Biomes of the World in Action: Marine Ecosystems

Continuing their excellent series based on the National Science Education Standards (now complete at 162 volumes in the Schlessinger Science Library), Marine Ecosystems, one of eight titles in the Biomes of the World series, introduces viewers to the oceans of the world, covering essential concepts such as salinity, currents, and life zones, as well as exploring shoreline and coral reef ecosystems. Employing beautiful film footage and video to illustrate various points, the program also incorporates a classroom experiment demonstrating how brine shrimp have adapted to changes in salt concentration, and a field trip to Chesapeake Bay to examine the life cycle of the blue crab. With the exception of hardly touching on the matter of environmental destruction ("sadly, even small changes in temperature and chemical composition of the water can create problems for these beautiful but threatened ecosystems"), this tape covers a lot of ground---um, leagues--in its classroom-friendly running time and is highly recommended. The other titles in the series are: Coniferous Forests, Deciduous Forests, Deserts, Freshwater Ecosystems, Grasslands, Rainforest Biomes and Tundra. Aud: I, J, H, P. (R. Reagan)