Book excerpt: Dynamic Aquaria: Building and Restoring Ecosystems and the Biosphere, Fourth Edition demonstrates how the living systems modeling of aquatic ecosystems for ecological, biological, physiological research, and ecosystem restoration produce answers to very complex ecological questions. The book describes unique characteristics of water that have allowed carbon chemistry to flourish and evolve life over 4 billion years, along with current disruptions such as global warming, overfishing, and chemical pollution. New content in this edition includes the use of LED lighting, DNA sequencing in microcosm construction and analysis, and the expansion of the bioengineered tool Algal Turf Scrubbing (ATS) to combat global pollution problems.The book also features new information on marine calcification, research microcosms, thermogeography, and methods of water movement for minimizing plankton loss. It supports a deeper biological and ecological intelligence among the human population to better understand the processes behind environmental issues. - Offers the basic physical and chemical background necessary for understanding aquatic and marine ecosystems - Expands available electro-mechanical tools for developing living system models - Features new information on the biomimicry water control system, Algal Turf Scrubbing (ATS) - Evidences how ecosystem modeling can contribute to the understanding of climate change