Kaiser et al: Marine Ecology
General Marine Ecology Web Links
The following web links have been taken from the back of the textbook, and are available here as direct hyperlinks to the sites chosen by the authors.
Antarctic & Arctic: There are many websites dealing with Artic and Antarctic issues. However, by going to the following websites it is possible to follow links to this wealth of information and direct links to the organizations at which Polar research is conducted:
www.antarctica.ac.uk
www.arcus.org/index.html
nsidc.org/index.html
www.scar.org
Antarctic living resources: This is the website of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. www.ccamlr.org/pu/e/gen-intro.htm. It contains information on Southern Ocean ecosystems and efforts to take an ecosystem approach to management of fishery resources there.
Antarctic spring phytoplankton bloom: Part of the NASA Goddard Space Centre’s web site, this provides images of the seasonal development of the spring phytoplankton bloom in the north Atlantic. It also provides information on patchiness and some of the problems this presents for sampling. http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/oceancolor/scifocus/oceanColor/nab.shtml
Aquaculture: The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations compiles and publishes downloadable data and figures on the cultivation of aquatic organisms around the world www.fao.org. To find out more about aquaculture research visit the University of Stirling, Institute of Aquaculture website www.aquaculture.stir.ac.uk.
Benthos: The virtual handbook written by Tom Brey of the Alfred Wegner Institute is a mine of information regarding benthic ecology and production processes: this can be cited as: T. Brey, 2001. Population dynamics in benthic invertebrates. A virtual handbook. Version 01.2.
www.thomas-brey.de/science/virtualhandbook/navlog/index.html Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar
and Marine Research, Germany.
Biodiversity research: DIVERSITAS is a major international programme dealing with biodiversity and ecosystem processes, as well as the links between ecosystem services and society. Many marine and intertidal aspects are included in this programme. www.diversitas-international.org/
Biodiversity and ecosystem function: A major website holding up-to-date literature on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning can be found at www.abdn.ac.uk/ecosystem .
Bioluminescence webpage: www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/~biolum/. A site full of excellent information on the biology of bioluminescence with pictures and video clips.
Carbon cycle: For a general introduction to the marine carbon cycle and the links between chemistry and biology and global climate change see:
earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange1/06_3.shtml.
Climate change: A wealth of information about global climate change can be found at the website of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: www.ipcc.ch/. The North Atlantic Oscillation Website, www.ldeo.columbia.edu/NAO/, provides everything you wanted to know about this climate pattern, describing the underlying mechanism, plotting data and linking to other useful NAO web resources.
Coccolithophorids: For a detailed introduction into the biology, biogeochemistry and geology of this important group of phytoplankton go to:
www.noc.soton.ac.uk/soes/staff/tt/.
Consequences of climate change: A global analysis of the current and predicted effects of climate warming can be found at www.ipcc.ch. This site contains lots of informative reports and illustrations of the predicted effects of global warming.
Conservation: The website of the Society for Conservation Biology conbio.net/scb/ provides up-to-date access to key issues affecting the conservation of all natural resources. The Marine Conservation Society of the United Kingdom www.mcsuk.org and Marine Conservation Biology Institute USA www.mcbi.org provide lots of useful links to other organizations, conservation work opportunities and projects and scientific information on current topical issues.
Coral reefs: For a global perspective on coral reefs see www.reefbase.org and for the International Society for Reef Studies webpage go to: www.fit.edu/isrs.
Deep-Sea: NOAA Vents programme. www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/. A site dedicated to information and research on the geology and biology of hydrothermal vents, with lots of pictures and video clips.
Detecting change in biological communities: For information on detecting change in communities and key considerations in experimental design, see the manual on offer at www.primer-e.com.
Diatoms: A key resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the diatoms is the International Society for Diatom Research, which includes links to many other diatom websites: www.isdr.org.
Estuaries: The website of the Estuarine Research Federation www.erf.org provides information from the world’s largest estuarine science organization, including publications, education and links.
European Network of Excellence: MarBEF is a major network of European marine ecologists that involves over 80 different institutes. This is an excellent starting point for finding out what is going on in Europe and an ideal starting point for finding placement work opportunities or employment www.marbef.org/outreach/index.php
Evolution & Diversity: The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. On more than 3000 world wide web pages, the project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics. www.tolweb.org/tree/.
Exploitation of non-biological resources and renewable energy: For exploitation of non-renewable offshore resources and alternative forms of energy generation such as windfarms see www.thecrownestate.co.uk. This website has links to reports and information regarding the amount of material removed from the seabed and the potential of wind and wave energy to meet future energy requirements.
Flagellates: A website dealing with flagellates that are important in microbial processes in marine systems, and well introduced at www.tolweb.org/notes/?note_id=50.
Fisheries: Up-to-date global fisheries statistics including biological and economic information is available through www.fao.org. Regional information for Europe is available at www.ices.dk where it is possible to download a database of European fisheries statistics. Current research in the U.S. can be accessed through www.noaa.gov/fisheries.html which is a highly informative website with respect to current issues in fisheries and gives access to free to use photographic images. A particularly informative industry-run website can be found at www.fishingnj.org, which gives the fishers’ angle on current issues. A more commercial perspective is given at www.seafish.co.uk where you will also find excellent seafood recipes. Other informative research websites include those of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science www.cefas.co.uk, Fisheries Research Services Aberdeen www.marlab.ac.uk, the Australian Institute of Marine Science www.aims.gov.au. Visit the Worldfish Center website for more information about Asian and African fisheries and projects www.worldfishcenter.org
Habitat listing: The MarLIN database held at the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom gives access to a wealth of information about intertidal and subtidal coastal habitats with links to primary and ‘grey’ literature that is invaluable for learning and research www.marlin.ac.uk.
Harmful algal blooms: Information about algal blooms and harmful algal blooms, red tides and algal toxicity can be found at: www.whoi.edu/redtide/page.do?pid=9257 as well as www.bigelow.org/hab/.
Longterm data sets: There are number of long-term data oceanographic data sets for which biological, chemical and physical data are collected to examine seasonal, interannual and even decadal variations: Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOTS)– hahana.soest.hawaii.edu/hot/hot_jgofs.html Bermuda Atlantic Time-series (BATS) – www.bios.edu/research/bats.html Monterey Bay time-series study – www.mbari.org/bog/projects/centralcal/summary/ts_summary.htm VOS Underway pCO2 Programm – www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/uwpco2/ Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey – http://192.171.163.165/cpr_survey.htm
Mangroves: For mangroves, see www.ncl.ac.uk/tcmweb/tcm/mglinks.htm. A site listing most of the major websites dealing with mangroves and wetlands.
Maps of major marine environments:
www.oceansatlas.org/
www.teachers.ash.org.au/jmresources/marine/environments.html
Marine Institutes: There are a number of websites that give extensive listings of places around the world where marine research takes place:
oceanlink.island.net/career/careerlinks.html
www.sams.ac.uk/
www.marbef.org
Marine systems: GLOBEC www.pml.ac.uk/globec/ is the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) core project responsible for understanding how Global Change will affect the abundance, diversity and productivity of marine populations. This web site gives summaries of recent GLOBEC-related work and access to data.
Meiofauna: The web site of the International Association of Meiobenthologists and all you wanted to know about meiofauna www.meiofauna.org/.
Microbial loop: Background information about the microbial loop and why it is important can be found at: www.bigelow.org/bacteria/.
Satellite imagery: The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Project seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html uses satellite observations to provide quantitative data on global ocean bio-optical properties. This website provides an overview of the project, has some excellent summary maps and even enables you to produce mapped globes from a perspective of your choice.
Seagrasses: WCMC Global Seagrass Database. www.unep-wcmc.org/marine/seagrassatlas/. Based around the world atlas of seagrasses, the website gives some introductory information, but most interestingly has a series of on-line maps showing the distribution of seagrass species around the world.
Seaweeds or macroalgae: Probably the best starting point for any seaweed-related enquiries. www.seaweed.ie. Algaebase www.algaebase.org has details on 57000 algal species, 1500 images, 33000 bibliographic items, 104000 distributional algal records, and a 27000-word online glossary.
Viruses: This website gives a good general overview of aquatic viruses and current research topics in the field, as well as further weblinks: library.thinkquest.org/CR0212089/halo.htm.


