Encyclopedia of Fish Physiology From Genome to Environment

T he Encyclopedia of Fish Physiology: From Genome to Environment is the first of its kind. It follows in the strong tradition built by the book series Fish Physiology that was pioneered in the late 1960s by Bill Hoar and Dave Randall and is still ongoing; however, the Encyclopedia differs markedly from this book series in three important respects. Foremost, the Encyclopedia targets a much broader audience, not just the research community. My hope is that the Encyclopedia will serve as a general educational tool for biologists, as well as being of general use as an information resource for those interested in fishes. After all, the Encyclopedia is replete with magnificent examples of how fishes are marvelously adapted to almost every water body on the Earth, no matter how deep, how hot, how cold, how salty, or, in some cases, how dry! Second, the articles span well beyond just the physiology of fishes. The intent here is to connect physiological functions, environmental factors, behavior, and the genome. This is the case even though the main focus here is on physiology.