An estuary refers to the portion of a river that meets the sea. This book describes and discusses the processes that create and shape the physical and biological environments on estuarine shorelines. It identifies the current state of knowledge and explores trends in research that may be applied to the solution of scientific and management problems.

The purpose of this book is to supply the background needed to structure research on estuarine beach resources and provide the basis for a program for informed management. The book is a synthesis of data on physical, biological, and human processes.

Designed to be accessible to readers at all levels, this text discusses organisms and their adaptations on sandy shores, mudflats, seagrass beds, salt marshes, mangrove swamps and below the tide marks. It emphasises the special nature of estuaries.

There is no up-to-date book on estuarine biology, and nothing at all that deals with marine soft shores as well as estuarine ones. This latest addition to the Biology of Habitats series corrects this omission and will complement The biology of rocky shores, by the same author. This bookfocuses 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 complicating 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 opportunitiesthat have been taken to counteract these abuses.

This volume in the Living with the Shore series provides practical and specific information on the status of the nation's coast and useful guidelines that enable residents, visitors, and investors to live with and enjoy the shore without costly and futile struggles against the forces of nature.

This new Encyclopedia of Coastal Science stands as the latest authoritative source in the field of coastal studies, making it the standard reference work for specialists and the interested lay person. Unique in its interdisciplinary approach. This Encyclopedia features contributions by 245 well-known international specialists in their respective fields and is abundantly illustrated with line-drawings and photographs. Not only does this volume offer an extensive number of entries, it also includes various appendices, an illustrated glossary of coastal morphology and extensive bibliographic listings.

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.