An introduction to coastal ecology.

Abstract

This account of the ecology of both the coast itself (the land next to the sea including the intertidal zone) and adjacent coastal waters uses a habitat-organismal approach, with sections on: the physical nature of the coastal environment, the neritic province, rocky coasts, sediments, brackish water, coral reefs, saltmarshes, mangroves, sand dunes, shingle, grassland, heath, coastal woods, cliffs, swamps, mires and the ice edge. There are also chapters on inshore marine animals and coastal birds, with concluding examination of coastal management. There is emphasis on ecological processes, eg with consideration of productivity and trophic interrelationships, as well as on description of environment and environmental response by biota. Examples range from polar through temperate to tropical. -P.J.Jarvis