| Oceanography > Issues > Archive > Volume 3 > Issue 2 |
1990, Oceanography 3(2):61–62, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1990.12
BOOKS & VIDEO | Review of Biological Oceanography: An Early History, 1870 to 1960, by E.L. Mills
Book Information | Reviewer | First Paragraph | Full Review | Citation
Book Information
Biological Oceanography: An Early History
By Eric L. Mills, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1989, 378 pages, $42.50 Cloth
Reviewer
David J. Carlson | College of Oceanography, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
First Paragraph
In the mid-nineteenth century, biologists studying the oceans were mostly interested in discovering deep-sea organisms. Today biological oceanographers pay most attention to processes in the surface ocean. In his latest volume of oceanographic history, published by Cornell University Press in its History of Science Series, Eric Mills describes the period from 1870 to 1960 during which focus shifted from deep-sea natural history to upper ocean plankton dynamics and when, as a result, biological oceanography evolved and separated from marine biology. Although the history is titled Biological Oceanography, the book" s primary topic is the progressive understanding of plankton dynamics in relation to chemical and physical oceanographic factors, a topic relevant, perhaps instructive, to many present day oceanographers. Dr. Mills also touches on historical patterns of promotion and remuneration of oceanographers, of ship availability, and of private, federal and institutional support for oceanography, issues that provoke and perplex us still.
Full Review
Citation
Carlson, D.J. 1990. Review of Biological Oceanography: An Early History, 1870 to 1960, by E.L. Mills. Oceanography 3(2):61–62, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1990.12.