Here is a benchmark study of one significant stretch of the Pacific Ocean, the Southern California Bight. Extending from Point Conception to the Mexican border and out to the 200-mile limit, these waters have never before been investigated in such detail, from so many points of view, by such an eminent group of scientists. The twenty-five expert contributors summarize everything known about the physical, chemical, geological, and biological characteristics of the area in individual chapters; the volume concludes with a synthesis of the information presented. In addition, chapters are devoted to the influence of humans on the marine environment and to the various laws and governmental agencies concerned with protecting it. Because Southern California is so heavily populated and because the ocean is a major recreational area for its people, the information in this unique volume will be invaluable for the region's planners and decisionmakers as well as for all those who study the globe's marine resources and ecology.

This book represents an outgrowth of an interdisciplinary session held at the Seventh International Estuarine Research Federation Conference held at Virginia Beach, Virginia, OCLober 1983. At that meeting, the participants agreed to contribute to and develop a monograph entitled "Tidal Mixing and Plankton Dynamics" by inviting an expanded group of authors to contribute chapters on this theme. The emphasis would be to review and summarize the considerable body of knowledge that has accumulated over the last decade or so on the fundamental role tidal mixing plays in energetic shallow seas and estuaries in stimulating and controlling biological production. We have attempted to provide a mix of contributions, composed of reviews of the state-of-the-art, reports on current research activi ties, summaries of the design and testing of a new generation of innovative instruments for biological and chemical sampling and sorting, and some imaginative ideas for future experiments on stimulated mixing in continental shelf seas. We encouraged the contributors to present critical and thought provoking assessments of current wisdom specifying the sorts of techniques and observational strategies needed to validate the various hypotheses linking physical structure, mixing and circulation to plankton biomass and production. We hope this volume will appeal to incoming research students and established scholars alike. We certainly have enjoyed working with all the authors in compiling this book. We thank the numerous scientists who have served as reviewers, P. Boisvert for typing the manuscripts and W. Bellows for proofreading.