DYNAMIC MODELING FOR MARINE CONSERVATION, {WITH CD-ROM}

The oceans are shrinking. They're not literally shrinking; warming in the last century has actually expanded the sea enough to threaten low-lying coastal lands that are vul­ nerable to storm surge. During the same interval, however, events on land have increasingly affected the sea. Since in most ways the Earth is a closed system-a zero-sum planet in today's parlance-as terrestrial influence on the sea expands, the sea's influence on its own processes shrinks. Control of many crucial marine processes no longer resides within the sea. The evidence for this is abundant and, to anyone who is looking, unmis­ takable. In recent decades scientists have witnessed unprecedented pertur­ bations and increases in previously uncommon events that demonstrate growing terrestrial influences on the sea. Numerous marine species, from sea urchins to monk seals, have experienced devastating epidemics.