Book reviews / J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 244 (2000) 305 –309 307
(Dicentrarchus labrax) with a heart rate transmitter attached close to the ventral surface of the fish below the pelvic girdle. Stainless wires sheathed in kevlar, are inserted through the skin posterior to the pectoral fins and passed around the pelvic girdle with, occasionally, a third wire passed through the Maeckel cartilage between the opercula. Although the method would appear to be suitable for the laboratory, my experience of studying cod behaviour at sea leads me to doubt whether a tag in this location would last very long in the natural environment, where conditions are very different. Figure 1 of Claireaux and Lefranc¸ois’ paper illustrates the attachment process very effectively, but it is both curious and alarming that the editors have chosen such a dramatic figure to illustrate the front cover of their book. With ever increasing public concern over the welfare of experimental animals, it might have been wiser to choose something potentially less controversial.
Five papers in Section 3 (Behavioural and Physiological Ecology) deal with physiology and three discuss the use of heart rate or EMG (electromyograph) telemetry. Interesting and informative although they are, these papers all reveal the extent to which fish physiology still relies on laboratory measurements. Clearly, there is a lot of work to be done before we can reliably record basic physiological processes from free-ranging fish in their natural environment. When we can do this over long periods, physiological ecology will have caught up with behavioural ecology and it will become possible to establish the vital links that surely exist between the two.
Overall this is an interesting book with a wealth of useful detail for the working scientist; I am glad to have a copy on my bookshelf. Those who wish to catch up on the subject should enjoy dipping into selected papers.
Geoff Arnold CEFAS Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 0HT, UK
P I I : S 0 0 2 2 - 0 9 8 1 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 3 7 - 9
What is Natural? Coral Reef Crisis
by Jan Sapp; Oxford University Press, Oxford; 1999; 275 pp.; US $30.00; ISBN 0-19-512364-6
This book tells the complex story of the crown-of-thorns seastar (Acanthaster planci ) outbreak phenomenon first witnessed on coral reefs in the central and western tropical Pacific in the early 1960s – at a time when coral reef biologists were just beginning to investigate first hand the sea below the low tide mark.
308 Book reviews / J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 244 (2000) 305 –309
divisive, interactions that occurred within and between environmentalists, scientists, politicians and representatives of the tourism industry. These negative interactions slowed the process of achieving an understanding of what we now believe largely represents a natural phenomenon that can be induced or exacerbated by human activities. At the beginning of this debate a potpourri of explanations were proposed to account for the ‘unprecedented’ outbreaks. Human activities such as dynamiting of reef channels were thought to provide suitable habitat for successful settlement of seastar recruits. Another view held that over-fishing of seastar predators enhanced survival. In contrast, proponents favouring natural forces argued that periodic elevation in productivity levels could lead to high larvae survival. Perhaps the most compelling evidence in support of the natural cause hypothesis was the discovery of accumulations of Acanthaster spines in older marine sediments demonstrating periodic recurrences of outbreaks. Sapp does a thorough review of these and other explanations purporting evidence either for or against the various competing hypotheses. Throughout the book Sapp manages to humanize the debate by describing the thoughts and actions of all the key players involved.
A review of the ecological dogma at that time provides a historical perspective that probably influenced researchers to view predator outbreaks as unnatural events. For example, many ecologists (most of whom never visited a coral reef) viewed high species diversity on coral reefs as an evolutionary product of a physically stable, ‘balanced’ environment resistant to large scale perturbations. Although we now know that diversity and environment variability are not necessarily correlated, mass disturbances caused by hordes of voracious seastars consuming large tracts of reef must have seemed unnatural to anyone observing this event. Thus, a combination of several factors such as: (a) acceptance of biased expectations derived from a flawed equilibrium theory, (b) limited knowledge of the early life-history stages of Acanthaster, (c) insufficient resources for research, and (d) ineffective management to control the spread of Acanthaster, led many to conclude that reefs in this region would soon disappear unless immediate action was undertaken to halt the death of living coral. In the beginning, for reasons not made entirely clear, the Australian government provided only meagre funding to research the problem. Later this event turned out to be the catalyst for establishing major conserva-tion and environmental programmes in that country.
Amidst the negative impact of Acanthaster, the worldwide attention received prompted the Australian Government to establish the Australian Institute for Marine Science (AIMS) in 1972. The Institute was charged with the task of determining the cause of Acanthaster outbreaks. Also, at the time Acanthaster outbreaks were occurring in the Pacific, proposals were being made to construct a sea level canal. As Sapp points out one of the pivotal arguments that put an end to the proposed canal was the realization that Caribbean reefs might potentially be destroyed by an Acanthaster invasion.
Book reviews / J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 244 (2000) 305 –309 309
Ironically, this work appears just as another major reef crisis is looming on the horizon. In comparison to Acanthaster however, this culprit is far more insidious and widespread. In Chapter 13 Sapp briefly reviews recent global warming episodes from the early 1980s up until the mid-1990s. These events caused a significant proportion of corals worldwide to lose their ‘all important’ symbiotic algae and as a consequence total colony death has been frequently observed. Since this book was written the 1997–98 El
˜
Nino / Southern Oscillation event has turned out to be comparabe with or larger than the very strong 1982–83 event. Like the mostly natural Acanthaster phenomenon, the general pattern of the current warming trend is known to be natural but a significant proportion of the sea surface temperature rise observed of late is now suspected to represent a significant anthropogenic CO factor. Undoubtedly more work awaits Jan2
Sapp.
Gerard M. Wellington Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-5513, USA
