A Functional Biology of Sea Anemones (Functional Biology Series)

General Editor: Peter Calow, Department of Zoology, University of Sheffield, England The main aim of this series will be to illustrate and to explain the way organisms 'make a living' in nature. At the heart of this - their Junctional biology - is the way organisms acquire and then make use of resources in metabolism, movement, growth, reproduction, and so on. These processes will form the fundamental framework of all the books in the series. Each book will concentrate on a particular taxon (species, family, class or even phylum) and will bring together information on the form, physiology, ecology and evolutionary biology of the group. The aim will be not only to describe how organisms work, but also to consider why they have come to work in that way. By concentrating on taxa which are well known, it is hoped that the series will not only illustrate the success of selection, but also show the constraints imposed upon it by the physiological, morphological and developmental limitations of the groups. Another important feature of the series will be its organismic orientation. Each book will emphasize the importance of functional integration in the day-to-day lives and the evolution of organisms. This is crucial since, though it may be true that organisms can be considered as collections of gene­ determined traits, they nevertheless interact with their environment as integrated wholes and it is in this context that individual traits have been subjected to natural selection and have evolved. Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Overview of sea anemones....Pages 1-35 Nutrition....Pages 36-118 Energy metabolism and respiratory gas exchange....Pages 119-173 Nitrogen excretion and osmotic balance....Pages 174-197 Growth....Pages 198-227 Reproduction and population structure....Pages 228-277 Biotic interactions....Pages 278-317 Back Matter....Pages 318-395 An integrative approach to the biology of sea anemones. The chapters of the book are organized according to the various functions of the animal and the components of its energy budget. The topics discussed include nutrition, gas exchange, osmotic balance, growth and biotic interactions.