Volume 9 begins with a review by R. H. Millar on the biology of ascidians, soft bodied sedentary animals which in some parts of the world form a dense cover intertidal and in shallow water. The article examines knowledge of their food, growth, breeding and general ecology. Ascidians may form a major component in the population of fouling organisms on ships and harbour structures. E. D. S. Corner and A. G. Davies, and D. H. Cushing respectively cover, in two articles, important aspects of the cycle of nutrient salts in the sea. Corner and Davies consider the part played by plankton in utilizing and recycling nitrogen and phosphorus, while Cushing discusses the effects of upwelling of deep water rich in nutrient salts. The many areas of upwelling in the oceans are reviewed and an assessment made of the resulting production of fish. The subjects of both contributions are vital for an understanding of the quantity of food available to man from the sea. An article by J. A. Alien and M. R. Garrett records the occurrence of the chemical substance taurine in marine invertebrates and the physiological significance of its prevalence. The concluding essay is a comprehensive review by N. Balakrishnan Nair and M. Saraswathy on the biology of those wood-boring teredinid molluscs known as shipworms, which cause extensive damage to wooden structures in the sea. The economic importance of a knowledge of ship-worms is great. This extensively illustrated article brings together for the first time information scattered through a vast literature.

The aim of this new serial publication to help biologists to keep abreast of knowledge in the different lines of research on the biology of marine organisms is continued in volume 4. The present volume features two review articles, on diseases of marine fishes, and a review of the systematics and ecology of oceanic squids.

This volume contains a single contribution by J. Mauchline and the late L. R. Fisher, who, together, provide a well integrated account of the biology of that group of organisms, some of which are commonly known as "krill", which form the major portion of the food of whale-bone whales and of some fish. The Euphausiacea are extremely important members of the planktonic community of the ocean forming, in many areas, the greater part of the total mass of pelagic organisms. This study reviews the taxonomic relations of the eighty-five known species and provides a map of the geographical distribution of each species. Larval development, vertical distribution, food, biochemistry, processes of vision and bioluminescence, anatomy, physiology, growth, predators, and parasites are all discussed in detail. An attempt is made to relate each of these aspects to one another so that the outlook of the book is ecological. The final chapter correlates the information presented in earlier chapters and assesses the importance of euphausids in the food chains and general economy of the oceans. It also contains some thoughts on the possibility of economically harvesting the vast populations present in the Antarctic and in northern seas. The volume should be of interest to the general zoologist as well as to marine biologists and to those concerned with fishery research and the food resources of the sea.

It is the aim of this new serial publication to help biologists to keep abreast of knowledge in the different lines of research on the biology of marine organisms. It is intended that each volume shall contain comprehensive review articles summarizing the general position of our knowledge in individual fields. Attention will be given to recent advances in fisheries biology, the results of the research on which are often published in periodicals perhaps not normally available in the libraries of university biology departments. Volume 2 discusses the artificial propagation of marine fish, blood grouping of marine animals, the status of certain aspects of marine microbiology, and the methods of sampling the Benthos.