Marine Field Methods has evolved from material used to teach a course for Marine Biology Master’s students over several successive years at the University of Bergen in Norway, which is at the forefront of marine sciences and fisheries research. The focus of the book is primarily on methodology.
This important and carefully compiled book deals in particular with offield studies, from planning, sampling, sorting material, storing and organising data, to exploratory and statistical analyses using the free software R, and includes most sampling methodologies relevant for quantitative and qualitative studies of mesopelagic, demersal, littoral, and soft-bottom fauna. The book describes how various sampling gears work, how to operate them, some of their limitations, and how to deal with sub-samples when catches are large. The book also contains explanations of how to use acoustic equipment for monitoring aggregations of organisms, for example fish shoals, as well as the use of sensors for registering environmental variables e.g., salinity, temperature, oxygen, and light.
Furthermore, cutting-edge research techniques that are in their final stages of development for use in research surveys are also included. The authors have also developed data scripts in R in two-steps to analyse the materials; simple analyses for those new to the use of R, and more advanced functions available online for more experienced users. The reader will learn the entire procedure for conducting a field study, including the generation of hypotheses, planning field collection of data, conducting field work, data exploration and statistical analysis, and writing up the results in a final report.
The book’s appendix contains pictures of the most common flora and fauna, to help students identify collected organisms. Guidance is also provided to readers to further information on species identification from each climatic region.
