Life in the Open Ocean provides in-depth information about the different animal groups that form the communities of marine animals inhabiting the oceans’ pelagic realm. This comprehensive resource explores the physical environment, foraging strategies, energetics, locomotion, sensory mechanisms, global and vertical distributions, special adaptations, and other characteristics of a wide array of marine taxa.
Bringing together the most recent information available in a single volume, authors Joseph Torres and Thomas Bailey cover the Cnidaria (stinging jellies), the ctenophores (comb jellies), pelagic nemerteans, pelagic annelids, crustaceans, cephalopods and pelagic gastropods, invertebrate chordates, as well as micronektonic and larger fishes such as sharks, tunas, mackerels, and mahi-mahi. Detailed chapters on each pelagic group describe internal and external anatomy, classification and history, feeding and digestion, bioluminescent systems and their function, reproduction and development, respiration, excretion, nervous systems, and more. The first book of its kind to address all of the major animal groups comprising both the swimmers and drifters of the open sea, this important resource:

• Explains how different animals have adapted to live in the open-ocean environment
• Covers all sensory mechanisms of animals living in the pelagic habitat, including photoreception, mechanoreception,
  and chemoreception
• Treats the diverse micronekton assemblage as a community
• Includes a thorough introduction to the physical oceanography and properties of water in the pelagic realm

Life in the Open Ocean is an excellent senior-level undergraduate and graduate textbook for courses in biology and biological oceanography, and a valuable reference for all those with interest in open-ocean biology.

Joseph Torres is Emeritus Professor of Marine Science, College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St Petersburg, FL, USA. He is an internationally renowned marine biologist with research interests in the physiological ecology of the deep- and open-oceanic realms.

Thomas Bailey is retired director of NOAA’s Caribbean Marine Research Center following a long career in deep-ocean science at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution as head of the Department of Zooplankton Ecology. He is a highly respected in-situ marine scientist known for innovative techniques in capturing and experimenting with delicate sea creatures at great depth.