Synopsis Handbook of Tropical Estuarine Biology is another innovative approach to describe how each variable behaves in different estuaries of the east and west coasts of India. The diverse variables have broadly been grouped under two headings - environmental features and biological characteristics. The former include tidal rhythm, monsoon cycle, temperature regime, salinity cycle, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and nutrients, while the latter comprise phytoplankton, primary production, zooplankton, detritus, benthos, food chain, intertidal fauna, sediment, fishery, microbiology and pollution problems. The account ends giving briefly the uses of estuaries and what the future holds for them in India. This is again for the first time that the diverse sets of variables have been presented in an informative fashion to provide addition to the knowledge of specialists and research workers on tropical estuaries. It is an invaluable manual to be used as a text and reference material.