Efforts to preserve fragile ecosystems that focus on removing human intervention from the environment risk ignoring the political and social systems underlying environmentally destructive economic activities. In contrast, a biocultural diversity perspective allows for environmental protection to be approached with sensitivity to human needs. This paper explores the case of Karanrang Island,…
As a province composed of hundreds of small islands, Maluku is highly susceptible to decreasing biodiversity of plant resources for agriculture. Pressures from pests and disease infestations, difficulty of seed storage, market demands for specific cultivars, and the introduction of new superior varieties are decreasing crop and plant genetic diversity and will impact the food security in th…
This article outlines the development of Vietnam’s Con Dao archipelago (and Con Son island in particular) as tourism destinations since the formal reunification of Vietnam in 1975. In particular it examines the nature of the area’s two main tourism attractions, Con Son’s prison sites and memorials and the archipelago’s natural environment, and how these have been marketed to and exp…
The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) is a holistic one as EAF considers all species as important elements within the eco-system. An EAF requires that community and ecosystem structure should be maintained by harvesting fish communities in proportion to their natural productivity, thereby sustaining the balance of species and sizes in a community. This article draws from research on the…
Sri Lanka has vast dry low-lying plains irrigated using traditional micro-(or meso-) watershed management system referred to as the Tank Cascade System (TCS). We discuss the implications of this irrigation system which include the development of lowland paddy (Oryza sativa L.) farming. In addition, the TCS has retarded negative consequences from chronic and recurrent droughts, seasonal flooding…
Zooxanthellate corals (i.e. those harbouring Symbiodinium) are the main builders of the world’s shallow-water marine coral reefs. They represent intimate diverse symbioses between coral animals, single-celled photosynthetic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium spp.), other microscopic eukaryotes, prokaryotes and viruses. Crabs and other crustaceans, worms, sponges, bivalves and hydrozoans, fishe…
Environmental pollution often accompanies the expansion and urbanization of human populations where sewage and wastewaters commonly have an impact on the marine environments. Here, we explored the potential for faecal bacterial pathogens, of anthropic origin, to spread to marine wildlife in coastal areas. The common zoonotic bacterium Campylobacter was isolated from grey seals (Halichoerus …
It is now sixteen years since the third edition of this student textbook was published, and during this time advances in the field of marine biology have been many and varied. Continuing demand for the book has therefore led to this fourth, completely revised and updated edition. Developments in technology have been particularly rapid, especially in the fields of diving, precision instrumen…