The comprehensive coverage this book offers encompasses the properties of seawater which affect life in the
ocean, classification of marine environments and organisms, phytoplankton and zooplankton, marine food webs, larger
marine animals (marine mammals, seabirds and fish), life on the seafloor, and the way in which humans affect marine
ecosystems. The second edition has been thoroughly updated, including much data available for the first time in
a book at this level. There is also a new chapter on human impacts - from harvesting vast amounts of fish, pollution,
and deliberately or accidentally transferring marine organisms to new environments. This book complements the Open
University Oceanography Series, also published by Butterworth-Heinemann, and is a set text for the Open University
third level course, S330.