The three main missions of any organism--growing, reproducing, and surviving--depend on encounters with food and mates, and on avoiding encounters with predators. Through natural selection, the behavior and ecology of plankton organisms have evolved to optimize these tasks. This book offers a mechanistic approach to the study of ocean ecology by exploring biological interactions in plankton at the individual level. The book focuses on encounter mechanisms, since the pace of life in the ocean intimately relates to the rate at which encounters happen. Thomas Kiørboe examines the life and interactions of plankton organisms with the larger aim of understanding marine pelagic food webs. He looks at plankton ecology and behavior in the context of the organisms' immediate physical and chemical habitats. He shows that the nutrient uptake, feeding rates, motility patterns, signal transmissions, and perception of plankton are all constrained by nonintuitive interactions between organism biology and small-scale physical and chemical characteristics of the three-dimensional fluid environment. Most of the book's chapters consist of a theoretical introduction followed by examples of how the theory might be applied to real-world problems. In the final chapters, mechanistic insights of individual-level processes help to describe broader population dynamics and pelagic food web structure and function.

The importance of copepods in aquaculture has long been recognized, especially in the larval rearing of many marine fishes. This timely publication provides a single source of information on copepod biology, culture methods and practical use in marine finfish hatcheries. Originating out of a workshop held on copepods by the Oceanic Institute in Hawaii, this proceedings includes review articles and papers presented by leading international experts in copepod biology and aquaculture. It is a seminal work that integrates the most up-to-date information on selecting copepod species, effects of algal species on reproduction, ways to increase production, the nutritional value of copepods, behavioral characteristics of copepods, potential use of copepod nauplii and eggs, and their application to larval rearing of various marine finfish species.

Abetted by recent technological advances in scanning and transmission electron microscopy, as well as new preparative methods, these contributions examine crustacean anatomy, demonstrating (or at least inferring) the functions of morphological features. In addition to feeding and grooming, they also

Inducible defenses--those often dramatic phenotypic shifts in prey activated by biological agents ranging from predators to pathogens--are widespread in the natural world. Yet research on the inducible defenses used by vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants in terrestrial, marine, and freshwater habitats has largely developed along independent lines. Tollrian and Harvell bring together leading researchers from all fields to review common themes and explore emerging ideas. Contributors examine organisms as different as unicellular algae and higher vertebrates, and consider defenses ranging from immune systems to protective changes in morphology, behavior, chemistry, and life history.

With a Selection of Papers on Calanus finmarchicus published since 1953