Chemical signaling processes in the marine environment

Understanding the mechanisms by which environmental chemical signals, chemi cal defenses, and other chemical agents mediate various life-history proces ses can lead to important insights about the forces driving the ecology and evolution of marine systems. For chemical signals released into the enviro nment, establishing the principles that mediate chemical production and tra nsport is critical for interpreting biological responses to these stimuli w ithin appropriate natural, historical contexts. Recent technological advanc ements provide outstanding opportunities for new discoveries, thus allowing quantification of interactions between hydrodynamic, chemical, and biologi cal factors at numerous spatial and temporal scales. Past work on chemicall y mediated processes involving organisms and their environment have emphasi zed habitat colonization by larvae and trophic relationships. Future resear ch priorities should include these topics as well as courtship and mating, fertilization, competition, symbiosis, and microbial chemical ecology. Ther e are now vast new opportunities for determining how organisms respond to c hemical signals and employ chemical defenses under environmentally realisti c conditions. integrating these findings within a larger ecological and evo lutionary framework should lead to improved understanding of natural physic ochemical phenomena that constrain biological responses at the individual, population, and community levels of organization.