The Living Ocean Lab Manual, Revised 4th Edition by M. L. Hardee and C. Benitez-Nelson, provides college-level marine science programs with introductory laboratory course activities focusing on the biological aspects of marine science, from the microscopic and individual organism level to ecosystem processes. Each laboratory exercise is designed with interactive activities, higher-level critical thinking and application questions, and incorporate commonly used marine biological experimental analyses and real-world data. The lab exercises can be done in any order depending on how the institution organizes its introductory course series.

Included are separate laboratory exercises on the plankton, lower and higher marine organism groups based on levels of complexity; these exercises can be rearranged or combined as needed based on resource availability. Adaptations of vertebrates and invertebrates are explored in a separate exercise that focuses on important and common marine adaptations. Noteworthy in The Living Ocean Lab Manual is an exercise on taxonomy and phylogeny that introduces students to inheritance of adaptations, classification, and taxonomic keys. In the Chlorophyll Analyses lab, students examine population through ecosystem level productivity by performing an instrumental chlorophyll fluorometric analysis, and then compare experimental results to satellite chlorophyll data. Subsequent lab activities build upon this knowledge through implementation of the light and dark bottle method for measuring primary productivity, followed by statistical analysis and data interpretation using Microsoft Excel, and extrapolation of results to higher level productivity calculations. Extensively updated for the fourth revised edition includes the Deep Ocean Ecosystems exercise that now includes exploration of the recent discoveries of deep sea coral and cold seep ecosystems. Appendices provide stand-alone, self-guided exercises incorporating detailed step-by-step instructions on how to use Microsoft Excel and its statistical functions and graphing capabilities, along with proper microscope usage and a detailed rubric for writing lab reports.

The goal of The Living Ocean Lab Manual is two-fold. The exercises were developed to provide instructors with easily accessible and implementable activities and resources that effectively guide introductory marine science students through an exploration of the complexity of marine ecosystems. Students will develop not simply content knowledge, but a deeper understanding of how this knowledge is measured, observed, and incorporated into a big picture understanding of the connections that tie biological systems together.