Ecology of Marine Sediments

• Concise, readable introduction to benthic ecology
• Accessible text; clear and simple illustrations with learning objectives for students
• Global examples encourage international appeal
• Explores the relationship between community structure and function
• New emphasis on pollution, climate change, conservation and management

New to this edition

• Technology has changed enormously in the past 20 years and this has changed many aspects covered, from sampling to the modelling of ecosystems.

Readership: The book is targeted primarily at advanced undergraduate and graduate students (particularly taught masters) who have had a general ecology course, but no further training in benthic ecology. It will also be useful to those professional researchers and consultants in marine ecology and environmental science that seek a compact but comprehensive introduction to benthic ecology.

John S. Gray, Professor of Marine Biology, University of Oslo, Norway (Deceased 2007), and Michael Elliott, The University of Hull, UK

"This volume will be a useful and quick introduction for graduate students and advanced undergraduates of the analysis of benthic sampling for use in monitoring programs and integrative studies that seek to extract general features of communities from large sampling schemes." - The Quarterly Review of Biology

Introduction
1: Sampling sediments
2: The sediment and related environmental factors
3: Describing assemblages of sediment-living organisms
4: Diversity
5: Functional diversity of benthic assemblages
6: Spatial variations in sediment systems
7: Temporal variations in benthic assemblages
8: Human impacts on soft sediment systems - trawling and fisheries
9: Human impacts on soft sediment systems - pollution
10: The soft-sediment benthos in the ecosystem
11: The benthos in the management of marine sediments
Concluding remarks