Home

About Us

Help

Jobs

News

Site Index

OUP Worldwide

My Account

My Wish List

View Basket

Email this to a Friend

Printer-Friendly View

Basket: 0 items | £0.00

View Larger

Resources

Visit the Higher Education Gateway

Inspection Copy requests: Contact your local Rep

Sample Material (pdf)

Related Categories

Marine & Estuarine Biology

The Biology of the Deep Ocean

Peter Herring

Biology of Habitats Series

324 pages | numerous line drawings and halftones | 234x156mm

978-0-19-854956-7 | Hardback | 20 December 2001

Also available as: Paperback

Price: £75.00

This item is printed to order and supplied on a firm sale basis. Items which are printed to order are normally despatched and charged within 5-10 days.

Add to Wish List

Describes the largest ecosystem on the planet
Deals with the hidden 'aliens' of Earth's inner space
Includes all oceanic organisms, from viruses to whales
Highlights the extraordinary survival strategies of the deep-sea fauna
Founded on the author's unique deep-sea experience in all the world's oceans, based on more than 60 research cruises and submersible dives

The deep ocean environment is the most extensive on our planet. Its denizens are normally unseen but whenever they are exposed to view they are regarded as bizarre aliens from a different world. The Biology of the Deep Ocean takes a close look at this apparently hostile world and explains how its inhabitants are exquisitely adapted to survive and flourish within it.

The book begins with an analysis of how conditions in the oceanic environment differ from those in the familiar terrestrial world and then describes the techniques (and ingenuity) required to reveal the populations inhabiting the colossal volume of the deep oceans. A section on primary production emphasizes how almost all deep-sea life depends ultimately on the phytoplankton at the surface and the export flux to deeper water. The ultimate beneficiaries of this export, the populations on the deep-sea floor, are then discussed, together with the unique features of life fuelled by chemosynthesis at hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. The horizontal and vertical distribution patterns of deep-sea animals, and their changes in time and space, are controlled by physical, biological and historical factors. The rapid reduction of biomass with depth puts a high priority on efficient prey capture and energy conservation. Chapters on energy efficiency, mechanoreception, chemoreception and vision reveal the extraordinary adaptations necessary for success. Accounts of the effector systems involved in colour, camouflage and bioluminescence heighten the concept of a different world. A chapter on animal life styles emphasizes the links between size, sex, and seasonality, visible in the contrasting benefits of gigantism, dwarf males and the ability to respond to a periodic influx of food from the surface. The final chapter and appendix deal with the unique and exciting variety of life in the deep ocean, formalized as biodiversity. Its different expression on the sea floor and in midwater invites both comparisons with the rain forest and concerns about its fragility, taking the reader back to the emphasis in the first chapter on how little we still know about this critical habitat.
The Biology of the Deep Ocean complements the two companion volumes on the biology of littoral and estuarine habitats and is designed to be accessible to all marine scientists, student and professional.

Readership: Undergraduate and graduate students of marine biology; lecturers in these subjects

Recently Viewed

Cell Adhesion

Mary C Beckerle

£65.00 £16.25

Please note, this offer price only applies to individual customers when ordering direct from Oxford University Press, while stock lasts. No further discounts will apply. If you are a bookseller, please contact your OUP sales representative.

A maiden most gentle

Andrew Carter

SATB vocal score

£1.60

Riemannian Holonomy Groups and Calibrated Geometry

Dominic D. Joyce

£39.00

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.

| More

The Biology of the Deep Ocean

Share