Monitoring changes in the intertidal zone of rocky shores has never been more critical. This sensitive habitat at the interface of land and ocean may well be the marine equivalent of the canary in a coal mine as we advance into an era of global climate change. This handbook describes effective methods and procedures for monitoring the ecological and environmental status of these areas. Written by three collaborating authors with extensive field experience, it provides critical discussions and evaluation of the various sampling techniques and field procedures for studies of intertidal macroinvertebrates, seaweeds, and seagrasses. Rather than prescribing standard protocols or procedures, the authors break down the decision-making process into various elements so investigators can become aware of the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a particular method or approach. Chapters discuss topics such as site selection, field sampling layouts and designs, selection of sampling units, nondestructive and destructive methods of quantifying abundance, and methods for measuring age, growth rates, size, structure, and reproductive condition.

“Intertidal ecologists have been struggling with how to adequately monitor the tremendous diversity and heterogeneity of rocky shores for decades. Finally three of the most experienced and established people in the field have done it. Monitoring Rocky Shores will serve as THE central reference guide for scientists intent on understanding the complexities of intertidal ecology.”—John Pearse, coauthor of Animals Without Backbones “The incredibly high taxic, morphological, ecological, as well as biotic diversity of rocky shores makes them ideal sites for ecological studies; however this same diversity also presents innumerable challenges. Monitoring Rocky Shores is long overdue in helping investigators tackle these innumerable challenges. This book provides a broad and important introduction to the habitat, the animals, the methods, and the analyses required constructing informed hypotheses and scenarios for life on rocky shores.”—David R. Lindberg, Museum of Paleontology, co-editor of Phylogeny and Evolution of the Mollusca

This is an introduction to the study of marine rocky shores in the temperate zone. It is designed to encourage students and others to couple enormous intellectual rewards with the pleasure of working in some of the last easily accessible but relatively unspoilt places, and can be used as abasis for field courses, project work, or for lectures. Centred in North-West Europe, but using examples from all over the world, the book begins by considering the physical factors that characterize the habitat - primarily tides and waves - and goes on to assess how they influence the organisms that live within it. It describes how the behaviour andphysiology of individuals belonging to the major groups - algae, grazers, suspension feeders, and predators - are affected by their habitat, how their communities are structured, and discusses theories of community organization. For field courses, it suggests experiments and observations that can becarried out on the shore or in nearby laboratories. Finally, problems of pollution and conservation are considered in the context of their effects upon biodiversity.

A comprehensive account of how abiotic and biotic interactions shape patterns of coastal marine biodiversity and ecosystem processes globally.

The seashore has long been the subject of fascination and study - the Ancient Greek scholar Aristotle made observations and wrote about Mediterranean sea urchins. The considerable knowledge of what to eat and where it could be found has been passed down since prehistoric times by oral tradition in many societies - in Britain it is still unwise to eat shellfish in months without an 'r' in them. Over the last three hundred years or so we have seen the formalization of science and this of course has touched intertidal ecology. Linnaeus classified specimens collected from the seashore and many common species (Patella vulgata L. , Mytilus edulis L. , Littorina littorea (L. )) bear his imprint because he formally described, named and catalogued them. Early natural historians described zonation patterns in the first part of the 19th century (Audouin and Milne-Edwards, 1832), and the Victorians became avid admirers and collectors of shore animals and plants with the advent of the new fashion of seaside holidays (Gosse, 1856; Kingsley, 1856). As science became professionalized towards the end of the century, marine biologists took advantage of low tides to gain easy access to marine life for taxonomic work and classical studies of functional morphology. The first serious studies of the ecology of the shore were made at this time (e. g.