There has hardly been a more comprehensive publication on the many aspects of marine research than the recently published “Faszination Meeresforschung” [Fascination marine research]. This “ecological reader” is edited by the Bremen Professor Gotthilf Hempel (founding director of the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research, (ZMT)), together with Kai Bischof and Wilhelm Hagen (both of the University of Bremen). It contains descriptions of ocean and coastal research written by a staggering total of 95 research academics. They take the reader on a journey from the polar ice caps, through the North and Baltic Seas to the seagrass beds, mangroves, and coral reefs of tropical climes. The chapters provide a vivid illustration of the diversity of natural habitats between beach and the ocean depths.
The spectrum of marine organisms covered by the book ranges from whales, planktonic crustaceans and mussels up to rock algae and bacteria. Virtually all aspects of marine research are dealt with, including the global materials cycles determined by marine life and the molecular-biological adaptation of marine micro-organisms – for it is here that the greatest progress is being made.
Several chapters are dedicated to the anthropogenic threat to marine habitats. What are the effects of climate change, overfishing, contaminants and nutrient inputs or invasive species? In their efforts to better understand the interactions between marine ecosystems and the changing natural environment, marine researchers employ a whole arsenal of modern tools and methods. These are also dealt with in the book. They include research vessels, submarine robots, mathematical models, and gene probes.
The diversity of the book’s contributions paints a fascinating picture of modern marine ecological research. The reader addresses everyone interested in the sea and its inhabitants, as well as in resource management and protection of the oceans. In 2006, the Bremen publishers Hauschild-Verlag published a forerunner to the present book under the same title. The new edition by Springer-Verlag is presented in a vivid and entertaining fashion: It has been completely reworked and comprehensively supplemented. “… quite in keeping with the rapid developments in marine research”, says Professor Gotthilf Hempel, initiator of the book project.
About the book’s editor:
Gotthilf Hempel is emeritus research professor of Marine Biology at the University of Kiel. He was, among other things, founding director of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the Center for Tropical Marine Ecology in Bremen.
Kai Bischof has been a professor for Marine Botany at the University of Bremen since 2006. His main research interest is the physiology of large marine algae on the coastlines of the polar seas.
Wilhelm Hagen is Professor for Marine Zoology at the University of Bremen and director of BreMarE (Bremen Marine Ecology). His research group investigates ecological and ecophysiological topics in marine habitats worldwide.
Publication:
Hempel, G., Bischof, K., Hagen, W., Eds. (2017). Faszination Meeresforschung – ein ökologisches Lesebuch. 2nd. edition, Springer, 573 pp. ISBN 978-3-662-49713-5.
If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:
University of Bremen
Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT)
Andrea Daschner
Phone: +49 421 2380072
email: andrea.daschnerprotect me ?!leibniz.zmtprotect me ?!.de
