"The purpose of this book is to document the structure and function of tropical marine populations, communities, and ecosystems in relation to environmental factors including climate patterns and climate change, and patterns of oceanographic phenomena such as tides and currents and major oceanographic features, as well as chemical and geological drivers. The book focuses on estuarine, coastal, shelf and open ocean ecosystems. No such book on the tropical marine realm exists for the advanced undergraduate and postgraduate student, researcher, or manager. Another reason for writing this book is to reorient and expand the knowledge base of marine ecology. Several excellent textbooks exist on marine biology and ecology, but they are inadequate in describing life in the tropics; iconic habitats such as coral reefs and mangroves are usually covered only briefly. Until recently this perfunctory treatment was understandable considering that the study of marine ecology has focused on boreal and temperate seas near where the major oceanographic institutes and universities reside. Since the 1980s, however, there has been a drastic rise in the number of journal articles published on aspects in tropical marine ecology to the extent that a textbook focusing on the tropics is now warranted"-- Provided by publisher.