Extract
This new edition of Microbial Ecology of the Oceans has appeared a full 18 years after the first edition. The field of marine microbial ecology has changed enormously over the past two decades. It should then not be surprising that the contents of this new edition, reflecting current research topics and approaches, bear only a slight resemblance to those of the first and second editions. However, this new version is like the previous editions in that it is composed of topical reviews by stellar authors. A glance at the table of contents (below) suffices to show that a wide variety of topics are covered and in a wide range of depths (based chapter lengths). The intended audience is graduate students in microbial ecology and researchers outside the field of microbial ecology. Thus, each chapter can be taken as a primer for a more or less specialized topic. The book is absolutely ideal, if a bit pricey, for a graduate seminar class on marine microbial ecology with a single caveat: the book is heavily tilted towards water column populations and processes, as openly admitted by the editors.
