Moving Oceans


Book Description

Celebrating the diversity of dance across the South Pacific, this volume studies the various experiences, motivations and aims for dance, emerging from the voices of dance professionals in the islands. In particular, it focuses on the interplay of cultures and pathways of migration as people move across the region discovering new routes and connections.




Energy from Oceans and Moving Water


Book Description

Power from water is an excellent energy source that we are exploring more and more. Readers are presented with the benefits or harm this energy source might cause to the environment, then they are asked to make up their own minds about its viability. This informative source is a great addition to any reader’s library.




Oceans of Plastic


Book Description

Our oceans are amazing! They are filled with wonderful sea creatures and are essential for a healthy planet. But it’s now estimated that there are more pieces of plastic in the ocean than visible stars in the Milky Way. So how can we stop plastic from our homes and cities from ending up floating in oceans far away? By becoming ocean change-makers! Oceans of Plastic explores how ocean systems and swirling currents bring plastics together into massive ocean garbage patches. It also uncovers the floating world of the 'plastisphere' – a mini community of microbes living on ocean plastics – and explains how plastic breaks up, not down, and can even end up on your dinner plate! Oceans of Plastic is packed with great ideas and simple changes that you can make to help our oceans. Become an ocean change-maker in your home, school or community, and inspire others to join you in protecting the future of our oceans. Reading level varies from child to child, but we recommend this book for ages 9 to 12.




Shifting Baselines


Book Description

Shifting Baselines explores the real-world implications of a groundbreaking idea: we must understand the oceans of the past to protect the oceans of the future. In 1995, acclaimed marine biologist Daniel Pauly coined the term "shifting baselines" to describe a phenomenon of lowered expectations, in which each generation regards a progressively poorer natural world as normal. This seminal volume expands on Pauly's work, showing how skewed visions of the past have led to disastrous marine policies and why historical perspective is critical to revitalize fisheries and ecosystems. Edited by marine ecologists Jeremy Jackson and Enric Sala, and historian Karen Alexander, the book brings together knowledge from disparate disciplines to paint a more realistic picture of past fisheries. The authors use case studies on the cod fishery and the connection between sardine and anchovy populations, among others, to explain various methods for studying historic trends and the intricate relationships between species. Subsequent chapters offer recommendations about both specific research methods and effective management. This practical information is framed by inspiring essays by Carl Safina and Randy Olson on a personal experience of shifting baselines and the importance of human stories in describing this phenomenon to a broad public. While each contributor brings a different expertise to bear, all agree on the importance of historical perspective for effective fisheries management. Readers, from students to professionals, will benefit enormously from this informed hindsight.




Oceans


Book Description

Describes the ocean biome, including climate, geology, geography and biodiversity.




Oceans and Oceanography


Book Description

Constituting more than 70 percent of Earths surface, the worlds oceans are so vast as to remain something of an enigma to this day. Navigating these imposing seas and unlocking their secrets is the calling of oceanographers. Their research helps determine what climatic, geologic, and chemical impact oceans have on a variety of organisms. In spite of their magnitude and might, the worlds oceans are not immune to the effects of adverse human activity, such as pollution. This volume surveys this huge, but fragile, ecosystem and the individuals who help fight for the preservation of this vital resource that has critical significance to all earthly life.




Oceans


Book Description

Our oceans are hugely important, as a source of food and mineral wealth, as an environment for a vast variety of wildlife, for the role they play in climate regulation, and as part of the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and other elements critical to life. Dorrik Stow explores what we know about how oceans originate and are maintained.




Oceans


Book Description

Covering 71 percent of the planet, these saline bodies of water provided the unique conditions necessary for the building blocks of life to form billions of years ago. This book explains how our oceans continue to support and influence life in important ways: by providing the largest global source of protein in the form of fish populations, by creating and influencing weather systems, and by absorbing waste streams such as airborne carbon. It is shown how oceans have an almost magnetic draw—almost half of the world’s population lives within a few hours of an ocean. Although oceans are vast in size, exceeding 328 million cubic miles (1.37 billion cubic kilometers), they have been influenced by and have influenced humans in numerous ways. The book includes three detailed case studies. The first focuses on the most remote locations along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where new ocean floor is being formed twenty-thousand feet underwater. The second considers the Maldives, a string of islands in the Indian Ocean, where increasing sea levels may force residents to abandon some communities by 2020. The third describes the North Sea at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, where fishing stocks have been dangerously depleted as a result of multiple nations’ unrelenting removal of the smallest and largest species.




Climate and the Oceans


Book Description

Explores climate and oceans, providing a look at the basics of climate, a descriptive overview of the oceans, a brief introduction to dynamics, and coverage of other related topics.




Ecosystems: Oceans


Book Description

The oceans are teeming with life of all kinds. Changing sea levels, plate tectonics, chemical cycling, sedimentation, and the atmosphere greatly impact these habitats. The ocean's currents and sea level are tied closely to weather patterns and in turn to such issues as global warming and El Nino. Oceans provides a complete overview of the ecosystem that exists in these bodies of water. From the coastal wetlands to the deep ocean waters, the geography, geology, chemistry, and physics of oceans are thoroughly examined in this volume. Today, the impact that human use of ocean resources has on these habitats, including habitat loss and overharvesting, is in constant debate. Oceans looks at these possible threats and concludes with a balanced look at the ways to manage the oceans, as well as the future of this ecosystem.