Encyclopedia of Tidepools and Rocky Shores, edited by Mark W. Denny & Steven D. Gaines, by Malcolm Ebright
NATURAL RESOURCES JOURNAL
Enc yclopedia of Tidepools and Rocky Shores, edited by Mark W. Denny & Steven D. Gaines, by Malcolm Ebright
Robert E. Knowlton 0
0 Robert E. Knowlton Professor Emeritus of Biology Department of Biological Sciences George Washington University , USA
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Encyclopedia of Tidepools and Rocky Shores. Edited by Mark W. Denny &
Steven D.Gaines. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. Pp.
735. $95.00 hardcover.
Rocky shores, loosely defined, are those coastal areas dominated by
massive formations of "bedrock" (often accompanied by boulders and
cobbles, but relatively free of sediments) in an uneven configuration of
ledges, overhangs, crevices, and depressions where water accumulates (i.e.,
tidepools). More specifically, hard surfaces between high and low tide
levels, usually referred to as the rocky intertidal zone (acronymically and
affectionately called the RITZ by some), are the ones most visited because
they can be accessed easily when the tide is out. For centuries, these tracts
where land and saltwater meet have attracted scientists, photographers,
poets, virtually everyone who is curious, with their craggy wave-swept
beauty and the abundance and diversity of biota (seaweeds and animals)
that can be found on their surfaces. The charisma of the rocky intertidal
zone has, at the same time, been a catalyst for and a result of the many
books that have been written about it, notably classics such as Between
PacificTides, by E.F. Ricketts and J.Calvin (1939), Rachel Carson's The Edge
of the Sea (1955), and Life Between Tidemarks on Rocky Shores by T.A. and
Anne Stephenson (1972). More recently, as interrelationships (e.g.,
competition, predation) among the biological components were demonstrated by
ecologists, based on experiments conducted not only in the laboratory but
also on the shore, books of a more technical nature appeared more
frequently, along with a wave of field guides (to identification). Among the
plethora of books on this subject, as good as many of them are, I am not
aware of any that contain such wide-ranging articles, in a single volume,
until now, with the publication of this encyclopedia.
This massive work contains 186 articles, organized alphabetically
(Abalones to Zonation), each title being a key word or short phrase,
sometimes followed by a subordinate descriptor (such as "Dispersal,
Measurement of"). The table of contents also contains some other entries,
worded alternatively (e.g., "Red Tides: see Algal Blooms") or key words
that might not have been included in a particular title (e.g., "Sea Slugs: see
Nudibranchs and Related Species"). Common names of plant and animal
groups are almost always used in the main text (e.g., "Snails" rather than
Gastropoda), as well as in the index. More helpful to the reader who is
primarily interested in being tutored in a particular aspect of marine science
is another list of the contents arranged by subject area, as follows: Geology,
Oceanography, Climatology, Plants (including algae and microbes),
Invertebrates, Vertebrates, Ecology and Behavior, Physiology, Human Uses
and Interactions, Research and Methodology. Essentially there are four
different categories of articles, roughly equal in terms of space: (1) those
dealing with physical-chemical-geological matters (i.e., aspects of
oceanography other than biological), (2) a survey of biota (kinds of organisms)
found in near-shore rocky areas, (3) principles of ecology (including
ecophysiology), and (4) a miscellany of articles oriented toward human
impacts on rocky shores and ways in which they are studied.
Each entry normally contains an introductory definition of the topic
and its significance, followed by additional text, often with subheadings,
and terminates with reference to allied articles elsewhere in the book and
a listing of other relevant publications (occasionally a textbook or two but
mostly specific journal articles). However, sometimes important papers
(e.g., R.T. Paine's demonstration of sea stars as keystone species) alluded to
in the text (of "Competition," p. 157) are not cited in the bibliography. The
glossary (at the end of the book), with more than 900 definitions of terms,
will make it somewhat easier for the patient reader to translate some (but
by no means all) of the technical terms found in the body of the article.
Names of major animal taxa (phylum, class, etc.) were mostly not included
here, or in the index. I found the latter to be far from complete and not very
helpful in finding detailed information; only a scattering of algal genera and
species are listed. As an example, a classic paper by J.H. Connell and R.O.
Slatyer is discussed extensively (in "Succession," pp. 556-557), yet only
Connell is listed in the index. The editors provide helpful advice to readers
in how to use this resource, not only in their preface but also in a separate
"Guide to the Encyclopedia." Here it is said that on the website (http://
www.ucpress.edu/books/ (...truncated)