Upwelling systems are special places in the oceans where nutrient-enriched water is brought into the euphotic zone to fuel phytoplankton blooms that, via marine food-web interactions, create the world’s richest fish resources. This book introduces the reader to the interdisciplinary science of upwelling and provides a comprehensive overview of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems in the context of climate variability, climate change and human exploitation. This material presented is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate study or just for anyone interested to learn about the creation of life in the oceans and how this is compromised by human activities.

The Gulf of Guinea volume is part of a series on the Large Marine Ecosystems. This volume combines the latest research on the Gulf of Guinea from scientists working primarily in the region and from Europe. It covers the dynamics of the oceanic and coastal waters of the region, the major biological resources, pollution in the marine environment and the socio-economics and governance of marine fisheries. A significant number of new data sets, including some which have been repatriated from outside the region, are now made available through this publication.The combination of the various chapters underlines the interlinkages that exist between the interannual and seasonal dynamical behaviour of the oceanic offshore waters and the living marine resources along the coast, and the direct effect they have on the livelihoods of the populations living throughout the Gulf of Guinea.The volume is intended for those who have a general interest in the region as well as those who work professionally in the field. It will also be of immense value to resource managers and policy-makers as a demonstration project on how research can help solve the pressing problems of economic and food security in coastal regions.

In the process of building and using models to comprehend the dynamics of the atmosphere, ocean and climate, the reader will learn how the different components of climate systems function, interact with each other, and vary over time. Topics include the stability of climate, Earths energy balance, parcel dynamics in the atmosphere, the mechanisms of heat transport in the climate system, and mechanisms of climate variability. Special attention is given to the effects of climate change.

Marine phosphorites, the principal raw material for phosphatic fertilizers, do not occur uniformly through time and space. The origin of these unusual sedimentary rocks appears to be related mainly to marine biological productivity, often associated with upwelling currents during certain intervals of geological time. This book examines the environmental setting and resulting phosphorites which formed during the Miocene, one of the major and most recent phosphogenic periods throughout the geologic record. In addition, an oceanographic perspective is given by investigations of modern oceanic environments where phosphorites are presently forming. Together, the geologic and marine approaches provide a complete outlook on this important mineral resource. This book is the third of four reference volumes which together cover the achievements of the International Geological Correlation Programme Project 156 (Phosphorites) during the ten years of the project's existence.

This book summarizes achievements of the study on circulation and air–sea interaction and development of the ocean observation network in the South China Sea in the last 20 years, thus serving as a comprehensive reference book to understand the dynamic environment in the SCS. It consists of seven chapters, briefly reviewing our understanding of the SCS circulation and air–sea interaction in chapter 1, then describing in detail the upper layer circulation from large scale (SCS through flow, SCS western boundary current, etc.), to meso- and submeso-scale in Chapters 2 and 5, dilute river plume and coastal upwelling over the shelf in Chapter 3, deep ocean circulation in Chapter 4, tropical cyclone activities and air–sea flux at the interface in Chapter 6, and the construction of the observation network and database in Chapter 7. Besides the basic features of these physical processes, the book also discusses their variations and fundamental dynamics. Thus, it is written in a way that meets the different information demands from researchers working in various marine related fields.