TY - BOOK AU - Little,Colin TI - The biology of soft shores and estuaries SN - 0198504276 U1 - 577.51 21 PY - 2000/// CY - Oxford, New York PB - Oxford University Press KW - Coastal ecology KW - Seashore biology KW - Estuarine biology KW - Estuarine ecology N1 - Includes bibliographical references (p. [222]-236) and index; Ch. 1. Introduction: organisms, sediments, and water movements -- Ch. 2. The world of particles: a variety of habitats -- Ch. 3. The coarse extreme: life on sandy beaches -- Ch. 4. A fine option: life on mudflats and in seagrass beds -- Ch. 5. Salt marshes and mangrove swamps -- Ch. 6. Life at the bottom: sublittoral sediments and community structure -- Ch. 7. Estuarine habitats and coastal lagoons -- Ch. 8. The estuarine benthos and its distribution -- Ch. 9. Life in the estuarine water column -- Ch. 10. Estuarine ecosystems -- Ch. 11. Uses and abuses: human impacts and counter-measures --Further reading -- References -- Glossary -- Appendix: A brief classification of selected organisms -- Index N2 - This book focuses on marine and estuarine soft sediments as complex and essential habitats for an astonishing variety of animals and plants whose lifestyles are intimately bound up with sediment structure. It discusses sediments as habitats first, then takes in turn the ecosystems found on sandy shores, mudflats and seagrass beds, salt marshes and mangrove swamps, and life below the tidemarks. Adaptations of the organisms are fully described, and each chapter ends with a section on techniques. Later chapters discuss estuarine and lagoonal habitats, both of which contain primarily soft sediments, but add further comlicating characteristics to those found in the sea. A discussion of estuarine food webs emphasizes the ways in which organisms interact. The book ends with a discussion of the ways in which marine and estuarine soft sediments have been abused by man, and some of the opportunities that have been taken to counteract these abuses UR - http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0611/00709178-d.html UR - http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0611/00709178-t.html ER -