Marine Invertebrates AIDGAP
FSC Marine invertebrates AIDGAP is an identification guide to intertidal and shallow water habitats around Britain and Ireland. Identification goes to at least family level.
You don’t need any special equipment beyond a net, white tray and hand lens. The author has spent many years of leading fieldwork, so has chosen characters visible on living specimens. The guide is a bridge between popular colour identification guides and more academic works. There are dichotomous keys, but specialist terminology is kept to a minimum.
The range of animal life in marine habitats is much greater than that seen anywhere else in Britain and Ireland. This is not necessarily because there are any more individuals. But the community is made up of a wider range of animal types. Frequently it is not just the genus and species which are unknown, the phylum and class pose problems as well.
This guide is part of the FSC’s AIDGAP series (Aids to Identification in Difficult Groups of Animals and Plants). Our AIDGAP guides are accessible identification keys, suitable for non-specialists from age 16+. As with all guides in the series, the Marine invertebrates AIDGAP underwent extensive testing before publication, by beginners and specialists alike. The author has revised this guide in the light of the testers’ experience.
Accurate identification of specimens is an important part of biological fieldwork. Since 1976, the AIDGAP project has published over 40 straightforward and clearly written identification keys to many different groups of plants, animals and other taxa. In many cases the AIDGAP volume is the only non-technical work covering the group.
