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With today's heightened awareness of the fragility in marine ecosystems, Layang Layang: A Drop in the Ocean serves to enlighten the reader about the actual processes that keep alive one of the planet's most majestic habitat: the coral reefs. Drawing on examples at one of the world's most pristine and highly acclaimed atolls, Layang Layang, the lessons contained in this volume are nevertheless applicable to reefs worldwide, and in particular throughout the Southeast Asian region.
Layang Layang: A Drop in the Ocean explores many of the unanswered questions by divers as they explore the marine rain forest equivalents. From symbiotic relationships to rare sightings, from feeding strategies to ecological behaviour, the words and pictures clarify and explain the wonderfully complex coral reef ecosystem in a clear and understandable manner.
Foreword vii
Where does one begin? 1
What is the reef doing here? 11
Filter feeders abroad 21
Fishes: Who eats what, why, and how? 33
Diets in question 45
Grazers of the not so deep 51
Vacuum cleaners on the prowl 57
Scavengers keep a tidy reef 61
Not without the other: Is there more than meets the eye? 67
The underwater construction team 85
The art of not being eaten 95
A ray of shunshine is all i need 103
The majestic, the rare and the rarely seen 105
The alien environment above the waves 117
Acknowledgements 121
