Coastal Plankton

Healthy waterways and oceans are essential for our increasingly urbanised world. Yet monitoring water quality in aquatic environments is a challenge, as it varies from hour to hour due to stormwater and currents. Being at the base of the aquatic food web and present in huge numbers, plankton are strongly influenced by changes in environment and provide an indication of water quality integrated over days and weeks. Plankton are the aquatic version of a canary in a coal mine. They are also vital for our existence, providing not only food for fish, seabirds, seals and sharks, but producing oxygen, cycling nutrients, processing pollutants, and removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. This Second Edition of Plankton is a fully updated introduction to the biology, ecology and identification of plankton and their use in monitoring water quality. It includes expanded, illustrated descriptions of all major groups of freshwater, coastal and marine phytoplankton and zooplankton and a new chapter on teaching science using plankton. Best practice methods for plankton sampling and monitoring programs are presented using case studies, along with explanations of how to analyse and interpret sampling data. Plankton is an invaluable reference for teachers and students, environmental managers, ecologists, estuary and catchment management committees, and coastal engineers.

The marine coastal plankton community supports a diverse selection of fascinating organisms. Many of these planktonic fauna are unique and beautiful. This text is designed to assist students, naturalists and researchers in collecting and identifying living plankton. A valuable tool in the classroom and laboratory, this guide conveys to biology teachers all the information necessary to introduce their students to the world of marine plankton. Also included are brief overviews of the ecology and maintenance of plankton, as well as valuable references for more information. A Guide to Marine Coastal Plankton and Marine Invertebrate Larvae provides the curious beginner and the experienced investigator with assistance on their journey into the realm of marine coastal plankton.

A collection of short poems, mainly on themes suggested by the natural world.

Each glance into a marine plankton sample is a look into a fantastic world for anyone who wants to study protists and invertebrate animals. Nowhere is it possible to observe with a simple device such a variety of forms and taxa, developmental stages and adaptations as in a Petri dish with a small plankton sample placed under a light microscope. This book, with more than 600 micro- and 40 macrophotographs on 60 colour plates, is an introduction to the most important and most common taxa present in the plankton, and it allows the identification even of numerous common species. 117 micrographs demonstrate characteristic forms of the phytoplankton, 70 of protozoans, more than 300 show larvae and other developmental stages, and about 90 show holoplanktonic adults of the zooplankton. The comprehensively annotated pictures are taken from living organisms, during marine excursions, mainly from the North Sea coastal area but also from other European coastlines, including the western Mediterranean. The book, therefore, is excellently suited to be used in such university courses for students of zoology and marine biology as well as for their teachers, but it is certainly also a comprehensible guide for any amateur microscopist and interested layperson.

Derived from an unprecedented research effort covering over 31 years in a series of studies of 7 major river-estuaries, Eutrophication Processes in Coastal Systems presents a comprehensive and current review of the nature of the eutrophication process and how short- and long-term nutrient loading affects marine systems. This unique book is the culmination of the most advanced research to date on how coastal systems work. Based on an 11 year interdisciplinary study of the Perdido Bay System, Dr. Robert J. Livingston's groundbreaking work offers evidence for significant findings such as: Nutrient concentration gradients in fresh water as it entered the bay were stimulatory to phytoplankton blooms Species that showed distinctive seasonal and interannual successions dominated plankton blooms High relative dominance of bloom species was associated with significant reduction of phytoplankton species richness and diversity The blooms were associated with major reductions of infaunal and epibenthic macroinvertibrates, forcing a serious disruption of the food webs and losses of secondary production Eutrophication Processes in Coastal Ecosystems goes beyond its innovative analyses of how estuarine and coastal systems have responded to fundamental alterations of the eutrophication process. Dr. Livingston's book presents the case that bloom impacts must be reviewed against the background conditions that include periodic changes brought on by drought and anthropogenous dredging. It points to the critical need for further study of phytoplankton communities and the connection between plankton blooms, sediment deterioration, and low secondary production.

A sequence of elaborate close-up photographs of a diverse range of plankton organisms displays their phosphorescent beauty and translucent colors against contrasting black backgrounds while offering historical and scientific discussions for each depicted species. --Publisher's description.