Marine Biodiversity

Until we have a firmer idea of the diversity of a wide range of marine habitats and what controls it, we have little hope of conserving biodiversity, or determining the impact of human activities such as mariculture, fishing, dumping of waste and pollution. This book brings together key studies from the deep sea and open ocean, to tropical shores and polar regions, to consider how comparable the patterns and processes underlying diversity are in these different ecosystems.

Effective marine biodiversity conservation is dependent upon a clear scientific rationale for practical interventions. This book is intended to provide knowledge and tools for marine conservation practitioners and to identify issues and mechanisms for upper-level undergraduate and Masters students. It also provides sound guidance for marine biology field course work and professionals. The main focus is on benthic species living on or in the seabed and immediately above, rather than on commercial fisheries or highly mobile vertebrates. Such species, including algae and invertebrates, are fundamental to a stable and sustainable marine ecosystem. The book is a practical guide based on a clear exposition of the principles of marine ecology and species biology to demonstrate how marine conservation issues and mechanisms have been tackled worldwide and especially the criteria, structures and decision trees that practitioners and managers will find useful. Well illustrated with conceptual diagrams and flow charts, the book includes case study examples from both temperate and tropical marine environments.

Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) identifies the major issues at stake in the BBNJ negotiations and examines the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. This timely volume offers cutting edge contributions from leading global experts on access and benefit sharing of marine genetic resources; environmental impact assessments; capacity building and transfer of technology as well as Arctic environmental issues including security and shipping. Cross-cutting themes including the potential impact on existing legal frameworks and instruments are also explored.

'Marine Conservation Biology' brings together leading experts from around the world to apply the lessons and thinking of conservation biology to marine issues. The contributors cover what is threatening marine biodiversity and what humans can do to recover the biological integrity of the world's oceans.

The diversity of marine life is being affected dramatically by fishery operations, chemical pollution and eutrophication, alteration of physical habitat, exotic species invasion, and effects of other human activities. Effective solutions will require an expanded understanding of the patterns and processes that control the diversity of life in the sea. Understanding Marine Biodiversity outlines the current state of our knowledge, and propose research agenda on marine biological diversity. This agenda represents a fundamental change in studying the oceanâ€"emphasizing regional research across a range of space and time scales, enhancing the interface between taxonomy and ecology, and linking oceanographic and ecological approaches. Highlighted with examples and brief case studies, this volume illustrates the depth and breadth of undescribed marine biodiversity, explores critical environmental issues, advocates the use of regionally defined model systems, and identifies a series of key biodiversity research questions. The authors examine the utility of various research approachesâ€"theory and modeling, retrospective analysis, integration of biotic and oceanographic surveysâ€"and review recent advances in molecular genetics, instrumentation, and sampling techniques applicable to the research agenda. Throughout the book the critical role of taxonomy is emphasized. Informative to the scientist and accessible to the policymaker, Understanding Marine Biodiversity will be of specific interest to marine biologists, ecologists, oceanographers, and research administrators, and to government agencies responsible for utilizing, managing, and protecting the oceans.

Life began in the sea, and even today most of the deep diversity of the planet is marine. This is often forgotten, especially in tropical countries like Costa Rica, renowned for their rain forests and the multitude of life forms found therein. Thus this book focusing on marine diversity of Costa Rica is particularly welcome. How many marine species are there in Costa Rica? The authors report a total of 6,777 species, or 3. 5% of the world’s total. Yet the vast majority of marine species have yet to be formally described. Recent estimates of the numbers of species on coral reefs range from 1–9 million, so that the true number of marine species in Costa Rica is certainly far higher. In some groups the numbers are likely to be vastly higher because to date they have been so little studied. Only one species of nematode is reported, despite the fact that it has been said that nematodes are the most diverse of all marine groups. In better studied groups such as mollusks and crustaceans, reported numbers are in the thousands, but even in these groups many species remain to be described. Indeed the task of describing marine species is daunting – if there really are about 9 million marine species and Costa Rica has 3. 5% of them, then the total number would be over 300,000. Clearly, so much remains to be done that new approaches are needed. Genetic methods have en- mous promise in this regard.

The first edition of The Living Ocean, published in 1991 by Island Press in association with Friends of the Earth, was widely praised by scientists, policymakers, instructors, and general readers as a useful and accessible introduction to the science and policy of biological diversity in marine environments. Since that time, much new research has been conducted and numerous national and international policy initiatives have been undertaken.With 1998 designated by the United Nations as the International Year of the Ocean, this new, revised and expanded, edition is a welcome and much-needed addition to the literature.This edition brings the volume up-to-date, and re-establishes it as an essential primer for anyone wishing to gain an understanding of marine biodiversity and how it can be protected. It provides an overview of basic concepts and principles and a review of relevant policy issues and existing instruments. The author:defines biological diversity and discusses the importance of threats to marine biodiversity reviews the current status of scientific knowledge describes the major coastal and oceanic ecosystem types and addresses the major threats in each presents a general discussion of the ways in which government and the public can protect marine biological diversity provides specific examples of national and international policies, legal instruments, programs, and institutions addresses how social, economic, political, and ethical considerations affect decisions to conserve marine biological diversity considers the involvement of citizens in developing ocean policy The book also includes a useful glossary that provides information about basic biological concepts, and a comprehensive bibliography. Throughout, the author emphasizes the relationship of human societies and governments to the living ocean, and the need to implement programs that will protect ecosystems and species.

Biodiversity loss in terrestrial environments associated with human activities has been appreciated as a major issue for some years now. What is less well documented is the effect of such activities, including climate change, on marine biodiversity. This pioneering book is the first to address this important but neglected topic, which is likely to be the key challenge for marine scientists in the near future. Using a multidisciplinary and a holistic approach, the book reveals how climatic variability controls biodiversity at time scales ranging from synoptic meteorological events to millions of years and at spatial scales ranging from local sites to the whole ocean. It shows how global change, including anthropogenic climate change, ocean acidification and more direct human influences such as exploitation, pollution and eutrophication may alter biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and regulating and provisioning services. The author proposes a theory termed the 'macroecological theory on the arrangement of life', which explains how biodiversity is organized and how it responds to climatic variability and anthropogenic climate change. The book concludes with recommendations for further research and theoretical development to identify oceanic areas in need of observation and gaps in current scientific knowledge. Many references and comparisons with the terrestrial realm are included in all chapters to better understand the universality of the relationships between biodiversity, climate and the environment. The book will serve as a textbook for all students and researchers of marine science and environmental change, but will also be accessible to the more general reader.