Description
Frigid, dark, and energy-deprived, the deep sea was long considered hostile to life. However, new sampling technologies and intense international research efforts in recent decades have revealed a remarkably rich fauna and an astonishing variety of novel habitats. These recent discoveries have changed the way we look at global biodiversity. In Deep-Sea Biodiversity, Michael Rex and Ron Etter present the first synthesis of patterns and causes of biodiversity in organisms that dwell in the vast sediment ecosystem that blankets the ocean floor. They provide the most comprehensive analysis to date of geographic variation in benthic animal abundance and biomass. The authors document geographic patterns of deep-sea species diversity and integrate potential ecological causes across scales of time and space. They also review the most recent molecular population genetic evidence to describe how and where evolutionary processes have generated the unique deep-sea fauna. Deep-Sea Biodiversity offers a new understanding of marine biodiversity that will be of general interest to ecologists and is crucial to responsible exploitation of natural resources at the deep-sea floor.
Rex and Etter offer a truly novel synthesis of an exciting and dynamic subject. They have done an exceptional job of compiling new data that captures the history, idea development, and current conceptual understanding of the abundance and diversity of the deep sea. -- Lisa A. Levin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Deep-sea ecology is experiencing an international resurgence. This book should become a landmark. -- Robert S. Carney, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University Species diversity is considered briefly in the few books that address deep-sea biology but there is nothing to compare with the depth, insight and clarity of Deep-Sea Biodiversity. This book fills an important niche in deep-sea ecology. -- Paul A. Tyler, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton Mauthor>Rex and Etter's great achievement will be an essential volume on any marine scientist's bookshelf. It relates the great discovery of biodiversity patterns in the deep-sea floor to the physical and biological dynamics of the global ocean and its regions, and provides an important evolutionary and geological history perspective on the assembly of present day patterns of biodiversity. -- Jeffrey Levinton, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University
About the Author
Michael A. Rex is Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Research Associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Ron J. Etter is Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Reviews
Rex and Etter offer a truly novel synthesis of an exciting and dynamic subject. They have done an exceptional job of compiling new data that captures the history, idea development, and current conceptual understanding of the abundance and diversity of the deep sea. -- Lisa A. Levin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Deep-sea ecology is experiencing an international resurgence. This book should become a landmark. -- Robert S. Carney, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University
Species diversity is considered briefly in the few books that address deep-sea biology but there is nothing to compare with the depth, insight and clarity of Deep-Sea Biodiversity. This book fills an important niche in deep-sea ecology. -- Paul A. Tyler, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Rex and Etter's great achievement will be an essential volume on any marine scientist's bookshelf. It relates the great discovery of biodiversity patterns in the deep-sea floor to the physical and biological dynamics of the global ocean and its regions, and provides an important evolutionary and geological history perspective on the assembly of present day patterns of biodiversity. -- Jeffrey Levinton, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University
Book Information
ISBN 9780674036079
Author Michael A. Rex
Format Hardback
Page Count 368
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press
Rex and Etter offer a truly novel synthesis of an exciting and dynamic subject. They have done an exceptional job of compiling new data that captures the history, idea development, and current conceptual understanding of the abundance and diversity of the deep sea. -- Lisa A. Levin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Deep-sea ecology is experiencing an international resurgence. This book should become a landmark. -- Robert S. Carney, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University Species diversity is considered briefly in the few books that address deep-sea biology but there is nothing to compare with the depth, insight and clarity of Deep-Sea Biodiversity. This book fills an important niche in deep-sea ecology. -- Paul A. Tyler, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton Mauthor>Rex and Etter's great achievement will be an essential volume on any marine scientist's bookshelf. It relates the great discovery of biodiversity patterns in the deep-sea floor to the physical and biological dynamics of the global ocean and its regions, and provides an important evolutionary and geological history perspective on the assembly of present day patterns of biodiversity. -- Jeffrey Levinton, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University
About the Author
Michael A. Rex is Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Research Associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Ron J. Etter is Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Reviews
Rex and Etter offer a truly novel synthesis of an exciting and dynamic subject. They have done an exceptional job of compiling new data that captures the history, idea development, and current conceptual understanding of the abundance and diversity of the deep sea. -- Lisa A. Levin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Deep-sea ecology is experiencing an international resurgence. This book should become a landmark. -- Robert S. Carney, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University
Species diversity is considered briefly in the few books that address deep-sea biology but there is nothing to compare with the depth, insight and clarity of Deep-Sea Biodiversity. This book fills an important niche in deep-sea ecology. -- Paul A. Tyler, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Rex and Etter's great achievement will be an essential volume on any marine scientist's bookshelf. It relates the great discovery of biodiversity patterns in the deep-sea floor to the physical and biological dynamics of the global ocean and its regions, and provides an important evolutionary and geological history perspective on the assembly of present day patterns of biodiversity. -- Jeffrey Levinton, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University
Book Information
ISBN 9780674036079
Author Michael A. Rex
Format Hardback
Page Count 368
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press
