Suppose one were given the task of mapping the general circulation in an unfamiliar ocean. The ocean, like our own, is subdivided into basins and marginal seas interconnected by sea straits. Assuming a limited budget for this undertaking, one would do well to choose the straits as observational starting points. To begin with, the currents flowing from one basin to the next, over possibly wide and time-varying paths, are confined to narrow and stable routes within the straits. Mass, heat and chemical budgets for individual basins can be formulated in terms of the fluxes measured across the straits using a relatively small number of instruments. The confinement of the flow by a strait can also give rise to profound dynamical conse quences including choking or hydraulic control, a process similar to that by which a dam regulates the flow from a reservoir. The funneling geometry can lead to enhanced tidal modulation and increased velocities, giving rise to local instabilities, mixing, internal bores, jumps, and other striking hydraulic and fine scale phenomena. In short, sea straits repre sent choke points which are observationally and dynamically strategic and which contain a full range of fascinating physical processes.

Synthesis of results of oceanographic explorations conducted in the region extending from the Northern Bering Sea to the southern Chukchi Sea between 1922 and 1973.

Urbanization has reached unprecedented levels in the estuarine and coastal zone, particularly in the Asia Pacific region where mega-cities and mega-harbours are still growing. This book demonstrates the different solutions and pitfalls, successes and failures in a large number of ports and harbours in the Asia Pacific Region, and shows how science can provide ecologically sustainable solutions that apply wherever the growth of mega-harbours occurs.

The Baltic Sea oceanographic research community is wide and the research history is over 100 years old. Nevertheless, there is still no single, coherent book on the physical oceanography of the Baltic Sea as a whole. There is a strong need for such a book, coming from working oceanographers as well as the university teaching programmes in advanced undergraduate to graduate levels. In the regional conference series in physical oceanography (Baltic Sea Science Conference, Baltic Sea Oceanographers' conference, Baltex-conferences) about 500 scientists take part regularly. Even more scientists work in the fields of marine biology, chemistry and the environment, and they need information on the physics of the Baltic Sea as well. There are nine countries bordering on the Baltic Sea and five more in the runoff area. The Baltic Sea as a source of fish, means of transportation and leisure activities is highly important to the regional society. In the runoff area there are a total of 85 million people. Research and protection strategies need to be developed, as the Baltic Sea is probably the most polluted sea in the world. Since the Baltic Sea has become an inner sea of the EU (apart from small shore parts of Russia in Petersburg and Kaliningrad), it is anticipated that the importance of the region will consequently rise. The book will arouse interest among students, scientists and decision makers involved with the Baltic problems. It will also give important background information for those working with biogeochemical processes in the Baltic Sea, because the physical forcing for those processes is of vital importance.

One of the most crucial but still very poorly understood topics of oceanographic science is the role of ocean processes in contributing to the dynamics of climate and global change. This book presents a series of high level lectures on the major categories of ocean/atmosphere processes. Three of these major issues are the focus of the lectures: (1) air--sea interaction processes; (2) water mass formation, dispersion and mixing; (3) general circulation, with specific emphasis on the thermohaline component. Global examples in the world ocean are provided and discussed in the lectures. In parallel, the Mediterranean Sea is a laboratory basin in providing analogues of the above global processes relevant to climate dynamics. They include the Mediterranean thermohaline circulation with its own `conveyor belt'; intermediate and deep water mass formation and transformations, dispersion and mixing. No other book in the field provides a review of fundamental lectures on these processes, coupled with global examples and their Mediterranean analogues.