Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Antarctic Research Series, Volume 17. Of the volumes currently available in the Antarctic Research Series, this volume is the fourth dealing with the biology of the antarctic seas. These collected papers comprise the results of original investigations, 11 of which are concerned mainly with the identification and distribution of marine plants and animals. In the first of these papers Stewart Springer gives a systematic appraisal of the five species of elasmobranch Rajidae from Antarctica, of which one represents a new and unique species. Heretofore one of the peculiarities of the antarctic ichthyological fauna has been the absence of sharks. In this very significant contribution, the author establishes the most southerly record for any member of the elasmobranchs. The second paper, by Patricia Kott, amplifies our systematic knowledge of the tunicates of the South Atlantic, South Pacific, and Indian oceans. It extends her monograph published as volume 13 of the Research Series under the title of Antarctic Ascidiacea and is based on collections made in the Antarctic through 1967; two new species are included. Additions and corrections to volume 13 are appended to this paper. John C. Markham reports on several lower chordates of the genus Cephalodiscus and discusses the systematics and distribution of the five species known from the Antarctic. The Deep Freeze materials examined in the course of this study were obtained through the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office oceanographers from icebreakers assigned to task force 43 prior to and after the 1955–1959 International Geophysical Year and precede the National Science Foundation sponsored research now being conducted by the USNS Eltanin and the R/V Hero under the U.S. Antarctic Research Program.

Hearing to scrutinize the live marine resources of Antarctica, and international negotiations focusing on their conservation and management, conducted by the United States and 12 other parties to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty.

First published in 1993, The Biology of the Southern Ocean has been referred to as international research at its best and an invaluable reference. Drawing on the considerable volume of information published in the last ten years, this second edition retains the format that made the first edition a popular bestseller, while updating the information

Ten years ago Polar Biology published the book, Weddell Sea Ecology, containing the European "Polarstern" study EPOS in the Weddell Sea and Peninsula waters 1988/89. In certain respects, the present collection of papers, first published in Polar Biology in 2001, is a follow-up as it combines papers partly based on three "Polarstern" expeditions to the same region. Further articles relate to both land-based and shipborne studies, again primarily in the Atlantic sector and around the Antarctic Peninsula. The SCAR programme, "Ecology of the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone" (EASIZ), served as an umbrella for a truly international cooperation. Although funding came exclusively from national sources, 40% of the scientists on board "Polarstern" were foreigners. Out of the 35 papers of the present volume not less than 14 papers have multinational authorship. The scope of EASIZ is wider ilian the Southern Ocean Studies in JGOFS and GLOBEC. The Contents reflect emphasis on the study of benthos, which hitherto had not received the necessary attention in the attempt to understand key questions of evolution and zoogeography of fauna from the Southern Hemisphere. The information collected under EASIZ enhanced greatly our recognition of the rather high biodiversity of ilie Antarctic shelf benthos. In order to extend these studies to ilie deeper continental slopes and the deep sea, "Polarstern" is presently on her way for ilie first international survey of deep-sea benthos in the Atlantic sector of ilie Southern Ocean.

When I was asked to organize this symposium on marine producti vity, it made me reflect on what aspects of this subject would be stimulating to a heterogeneous group of laboratory-oriented physiolo gists and biochemists. In recent years there have been several books which discusses the methodology commonly used in primary production studies and described the magnitude of photosynthetic CO reduction 2 in various areas of the world's oceans. I therefore decided to dis pense with these conventional aspects of primary production and invite researchers to speak on a variety of problems relating the abundance and activity of phytoplankton to environmental conditions. The lectures I invited were thus quite diverse in character, but all were related either to factors affecting the rate of photosynthesis or to the fate of reduced carbon as it passes through the microbial food web. In addition to these talks the participants benefited from a number of shorter presentations and poster sessions which dealt with production and cycling of organic carbon in the marine environment. February 1984 Osmund HOLM-HANSEN CONTENTS 1. Factors Governing Pelagic Production in Polar Oceans E. SAKSHAUG and O. HOLM-HANSEN •. ••. ••••. . . . . . •. •••. . ••••. •. •••• 1 2. Productivity of Antarctic Waters. A Reappraisal S. Z. EL-SAYED •. . . ••••••••. . •••. •. •••••••••. •••. •. •. . . . •. . . . •. 19 3. A Thermodynamic Description of Phytoplancton Growth D. A. KIEFER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 4. Mechanisms of Organic Matter Utilization by Marine Bacterio plankton 45 F. AZAM and J. W.