An excellent encyclopedia of the deep | The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the...

book: The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea | Tony Koslow

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	• The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea Tony Koslow University Of Chicago Press, 2007 - 312 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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A fascinating review of a fascinating field of study

I ordered this book hoping for more amazing photographs of newly-discovered deep-sea species like I found in "The Deep", but I got much, much more than that. The review of deep-sea ecology was both incredibly interesting and not too difficult for someone without much experience in marine biology. I was glued to this book, and finished it was a new desire to follow the field of deep-sea research as it continues to develop. It was a great book for someone who is not familiar with the history and ecology of the deep sea to get a firm grasp on what is happening down there, and how our picture of life in the deep ocean has been turned on it's head. The section on conservation was good as well, and illustrated clearly and consisly how human activies specifically affect the environment in the deep sea realm.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in deep sea research - it was the perfect follow-up to "The Deep", with it's tantalizing photos of the unbelievable animals that live at such depths.

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An excellent encyclopedia of the deep

Tony Koslow has written an encyclopedia of the various deep-sea environments. His book contains many fine illustrations, and it makes a fine companion to the wonderful illustrations in The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss by Claire Nouvian.

Koslow focuses on the depths below two hundred meters where sunlight no longer penetrates, the largest habitat on Earth -- ninety percent of all the ocean's water, and eleven times the volume of all the land above the sea. Below six thousand meters lies a region known as the hadal zone; in the Marianas Trench it is 11,000 meters deep.

The hadal zone with its freezing water, heavy pressure, and darkness is harsh, but the freezing water carries oxygen necessary for life. The pressure is extreme but the creatures of the hadal zone don't feel it, because the pressure inside their bodies matches the pressure outside. There is no sunlight, but light from luminescent creatures abounds.

Koslow reviews Otis Barton's and William Beebe's trip in 1931 a quarter of a mile down in a "bathysphere." Beebe reported that the clear sea stretched endlessly, and was so full of luminescence that it sparkled like the night sky. Black shrimps, transparent eels, and bizarre fish approached and shadows and shifting patches of light hovered just out of view. Below lay a world that "looked like the black pit-mouth of hell itself."

On January 23, 1960, Swiss scientist and engineer Jacques Piccard and US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh dove to the bottom in Trieste. At 10,910 meters, Piccard glimpsed a flat, fish-like creature moving away. That observation is all we know of higher life at the bottom of the hadal zone; we haven't returned since that visit.

A robot called Kaiko has explored more of the hadal zone, and has discovered a fragile, floating world of jelly life, organisms that are able to exist only because the water is so still that currents don't tear them apart. On the very bottom Kaiko found sea cucumbers, worms, and giant single-celled organisms up to twenty-five centimeters across which feed on the slow rain of organic matter from the surface. Kaiko was lost in 2003 and has not been replaced.

Koslow describes many wonders; one among many is the black seadevil. The female the size and shape of a grapefruit with and enormous mouth and a "fishing rod" between its eyes with luminescent bait. The male is tiny, feeding on scraps until he meets and bites his mate. Over time he becomes totally dependent on his mate receiving food, oxygen, and hormones from her blood. Only his testicles continue to function, but only at the pleasure of the female. When she is done with him, he is completely absorbed, and the female seeks another mate.

Koslow describes threats to the ocean: the dumping of toxic (and sometimes radioactive) waste, the accumulation of heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, the build-up of toxic chemicals such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and DDT, the damage caused by offshore oil rigs and over-fishing, and the potential damage that may be caused by seabed mining and carbon dioxide sequestration.

The book advocates various measures to protect ocean environments about which we know very little. Koslow endorses E.O. Wilson: "Man is defined not by what he creates, but by what he chooses not to destroy."

Rober C. Ross 2008

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The deep sea, closed until recently to exploration, was long dismissed as lifeless and uninteresting. Only in the last fifty years or so did the deep sea?with its Lilliputian fauna on the seafloor; its seemingly bizarre life forms at mid-ocean depths; its profusion of life at hot vents, cold seeps, and whale falls; and its coldwater corals and fisheries on seamounts and deepwater reefs?reveal itself to be a source of scientific wonderment and, indeed, the planet?s last unexplored frontier.
But just as research and exploration are rendering the briny deep accessible, a host of new threats is endangering it?the spread of trawling into the deep ocean, the buildup of humanity?s worst pollutants in deepwater life-forms, the potential consequences of climate change and ocean acidification, and the future mining of seabed minerals and methane hydrates for hydrocarbons. The Silent Deep tells the stories of discovery of the deep sea, the ecologies of its ecosystems, and of the impact of humans, highlighting the importance of global stewardship in keeping this delicate ecosystem alive and well. Written by world renowned deep-sea ecologist Tony Koslow, The Silent Deep is a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the state of the deep sea today, accessible to anyone interested in ocean science, the story of scientific discovery, and conservation of the earth?s most threatened ecosystems.

(20070520)

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