MARINE ECOSYSTEM

complex of living organisms in the ocean environment. Marine waters cover two-thirds of the surface of the Earth. In some places the ocean is deeper than Mount Everest is high; for example, the Mariana Trench and the Tonga Trench in the western part of the Pacific Ocean reach depths in excess of 10,000 metres (32,800 feet). Within this ocean habitat live a wide variety of organisms that have evolved in response to various features of their environs. Additional reading A general description of the ecology of marine life can be found in R.S.K. Barnes and R.N. Hughes, An Introduction to Marine Ecology, 2nd ed. (1988). K.H. Mann and J.R.N. Lazier, Dynamics of Marine Ecosystems: Biological-Physical Interactions in the Ocean (1991), discusses oceanographic phenomena on a variety of spatial scales and their relevance to marine animals. Life in the sea is examined in James L. Sumich, An Introduction to the Biology of Marine Life, 5th ed. (1992); and Richard A. Davis, Jr., Oceanography: An Introduction to the Marine Environment, 2nd ed. (1991), which also treats the nature of different marine environments. John Mauchline and Tokahisa Nemoto (eds.), Marine Biology: Its Accomplishment and Future Prospect (1991), covers such topics as marine physiology and ecosystems, benthos and the impact of pollutants, phytoplankton studies, and polar seas. Richard S. Boardman, Alan H. Cheetham, and Albert J. Rowell (eds.), Fossil Invertebrates (1987), describes fossil invertebrate taxonomy in detail and gives an account of the geologic age of environments in which fossils were found. Richard C. Brusca and Gary J. Brusca, Invertebrates (1990), reviews the taxonomy of both marine and terrestrial invertebrates.Karl F. Lagler et al., Ichthyology, 2nd ed. (1977), is a general text. Harold C. Bold and Michael J. Wynne, Introduction to the Algae: Structure and Reproduction, 2nd ed. (1985), discusses the distribution, reproduction, cultivation, classification, and fossil record of algae. E.B. Sherr and B.F. Sherr, Planktonic Microbes: Tiny Cells at the Base of the Ocean's Food Webs, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 6(2):5054 (1991), reviews the role of microbes in the ocean. John D. Gage and Paul A. Tyler, Deep-Sea Biology: A Natural History of Organisms at the Deep-Sea Floor (1991), looks at organisms of the deep sea and deep-sea vents. M.J. Kingsford, "Biotic and Abiotic Structure in the Pelagic Environment: Importance to Small Fishes, Bulletin of Marine Science, 53(2):393415 (1993), examines such structures as marine snow and drifting algae, among other topics. R. Robin Baker (ed.), Fantastic Journeys: The Marvels of Animal Migration (1991), traces the migrations of aquatic and terrestrial animals. J.A. Gulland (ed.), Fish Population Dynamics: The Implications for Management, 2nd ed. (1988), contains studies on fisheries of the world and why populations vary. Michael John Kingsford