The book comprises both review papers and discussion papers, providing students as well as specialists in the field with a comprehensive view of the present state of knowledge of ocean margin systems.

Ocean margins are the transitional zones between the oceans and continents. They represent dynamic systems in which numerous processes shape the environment and result in impacting the utilization and hazard potentials for humans. These processes are influenced by a variety of steering mechanisms, from mountain building and climate on the land to tectonics and sea-level fluctuations in ocean margins. This book examines various aspects of regulation for the long-term development of ocean margins, of the impact of fluids and of the dynamics of benthic life at and below the seafloor in ocean margin systems.

Inhalt
Introductory Paper.- Sedimentary Settings on Continental Margins an Overview.- Continental Margins Review of Geochemical Settings.- Imaging the Subsurface with 2-D and 3-D Seismic Data.- State of the Art and Future Prospect of Scientific Coring and Drilling of Marine Sediments.- New Technologies for Ocean Margin Studies Autonomous Instrument Carrier Systems.- Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: Are they the Ideal Sensor Platforms for Ocean Margin Science?.- Margin Building Regulating Processes.- Physical Processes and Modelling at Ocean Margins.- Seabed Classification at Ocean Margins.- The Benthic Boundary Layer.- Ocean Margin Early Diagenetic Processes and Models.- Slope Instability of Continental Margins.- Margin Building Regulating Processes.- Fluid Flow and Subsurface Material Transport.- Fluid Flow in Continental Margin Sediments.- Macrobenthic Activity and its Effects on Biogeochemical Reactions and Fluxes.- Cold Seep Communities on Continental Margins: Structure and Quantitative Distribution Relative to Geological and Fluid Venting Patterns.- The Importance of Mineralization Processes in Surface Sediments of Continental Margins.- Numerical Modelling of Transport Processes in the Subsurface.- Subsurface Fluid Flow and Material Transport.- Benthic Population Dynamics and Relationship to Sedimentary Settings.- Benthic Biodiversity Across and Along the Continental Margin: Patterns, Ecological and Historical Determinants, and Anthropogenic Threats.- Molecular Ecology and Evolution of Slope Species.- Larval and Reproductive Strategies on European Continental Margins.- Factors Controlling Soft Bottom Macrofauna Along and Across European Continental Margins.- Reef-Forming Cold-Water Corals.- Life at the Edge: Achieving Prediction from EnvironmentalVariability and Biological Variety.- Microbial Systems in Sedimentary Environments.- Processes driven by the Small Sized Organisms at the Water-Sediment Interface.- Nucleic Acid-Based Techniques for Analyzing the Diversity, Structure, and Function of Microbial Communities in Marine Waters and Sediments.- Carbonate Mounds as a Possible Example for Microbial Activity in Geological Processes.- S. Guidard and the ODP Proposal 573 Team.- The Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane: New Insights in Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry.- Microbial Systems in Sedimentary Environments of Continental Margins.