A Field Guide To The Seashores Of Eastern Africa And The Western Indian Ocean Islands

The Regional State of Coast Report for the western Indian Ocean (WIO) is the first comprehensive regional synthesis to provide insights into the enormous economic potential around the WIO, the consequential demand for marine ecosystem goods and services to match the increasing human population, the pace and scale of environmental changes taking place in the region and the opportunities to avoid serious degradation in one of the world’s unique and highly biodiverse oceans.

Coral Reefs of the Gulf: Adaptation to Climatic Extremes is a complete review and reference for scientists, engineers and students concerned with the geology, biology or engineering aspects of coral reefs in the Middle East. It provides for the first time a complete review of both the geology and biology of all extant coral areas in the Gulf, the water body between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. In summer, this area is the hottest sea with abundant coral growth on earth and already today exhibits a temperature that is predicted to occur across the topical ocean in 2100. Thus, by studying the Gulf today, much can be learned about tomorrow’s world and the capability of coral reefs to adapt to climatic extremes. This volume provides the most authoritative and up-to-date review of the coral reefs in the Gulf. It can be used as a volume of general reference or as a textbook treating recent coral reefs. Written by local and international experts, the text is richly illustrated and will remain a standard reference for the region for decades to come. Contributions stretch from climatology through geology, biology, ecological modelling and fisheries science to practical conservation aspects. The book is useful for the technical expert and casual reader alike.

This book provides recent environmental, ecological and hydrodynamic information for the major estuaries and the coastal marine systems of the Western Indian Ocean Region. It covers various functions and values of the region’s estuarine ecosystems and their respective habitats, including the land/ocean interactions that define and impact ecosystem services. The Western Indian Ocean region covered by this volume consists of the continental coastal states of Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania and the island states of Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros.

This large work on sea slugs of the Western Indian Ocean is a major contribution to our knowledge of opisthobranch diversity and biogeography.ÿ The western Indian Ocean has long been known as a distinct biogeographical region, and reports of opisthobranchs from the province have been sporadic.ÿ Despite nearly 200 years of study, recent work estimates that there are more than 1000 undescribed species in the whole of the Indo-Pacific region.ÿ There have been considerable developments in the study of many taxonomic groups for the area in the last 50 years, including opisthobranchs, and this paper describes 70 species, of which ten species are recorded from the western Indian Ocean for the first time.ÿ Many phyllidiids and chromodorids seem to have a distribution limited to the western Indian Ocean, whilst there seem to be differences in species richness between coastal areas and island groups.ÿ Further work will shed light on many of these issues.

This popular and authoritative guide has been fully revised, updated and expanded to encompass more than 2,200 species found in and around southern Africa’s oceans. It includes an additional 125 species, 190 new photographs, revised distribution maps, and 260 updated species names to reflect the new taxonomy. Key features include: Concise and easy-to-use species descriptions; spectacular full-colour photographs; accurate and up-to-date distribution maps. This new edition of Two Oceans is a celebration of the extraordinary diversity of life that inhabits the sea and surrounding coastline, reaffirming this book’s reputation as the region’s pre-eminent guide for scientists, students, divers and beachcombers. Sales points: Covers over 2,200 species; full-colour photos, maps and concise text make identification easy; up-to-date information; highly accomplished author team.