Frances Dipper - Elements of Marine Ecology

1. Tables in Chapter 1
2. Tables in Chapter 2
3. Tables in Chapter 3
4. Tables in Chapter 4
5. Tables in Chapter 6
6. Tables in Chapter 7
7. Tables in Chapter 8
8. Tables in Chapter 9

1. Figures in Chapter 1
2. Figures in Chapter 2
3. Figures in Chapter 3
4. Figures in Chapter 4
5. Figures in Chapter 5
6. Figures in Chapter 6
7. Figures in Chapter 7
8. Figures in Chapter 8
9. Figures in Chapter 9

Fifth Edition

Frances Dipper

Independent Marine Biologist, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier

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First published 1968

Reprinted 1970

Second edition 1972

Reprinted 1975, 1977, 1978

Third edition 1981

Reprinted 1983, 1988, 1992

Fourth edition 1998

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This fifth edition has been completely updated, rearranged and largely rewritten to reflect the current state of our knowledge, with revised figures and the addition of many colour photographs. A considerable amount of new and additional materials has been integrated into each chapter, and a new chapter on nekton has been added. The book provides the materials essential to any student undertaking courses or modules in marine ecology, marine biology and related topics. It also provides information, ideas, reading lists and references from which particular topics can be pursued in greater detail and additional materials sought.

Were he with us today, I hope that Ronald Tait, who wrote the first edition (1968) and for whom I updated the third edition into a fourth expanded edition, would feel that his original aim of presenting marine ecology as a coherent science has been retained. This science of marine ecology must now firmly take into account human impacts on the planet and the ocean. Impacts continue to increase both in type and intensity and have become a part of marine ecology and of the processes that drive marine ecosystems and therefore must also be a part of the study of marine ecology.

Frances Dipper would like to thank the following friends, colleagues and organisations for providing photographs and other illustrative materials for this book: Peter Barfield, Sarah Bowen, Fiona Crouch, Marc Dando, David Fenwick, Keith Hiscock, Alison Hitchens, David John, Daniel Jones, Robert Irving, Paula Lightfoot, MBA, MBARI, NASA, Paul Naylor, NOAA, NOC, Rob Spray, Elizabeth Wood and Dawn Watson. Photographs were also sourced from Shutterstock, Alamy and Wikipedia. All photographs are credited in the figure captions. Uncredited photographs are the authors. She would also like to thank Professor Stephen Hawkins for his encouragement in undertaking this project and for helpful suggestions on content and organisation.

Just over 70% of our planet is covered by water, and with the exception of a tiny 3% or so of freshwater (in all its forms including ice), this is all saltwater ocean. While the seabed provides a hugely varied and expansive place to live, it is the immense volume of water above it that provides most of the living space on Earth. Although we will never know for certain the exact environment (or environments) where life first began, most evidence points to somewhere in a salt-rich ocean. Whether this was in warm shallow seashore pools or, as some scientists now postulate, around deep-sea hydrothermal vents, the ocean is certainly where it flourished and diversified before finally emerging onto land.

Many different elements are involved in the study of marine ecology, which can be defined as the study of relationships between organisms, their surroundings and each other. At the base of it all are marine species. However, to gain anything like a full understanding of marine species, it is also necessary to look at them within the context of the habitats and whole ecosystem in which they live. An analogy might be made to the very commonwealth game of cricket. It would be impossible to understand the game without knowing the way the cricket ground is laid out and the rules by which the individuals play. An introductory explanation of what an ecosystem is and the elements within it is given here to start readers along the route to an understanding of marine ecology.

Ecosystem: An ecosystem is the all-encompassing term that brings together all the elements of the system, both living and nonliving, along with the flow of energy through the system. The activities which comprise species lives are dependent upon and closely controlled by their external circumstances, by the physical and chemical conditions in which they live and the populations of other organisms with which they interact. In turn the activities of organisms have effects on their surroundings, altering them in various ways. Organisms, therefore, exist only as parts of a complex entity made up of interacting inorganic and biotic elements, to which we apply the term ecosystem.