The oceans are shrinking. They're not literally shrinking; warming in the last century has actually expanded the sea enough to threaten low-lying coastal lands that are vul nerable to storm surge. During the same interval, however, events on land have increasingly affected the sea. Since in most ways the Earth is a closed system-a zero-sum planet in today's parlance-as terrestrial influence on the sea expands, the sea's influence on its own processes shrinks. Control of many crucial marine processes no longer resides within the sea. The evidence for this is abundant and, to anyone who is looking, unmis takable. In recent decades scientists have witnessed unprecedented pertur bations and increases in previously uncommon events that demonstrate growing terrestrial influences on the sea. Numerous marine species, from sea urchins to monk seals, have experienced devastating epidemics. The number of harmful algal blooms and jellyfishpopulation explosions is rising An hypoxic "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico off the mouth of the Mississippi Rivernow appears each year and grows to encompass an area as large as NewJersey. Live coral cover in shallow reefs in Florida,Jamaica, the Maldives and many other locations has severely declined. Deepwater reef building corals, once widely distributed, have disappeared throughout much of their ranges. Researchers have discovered high concentrations of persis tent organic pollutants in declining populations of beluga whales and polar bears, both high trophic level predators in marine food webs.
The effects of disturbed ecosystems, from devastating algal blooms to the loss of whale populations, have demonstrated the vulnerability of the oceans'biodiversity. This book provides methods for learning how ocean systems function, how natural and human actions put them in peril, and how we can influence the marine world in order to maintain biodiversity. The difficulties of research in the oceans make computer modeling particularly helpful for marine conservation. The authors demonstrate dynamic modeling through the use of the STELLA modeling program and case studies from marine conservation.
From the reviews:
"The main aim of this book is to explore the ecological complexity in marine systems in the light of setting a new conservation agenda using the power of dynamic modeling via the graphical programming language of STELLA Research software. ? I recommend this book to anyone interested in actively learning about and understanding the new challenges in marine conservation and related issues." (Andrea Belgrano, Ecology, Vol. 83 (9), 2002)
