The heavily-revised Practical Handbook of Marine Science, Fourth Edition continues its tradition as a state-of-the-art reference that updates the field of marine science to meet the interdisciplinary research needs of physical oceanographers, marine biologists, marine chemists, and marine geologists. This edition adds an entirely new section devoted to Climate Change and Climate Change Effects. It also adds new sections on Estuaries, Beaches, Barrier Islands, Shellfish, Macroalgae, Food Chains, Food Webs, Trophic Dynamics, System Productivity, Physical-Chemical-Biological Alteration, and Coastal Resource Management.

The Handbook assembles an extensive international collection of marine science data throughout, with approximately 1,000 tables and illustrations. It provides comprehensive coverage of anthropogenic impacts in estuarine and marine ecosystems from local, regional, and global perspectives.

Maintaining its user-friendly, multi-sectional format, this comprehensive resource will also be of value to undergraduate and graduate students, research scientists, administrators, and other professionals who deal with the management of marine resources. Now published in full color, the new edition offers extensive illustrative and tabular reference material covering all the major disciplines related to the sea.