BOOK REVIEWS 963

MARINE BOTANY, 2ND EDITION by Clinton J. Dawes. 1998. Wiley, New York. 480 p. ISBN 0- 4711-92-082. $79.95, hardbound.

Marine Botany, Second Edition, by Clinton Dawes and published by John Wiley and Sons offers an overview of marine plants that includes sections on taxonomy and ecology of microalgae, macroalgae, seagrasses, mangroves, and salt marshes. As the author points out in the preface, entire texts are devoted to these topics. In order to include the wide range of marine plants in one volume requires brevity that sometimes results in information gaps, but the author directs the reader to classic as well as up-to-date references for more thorough accounts. The second edition is organized differently from the first, with less emphasis on taxonomy and more on the ecology of marine plants. Chapters have also been added that address the role of anthropogenic impacts on plant communities including management and restoration practices. The book is organized such that the first several chapters introduce general concepts that apply to all marine plants while the latter portion of the book provides separate chapters covering the taxonomy and ecology of major types of plant communities including microalgae, macroalgae, seagrass, marshes, mangroves, and algae associated with coral reefs. Chapter one provides a brief section on the classification of marine plants and introduces the three major habitats in which they occur; exposed coasts, estuaries, and the open ocean. The two following chapters then discuss the abiotic (e.g., chemical, geological, physical) and biotic (e.g., competition, predation, succession) factors associated with the different habitats that influence marine plants, and the fourth chapter goes further into how abiotic factors includ- ing light, temperature, salinity, hydrodynamics, and nutrients influence the physiological ecology of marine plants. These initial chapters provide a general background to the impor- tant biotic and abiotic factors that influence all photosynthetic organisms, but because these factors have varying degrees of importance and varying effects on the wide range of marine plants (e.g., phytoplankton to mangroves) the discussion doesn’t always flow smoothly. The fifth chapter provides discussion on anthropogenic impacts such as physical damage, pollu- tion, harvesting, and global change on plant communities, and various management and restoration activities that are currently applied to marine plant communities. The separate chapters for the different plant community types also touch on human impacts and manage- ment issues. The book has an appendix covering selected field and laboratory methods for studying marine plant communities including sampling techniques (transect vs. quadrat), sediment grain size analysis, pigment analysis, and more. An appendix covering the uses of marine plants is also presented. All that is lacking is a glossary of terms for the botanically challenged who might have trouble keeping up with the terminology (especially in the taxo- nomic discussions). In general the book is well written, except for a few typographical errors and inconsisten- cies in the text that escaped the editorial process (I caught more than 15 of them). As with the first edition, the major strong point of the book is that it provides an integrated text that examines the ecology of a wide range of marine plant communities. It would be an excellent text to use in an upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level course in marine botany and as a companion text for marine biology and marine community ecology courses.—Elizabeth Irlandi, Center for Marine and Environmental Analyses, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149-1098.