The Prescott Prize is an endowed award that honors highly meritorious scholarly work in the form of a book or monograph devoted to the algae and published during the last two years.
The fruit of fifteen years of exploration in the waters of the greater Caribbean, the Littlers' book is being recognized for "its comprehensive treatment of the flora of the Caribbean, the abundance of excellent plates and line drawings, and the detail and editing of the text and keys". The book combines the features of a user-friendly, photographic field guide and a scholarly monograph, with morphological and anatomical information for 565 species of marine plants.
More than 700 underwater color photographs illustrate the beauty and diversity of the marine flora. The photos enable the user to "picture-key" specimens initially and then to make a positive identification using the dichotomous keys, along with descriptions of individual species and more than 1,600 line drawings that illustrate morphological and anatomical features. Complementary information for each species includes abundance, geographical distribution, and habitat information. The book is enlivened by numerous captioned photographs that depict interesting reef phenomena, including hidden algal habitats, photosynthetic symbioses, competition for space, herbivory, animal camouflage and gardening behavior, and marine botanists at work.
The marine plants featured in the Littlers' identification guide are, along with corals, the major photosynthetic producers and builders of reef systems. Members of the award committee appreciated "the widespread need for a reference of this type and the fact that Caribbean Reef Plants will be utilized by a wide range of people, including students, researchers, recreational users of the Caribbean marine environment, and reef managers". The committee concluded that "the book will do a great deal to increase appreciation for and knowledge of marine algae and tropical marine environments".
The Littlers will formally receive the Prescott Prize in June 2003 at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Phycological Society of America at the Salishan Resort in Oregon.