Description
Book SynopsisThe tides of the North Atlantic are the world's highest, and they reveal a world of amazing seashore life - from jellies and sea anemones, to clams and crabs, to seaweeds and lichens. With some 300 color photographs and descriptions, this guide helps to identify Atlantic seashore life from Canada to Cape Cod.
Trade Review"Biologist, writer, and photographer Sept has authored an excellent book that details various organisms inhabiting the northeastern coast of North America. The introduction, written in an easy-to-understand language, describes tides and their formation, various intertidal habitats including sand beaches, mud flats, rocky shores, intertidal zones, and microhabitats... Excellent black-and-white illustrations of common animals for identification add to the allure. This book will serve as a valuable guide to any person visiting a beach or students and scientists in the field looking to identify common organisms on the beach."--A.K. Volety, Choice "This is an elegantly simple and very nicely produced book that will be widely appreciated and used by shoreline ecologists and serious beach-combers interested in the fauna and flora of the Northern Atlantic coastline from Cape Cod to the Canadian Maritimes... This is a publication that all North Atlantic beachcombers will want to own."--Mark Bertness, Quarterly Review of Biology "For $20 this book is a great buy. Useful and useable, it will be an asset to any naturalist who wants to understand shore life in full."--Roy John, Canadian Field-Naturalist
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION 10 Understanding Tides 11 Understanding Intertidal Habitats 15 Sand Beaches 16 Mud Flats 16 Rocky Shores 16 Intertidal Zones 17 Micro-habitats 19 Harvesting Shellfish 19 Protecting Our Marine Resources 21 Observing Intertidal Life 21 A Note of Caution 21 The Scientific Classification of Living Things 22 Getting the Most out of This Guide 24 INTERTIDAL CREATURES KINGDOM Animalia Sponges PHYLUM Porifera 26 Sea Anemones, Jellies, and Allies PHYLUM Cnidaria 30 Comb Jellies PHYLUM Ctenophora 40 Marine Worms PHYLA Platyhelminthes, Nemertea, Annelida, and Echiura 43 Moss Animals PHYLUM Bryozoa 57 Molluscs PHYLUM Mollusca 60 Arthropods PHYLUM Arthropoda 110 Spiny-skinned Animals PHYLUM Echinodermata 128 Tunicates (Non-vertebrate Cordates) PHYLUM Chordata 138 Fishes (Vertebrate Cordates) PHYLUM Chordata 142 INTERTIDAL PLANTS & FUNGI KINGDOMS Plantae & Fungi Green Algae PHYLUM Chlorophyta 147 Brown Algae PHYLUM Ochrophyta 153 Red Algae PHYLUM Rhodophyta 163 Flowering Plants PHYLUM Anthophyta 173 Lichens PHYLUM Ascomycotina 177 SELECTED SITES FOR EXPLORATION 181 Map of the Atlantic Northeast 182 Nova Scotia 183 Prince Edward Island 186 New Brunswick 187 Newfoundland, and Labrador 190 Maine 191 New Hampshire 195 Massachusetts 196 SELECTED REFERENCES 200 GLOSSARY 202 ILLLUSTRATIONS FOR IDENTIFICATION 205 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 213 INDEX 214
