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A Student’s Guide to Tropical Marine Biology is written entirely by students enrolled in the Keene State College Tropical Marine Biology course taught by Dr. Karen Cangialosi. Our goal was to investigate three main aspects of tropical marine biology: understanding the system, identifying problems, and evaluating solutions. Each of the sections contains chapters that utilize openly licensed material and images, and are rich with hyperlinks to other sources. Some of the most pressing tropical marine ecosystem issues are broken up into five sections: Coral Reefs and Diversity, Common Fishes to the Coral Reef, Environmental Threats, Reef Conservation, and Major Marine Phyla. These sections are not mutually exclusive; repetition in some content between chapters is intentional as we expect that users may not read the whole book. This work represents a unique collaborative process with many students across semesters authoring and editing, and therefore reflects the interests and intentions of a broad range of students, not one person’s ideas. This collaboration began with contributions from KSC students in the 2017 semester and includes work from the 2019 class, as well as new content and editorial work from 2017 & 2019 alumni. We look forward to future editions of this book. Enjoy exploring the rainforests of the sea through our collaborative project and please share with those who care!

Authors and Editors:  Haley Zanga, Audrey Boraski, Alana Olendorf, Marisa Benjamin, Haley Fantasia, Simone McEwan, Jaime Marsh, Melissa Wydra, Will Trautmann, Emily Michaeles, Maddi Ouellette, Andrew Fuhs, Allie Tolles, Suki Graham, Mary Swain, Devon Audibert, Sarah Larsen, Emma Verville, Tim Brodeur, Jason Charbonneau, Christian Paparazzo, Bryce Chounard, Malisa Rai, Jennifer Rosado, Morgan Tupper, and Jessica Comeau. 

Chief Editors, final revision:  Haley Zanga, Audrey Boraski, Alana Olendorf

Chief Editor, first draft:  Andrew Fuhs

Managing Editors and Editorial team leaders, first draft: Bryce Chounard, Emily Michaeles, Maddi Ouellette

The cover photo, taken by Karen Cangialosi, depicts KSC students underwater during their SCUBA certification class in the Turks and Caicos Islands.