Interdisciplinary account of the vital importance of light in marine and inland aquatic ecosystems, for graduate students and aquatic scientists.

Beginning systematically with the fundamentals, the fully-updated third edition of this popular graduate textbook provides an understanding of all the essential elements of marine optics. It explains the key role of light as a major factor in determining the operation and biological composition of aquatic ecosystems, and its scope ranges from the physics of light transmission within water, through the biochemistry and physiology of aquatic photosynthesis, to the ecological relationships that depend on the underwater light climate. This book also provides a valuable introduction to the remote sensing of the ocean from space, which is now recognized to be of great environmental significance due to its direct relevance to global warming. An important resource for graduate courses on marine optics, aquatic photosynthesis, or ocean remote sensing; and for aquatic scientists, both oceanographers and limnologists.