Author: United States National Museum

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-07-16

Total Pages: 706

ISBN-13: 9781331529309

Excerpt from Contribution to the Biology of the Philippine Archipelago and Adjacent Regions: Papers on Philippine Diatoms, Annelids, Hydroids, Echinoids, and Mollusks The Philippine Islands are very advantageously located with refer ence to the great ocean currents, the chief carriers of diatoms from one part of the world to another. The great northern and the south ern equatorial currents converge on the eastern and southern Shores of the Philippines and spread their waters about the island group. Other currents Skirt the islands of the East Indies, New Guinea, Celebes, and Borneo on their southern sides, Java on its north ern side, Sumatra and parts of the Malay Peninsula on their east ern sides; they then stream northward and northeastward to come to rest along the western coasts of the Philippines. The Sulu Sea is especially a focal center for many such currents, and represents one of the most complexly connected oceanographic localities known. On the other hand, the cold current from Bering Sea and the Arctic which flows southwest along the coasts of Kamchatka, Manchuria, and the eastern Side of Korea is here pushed back by a warm current moving up between Korea and Japan and fails to reach the Philip pines. It is quite evident that this great convergence of powerful ocean currents is largely responsible for the rich flora and fauna of the Philippine waters. Another thing helping to bring about this richness of marine life at the Philippines is the great range of 'depth of its waters. The east ern Shores lie adjacent to some of the most profound depths in the Pacific Ocean, one point just east of the northern end of Mindanao being the deepest sea abyss yet discovered, fathoms, or feet, or over 6 miles. On the other hand, the western side is Shallow and many of the channels between the islands are extremely so. Thus Manila Bay has an average depth of only 3 to 4 fathoms. This wide diversity of depth, with its attendant range in temperature, salinity, and light, must be responsible to no small degree for the diversity of life, including diatom life at the Philippines. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.