Includes CD-ROM
by Eric Wolanski

Features:

• Analyzes the physical and biological processes affecting the Great Barrier Reef
• Includes CD-ROM to visualize the processes affecting the reef and facilitate communication across disciplines on the complex data sets
• Provides evidence for changes in the climate and suggests causes and effects including bleaching and cyclones
• Demonstrates how improved techniques can explain how ecosystems function, and how minor changes can have significant impacts

Demonstrating the relevance and need of science in planning the future of the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs worldwide, Oceanographic Processes of Coral Reefs emphasizes multi-disciplinary processes - physical and biological links - that have emerged as the dominant forces shaping and controlling the ecosystem. The book draws heavily on data from coral reefs in Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

• Explore how the ecosystem responds to both physical and biological stimuli, and how they interact
• Understand processes imperative to create sustainable design strategies
• Comprehend the connectivity of biotopes - land, mangroves, seagrass, and corals
• Discover the relationship between managing marine resources and managing adjoining land use
• Learn how fish behavior and migration patterns control fisheries

Coverage includes:

• Climate and global change
• Coastal oceanography
• Wetlands ecology
• Estuaries
• Marine biology
• Land use management in the tropics
• Fisheries management
• Coral Reef ecological modeling
• Biodiversity and the human impact

Contents

1. Oceanographic Processes of Coral Reefs
2. The Place of Science and Technology in the Wise Management of the Great Barrier Reef
3. Physics-Biology Links in the Great Barrier Reef
4. Landcover and Water Quality in River Catchments of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
5. Runoff of Terrestrial Sediment and Nutrients into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
6. Water Circulation in Mangroves, and Its Implications for Biodiversity
7. Muddy Coastal Waters and Depleted Mangrove Coastlines - Depleted Seagrass and Coral Reefs
8. The Effects of Siltation on Tropical Coastal Ecosystems
9. Modeling and Visualizing Interactions Between Natural Disturbances and Eutrophication as Causes of Coral Reef Degradation
10. Biodiversity on the Great Barrier Reef: Large-Scale Patterns and Turbidity-Related Local Loss of Soft Coral Taxa
11. River Plume Dynamics in the Central Great Barrier Reef
12. Connectivity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area - An Overview of Pathways and Processes
13. A Model of the Ecosystem, and Associated Penaeid Prawn Community in the Far Northern Great Barrier Reef
14. The Effects of Water Flow Around Coral Reefs on the Distribution of Pre-Settlement Fish (Great Barrier Reef, Australia)
15. Topographic Steering by Coral Reef Assemblages
16. Environmental Factors Influencing the Activity of Black Marlin
17. Ocean Nutrients to Sediment Banks via Tidal Jets and Halimeda Meadows
18. Climate Variability and Change on the Great Barrier Reef
19. The Sea Surface Temperature Story on the Great Barrier Reef During the Coral Bleaching Event of 1998
20. The Challenges of Coral Reef Management in Indonesia
21. Will the Great Barrier Reef Survive Human Impact?

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