable project, this book explains the rationale behind the Census and highlights some of its most important and dramatic findings, illustrated with full-color photographs throughout. It explores how new technologies and partnerships have contributed to greater knowledge of marine life, from unknown species and habitats, to migration routes and distribution patterns, and to a better appreciation of how the oceans are changing. Looking to the future, it identifies what needs to be done to close the remaining gaps in our knowledge and provide information that will enable us to better manage resources, conserve diversity, reverse habitat losses, and respond to global climate change.

Life in the World's Oceans: Diversity, Abundance and Distribution is a true landmark publication. Comprising the synthesis and analysis of the results of the Census of Marine Life this most important book brings together the work of around 2000 scientists from 80 nations around the globe. The book is broadly divided into four sections, covering oceans past, oceans present, oceans future and a final section covering the utilisation of the data which has been gathered, and the coordination and communication of the results. Edited by Professor Alasdair Mcintyre, Marine Life is a book which should find a place on the shelves of all marine scientists, ecologists, conservation biologists, oceanographers, fisheries scientists and environmental biologists. All universities and research establishments where biological, earth and fisheries science are studied and taught should have copies of this essential book on their shelves. A true landmark publication One of the most important marine science books ever published Contributions from many world leading researchers Synthesis of a huge amount of important data Represents the culmination of 10 years' research by 2000 scientists from 80 countries

In this refreshing, reader-friendly, and colorfully illustrated book about the ocean, renowned marine scientist Knowlton presents an overview of the hundreds of species that have been discovered in the past decade.

Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting for an engaging read aloud experience! Have you ever wondered what mysteries the ocean holds? Prepare to explore the ocean from sunlit shallows to the deepest, darkest depths. Along the way, you'll meet many incredible creatures that are brand new to science. Dive to a coral reef and spot a new species of pygmy octopus. Travel deeper and discover fragile, nearly transparent jellies as they drift past. Then head down into a world of eternal night. You'll encounter animals that make their own light and zombie worms that feast on the bones of dead whales. Your adventure is based on the real journeys of scientists involved in the Census of Marine Life. From 2000 to 2010, more than two thousand researchers from eighty-two countries carried out the most extensive investigation of ocean life ever attempted. Author Rebecca L. Johnson takes readers to research sites around the globe, showing how ocean scientists do their work. Stunning photographs throughout bring readers face-to-face with some of the most mesmerizing creatures on Earth.

The Extreme Life of the Sea exposes the eternal darkness of the deepest undersea trenches to show how marine life thrives against the odds, describing how flying fish strain to escape their predators, how predatory deep-sea fish use red searchlights only they can see to find and attack food, and how, at the end of her life, a mother octopus dedicates herself to raising her batch of young.

Ocean science connects a global community of scientists in many disciplines - physics, chemistry, biology, geology and geophysics. New observational and computational technologies are transforming the ability of scientists to study the global ocean with a more integrated and dynamic approach. This enhanced understanding of the ocean is becoming ever more important in an economically and geopolitically connected world, and contributes vital information to policy and decision makers charged with addressing societal interests in the ocean. Science provides the knowledge necessary to realize the benefits and manage the risks of the ocean. Comprehensive understanding of the global ocean is fundamental to forecasting and managing risks from severe storms, adapting to the impacts of climate change, and managing ocean resources. In the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is the primary funder of the basic research which underlies advances in our understanding of the ocean. Sea Change addresses the strategic investments necessary at NSF to ensure a robust ocean scientific enterprise over the next decade. This survey provides guidance from the ocean sciences community on research and facilities priorities for the coming decade and makes recommendations for funding priorities.

In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture—the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet’s waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides.

�[A] fascinating volume, which establishes marine environmental history as a major new discipline for academics as well as an exciting way to bring history and the natural world alive for the public.�ANDREW A. ROSENBERG, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE�The HMAP project is to be congratulated on this book, which presents vivid, evidence-based reconstructions of historical fisheries and the prolific ecosystems in which they were embedded.�TONY J. PITCHER, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA�The ingenuity and scholarship of the authors allow us to see ... how human societies have depended on and influenced marine living resources from periwinkles to whales.�MIKE SINCLAIR, BEDFORD INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY�This book exalts the surprisingly fruitful marriage of historians and marine scientists - a union that has proven to be one of the most exciting developments in ocean research in recent years.�KATHERINE RICHARDSON, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGENFor centuries the seas appeared to offer limitless supplies of food and other resources, their waters a cornucopia never to be exhausted. In more recent times, episodes such as the extreme exploitation and subsequent collapse of cod populations of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland have highlighted the fallaciousness of this view. Yet all too often the lessons from our historical interactions with marine animals are little known, let alone learned.Based on research for the History of Marine Animal Populations project, Oceans Past examines the complex relationship our forebears had with the sea and the animals that inhabit it. It presents eleven studies ranging from fisheries and invasive species to offshore technology and the study of marine environmental history, bringing together the perspectives of historians and marine scientists to enhance understanding of ocean management of the past, present and future. In doing so, it also highlights the influence that changes in marine ecosystems have upon the politics, welfare and culture of human societies.