Preface
H
ow do pelagic ecosystems respond to regional oceanography? Why does each
region have a characteristic pelagic ecosystem, differing from all others in the
kind and relative abundance of its biota? Why does the production and consumption of organic matter not proceed similarly everywhere in the ocean? These were
some of the questions discussed in the first edition of this book, but because progress
in biological oceanography has been so rapid, a revision of that discussion is already
appropriate.
The first edition dealt only with the planktonic ecosystem and ignored the strong
coupling between benthic and pelagic processes that occurs over continental shelves, and
between plankton and larger pelagic organisms. Here, I have tried to remedy both these
omissions, although the main emphasis remains on the pelagic realm so that abyssal
and deep-water organisms are not discussed, because although they respond surprisingly
promptly to intermittent sedimentation of organic material from the surface, several
kilometers above them, this is a one-way street. Then, the littoral zone is sufficiently
isolated ecologically from the oceanic and shelf ecosystems that it is perhaps better
discussed separately, so, as in the first edition, you will find reference to estuaries, coastal
lagoons, the sublittoral fringe, or coral reefs only where it is essential to understand what
happens offshore.
Setting spatial bounds to ecosystems is an essential step toward their quantitative
study, and this is best done according to a natural logic, rather than arbitrarily. Partition,
therefore, is central to the argument of this book and is set by reference to features
of the physical circulation of the oceans rather than to the distribution of individual
species. This approach is intended to suggest that regional oceanographic processes are
paramount in molding the characteristics of regional ecosystems. Once again, emphasis in
the second half of the book is placed on providing a simple account of the characteristic
ecology of each region of the oceans, and of the physical factors that shape it.
So, in the same spirit that Tomczak and Godfrey (1994) published their innovative
text on regional oceanography for physicists who lacked a modern geography of the
oceans, this book is offered as a regional oceanography for ecologists. There is a key
phrase in Tomczak and Godfrey’s preface: “We have been surprised to learn how much
of the ocean’s behavior as a component of climate can be understood by combining
an understanding of simple physics with knowledge of the ocean’s geographical features.”
I have been equally surprised to find how far the distribution of characteristic marine
ecosystems is predictable from a few ecological principles, a simple understanding of
regional oceanography, and an elementary “knowledge of the ocean’s geographical features.” Central to my argument is how ecological processes in the ocean are forced by
the geography of the continents to depart from the ideal state that would be observed on
a world entirely without land.
One of the problems of writing about marine ecosystems, or of proposing a series of
formulations for their structure and dynamics, is the rapidity with which our knowledge
has evolved in recent years. In the Preface to the first edition of this book, I noted
that during the previous decade there had been a major cognitive shift from a simple
xi
H
ow do pelagic ecosystems respond to regional oceanography? Why does each
region have a characteristic pelagic ecosystem, differing from all others in the
kind and relative abundance of its biota? Why does the production and consumption of organic matter not proceed similarly everywhere in the ocean? These were
some of the questions discussed in the first edition of this book, but because progress
in biological oceanography has been so rapid, a revision of that discussion is already
appropriate.
The first edition dealt only with the planktonic ecosystem and ignored the strong
coupling between benthic and pelagic processes that occurs over continental shelves, and
between plankton and larger pelagic organisms. Here, I have tried to remedy both these
omissions, although the main emphasis remains on the pelagic realm so that abyssal
and deep-water organisms are not discussed, because although they respond surprisingly
promptly to intermittent sedimentation of organic material from the surface, several
kilometers above them, this is a one-way street. Then, the littoral zone is sufficiently
isolated ecologically from the oceanic and shelf ecosystems that it is perhaps better
discussed separately, so, as in the first edition, you will find reference to estuaries, coastal
lagoons, the sublittoral fringe, or coral reefs only where it is essential to understand what
happens offshore.
Setting spatial bounds to ecosystems is an essential step toward their quantitative
study, and this is best done according to a natural logic, rather than arbitrarily. Partition,
therefore, is central to the argument of this book and is set by reference to features
of the physical circulation of the oceans rather than to the distribution of individual
species. This approach is intended to suggest that regional oceanographic processes are
paramount in molding the characteristics of regional ecosystems. Once again, emphasis in
the second half of the book is placed on providing a simple account of the characteristic
ecology of each region of the oceans, and of the physical factors that shape it.
So, in the same spirit that Tomczak and Godfrey (1994) published their innovative
text on regional oceanography for physicists who lacked a modern geography of the
oceans, this book is offered as a regional oceanography for ecologists. There is a key
phrase in Tomczak and Godfrey’s preface: “We have been surprised to learn how much
of the ocean’s behavior as a component of climate can be understood by combining
an understanding of simple physics with knowledge of the ocean’s geographical features.”
I have been equally surprised to find how far the distribution of characteristic marine
ecosystems is predictable from a few ecological principles, a simple understanding of
regional oceanography, and an elementary “knowledge of the ocean’s geographical features.” Central to my argument is how ecological processes in the ocean are forced by
the geography of the continents to depart from the ideal state that would be observed on
a world entirely without land.
One of the problems of writing about marine ecosystems, or of proposing a series of
formulations for their structure and dynamics, is the rapidity with which our knowledge
has evolved in recent years. In the Preface to the first edition of this book, I noted
that during the previous decade there had been a major cognitive shift from a simple
xi