Overview

Life began in the sea, and even today most of the deep diversity of the planet is marine. This is often forgotten, especially in tropical countries like Costa Rica, renowned for their rain forests and the multitude of life forms found therein. Thus this book focusing on marine diversity of Costa Rica is particularly welcome. How many marine species are there in Costa Rica? The authors report a total of 6,777 species, or 3. 5% of the world's total. Yet the vast majority of marine species have yet to be formally described. Recent estimates of the numbers of species on coral reefs range from 1-9 million, so that the true number of marine species in Costa Rica is certainly far higher. In some groups the numbers are likely to be vastly higher because to date they have been so little studied. Only one species of nematode is reported, despite the fact that it has been said that nematodes are the most diverse of all marine groups. In better studied groups such as mollusks and crustaceans, reported numbers are in the thousands, but even in these groups many species remain to be described. Indeed the task of describing marine species is daunting - if there really are about 9 million marine species and Costa Rica has 3. 5% of them, then the total number would be over 300,000. Clearly, so much remains to be done that new approaches are needed. Genetic methods have en- mous promise in this regard.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ingo S. Wehrtmann ,  Jorge Cortes
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Imprint:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Edition:   2009 ed.
Volume:   86
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.20cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   1.021kg
ISBN:  

9781402082771

ISBN 10:   1402082770
Pages:   538
Publication Date:   18 December 2008
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Mixed media product
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

PART I The Marine Realm of Costa Rica - Diversity of Marine Habitats Jorge Cortes & Ingo S. Wehrtmann PART II A history of marine biodiversity scientific research in Costa Rica Jorge Cortes PART III Marine Fossils Teresita Aguilar PART IV Taxonomic groups Chapter 1. Phytoplankton - Roxana Viquez & Paul E. Hargraves Chapter 2 Marine benthic algae - Andrea Bernecker Chapter 3. Seagrasses -Jorge Cortes & Eva Salas Chapter 4 Mangroves - Ana Margarita Silva-Benavides Chapter 5 Foraminifera - Jorge Cortes, Claudia Mora-Baumgartner & Vanessa Nielsen Chapter 6 Sponges - Jorge Cortes, Noam van der Hal, R.W.M. van Soest Chapter 7 Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa and Cubozoa (Medusozoa) - Karina Rodriguez & Lourdes Segura-Puertas Chapter 8 Siphonophores - Karina Rodriguez & Rebeca Gasca Chapter 9. Zoanthids, sea anemones and corallimorpharians - Jorge Cortes Chapter 10 Octocorals - Odalisca Breedy Chapter 11 Stony corals - Jorge Cortes Chapter 12 Sipunculans - Jose A. Vargas & Harlan K. Dean Chapter 13 Polychaetes and echiurans - Harlan K. Dean Chapter 14 Stomatopods - Rita Vargas Chapter 15 Euphausids - Ivan Castellanos, Eduardo Suarez-Morales & Alvaro Morales-Ramirez Chapter 16 Decapod crustaceans- Rita Vargas & Ingo S. Wehrtmann Chapter 17 Shallow water mysids - W. Wayne Price, Richard W. Heard and Rita Vargas Chapter 18 Cumaceans - Iorgu Petrescu, Richard W. Heard, Rita Vargas & Odalisca Breedy Chapter 19 Tanaidaceans - Richard W. Heard, Odalisca Breedy & Rita Vargas Chapter 20 Isopods - Richard Brusca & Ingo S. Wehrtmann Chapter 21 Gammaridean amphipods - John M. Foster, Sara E. LeCroy, Richard W. Heard and Rita Vargas Chapter 22 Hyperiid amphipods - Rebeca Gasca Chapter 23 Barnacles - Robert von Syoc Chapter 24 Copepods - Alvaro Morales-Ramirez & Eduardo Suarez-Morales Chapter 25 Sea-spiders - Roger N.Bamber Chapter 26 Marine insects - Monika Springer Chapter 27 Chitons - Enrico Schwabe & Ingo S. Wehrtmann Chapter 28 Benthic, shelled gastropods - Leonora Rodriguez, Rita Vargas & Jorge Cortes Chapter 29 Pelagic gastropods - Eduardo Suarez-Morales, Rebeca Gasca & Ivan Castellanos Chapter 30 Benthic opisthobranchs - Yolanda E. Camacho-Garcia Chapter 31 Bivalves - Julio Magana-Cubillo & Jose Espinosa Chapter 32 Squids and octopuses - F.G. Hochberg & Yolanda E. Camacho-Garcia Chapter 33 Phoronids - Christian C. Emig Chapter 34 Bryozoans - Jorge Cortes, Vanessa Nielsen & Amalia Herrera-Cubilla Chapter 35 Brachiopods - Christian C. Emig Chapter 36 Echinoderms - Juan Jose Alvarado & Jorge Cortes Chapter 37 Chaetognaths or arrow worms - Eduardo Suarez-Morales, Rosa Ma. Hernandez-Flores & Alvaro Morales-Ramirez Chapter 38 Appendicularians (Urochordata) - Ivan Castellanos, Alvaro Morales-Ramirez & Eduardo Suarez-Morales Chapter 39 Marine fish - William A. Bussing & Myrna Lopez Chapter 40 Marine reptiles and amphibians - Mahmood Sasa, Gerardo A. Chaves & Lisa D. Patrick Chapter 41 Birds in coastal and marine environments - Gilbert Barrantes & Johel Chaves-Campos Chapter 42 Marine mammals - Laura May-Collado Chapter 43 Other taxonomic groups Fungi, kinorhynchs, invertebrate chordates - Jorge Cortes Chapter 44 Marine fish parasites - Jorge Cortes Chapter 45 Sea turtle parasites - Mario Santero & Simonetta Mattiucci PART V. Marine Biodiversity of Costa Rica: Perspectives and Conclusions - Ingo S. Wehrtmann, Jorge Cortes & Silvia Echeverria

Reviews

From the reviews: This book and its accompanying CD-ROM provide a good summary of the marine organisms of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Costa Rica. ! The CD-ROM is a single large PDF file of tables listing all of the area's known species ! . a useful resource for anyone interested in the marine life of Central America, and does a good job of highlighting the areas where research efforts should be concentrated. Summing Up: Recommended. All professional and academic libraries, lower-division undergraduates and above. (G. C. Jensen, Choice, Vol. 46 (11), July, 2009)

From the reviews: This book ! provide a good summary of the marine organisms of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Costa Rica. ! a useful resource for anyone interested in the marine life of Central America, and does a good job of highlighting the areas where research efforts should be concentrated. Summing Up: Recommended. All professional and academic libraries, lower-division undergraduates and above. (G. C. Jensen, Choice, Vol. 46 (11), July, 2009)

Author Information

Ingo Wehrtmann: more than 50 published articlesresearcher and lecture at the Universidad de Costa Ricahas worked in scientific institutions in Germany, Colombia, Chile, USA, Philippines and Costa Ricamore than 20 years of experience in international scientific collaborationprincipal research area: decapod crustaceans in marine, estuarine and freshwater habitatsJorge Cortes: Premio Nacional de Ciencias, Costa Rica, 1982more than 100 published paperseditor of the book Latin American Coral Reefs , 2003researcher and lecturer at Universidad de Costa Ricamore than 25 years of experience in coral reef research

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