Wikipedia

List of marine ecoregions

The following is a list of marine ecoregions, as defined by the WWF and The Nature Conservancy

The WWF/Nature Conservancy scheme groups the individual ecoregions into 12 marine realms, which represent the broad latitudinal divisions of polar, temperate, and tropical seas, with subdivisions based on ocean basins. The marine realms are subdivided into 62 marine provinces, which include one or more of the 232 marine ecoregions.

The WWF/Nature Conservancy scheme currently encompasses only coastal and continental shelf areas; ecoregions of the deep oceans have not yet been delineated.

Arctic realm

(no provinces identified)

Temperate Northern Atlantic

Northern European Seas

  • South and West Iceland
  • Faroe Plateau
  • Southern Norway
  • Northern Norway and Finnmark
  • Baltic Sea
  • North Sea
  • Celtic Seas

Lusitanian

  • South European Atlantic Shelf
  • Saharan Upwelling
  • Azores Canaries Madeira

Mediterranean Sea

Black Sea

Cold Temperate Northwest Atlantic

Warm Temperate Northwest Atlantic

  • Carolinian
  • Northern Gulf of Mexico

Temperate Northern Pacific

Cold Temperate Northwest Pacific

Warm Temperate Northwest Pacific

Cold Temperate Northeast Pacific

  • Aleutian Islands
  • Gulf of Alaska
  • North American Pacific Fjordland
  • Puget Trough/Georgia Basin
  • Oregon, Washington, Vancouver Coast and Shelf
  • Northern California

Warm Temperate Northeast Pacific

Tropical Atlantic

Tropical Northwestern Atlantic

North Brazil Shelf

  • Guianian
  • Amazonia

Tropical Southwestern Atlantic

  • Sao Pedro and Sao Paulo Islands
  • Fernando de Noronha and Atol das Rocas
  • Northeastern Brazil
  • Eastern Brazil
  • Trindade and Martin Vaz Islands

St. Helena and Ascension Islands

West African Transition

Gulf of Guinea

  • Gulf of Guinea West
  • Gulf of Guinea Upwelling
  • Gulf of Guinea Central
  • Gulf of Guinea Islands
  • Gulf of Guinea South
  • Angolan

Western Indo-Pacific

Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

Somali/Arabian

Western Indian Ocean

  • Northern Monsoon Current Coast
  • East African Coral Coast
  • Seychelles
  • Cargados Carajos/Tromelin Island
  • Mascarene Islands
  • Southeast Madagascar
  • Western and Northern Madagascar
  • Bight of Sofala/Swamp Coast
  • Delagoa

West and South Indian Shelf

  • Western India
  • South India and Sri Lanka

Central Indian Ocean Islands

Bay of Bengal

  • Eastern India
  • Northern Bay of Bengal

Andaman Sea

Central Indo-Pacific

South China Sea

Sunda Shelf

Java Transitional

  • Southern Java
  • Cocos-Keeling/Christmas Island

South Kuroshio

  • South Kuroshio

Tropical Northwestern Pacific

  • Ogasawara Islands
  • Mariana Islands
  • East Caroline Islands
  • West Caroline Islands

Western Coral Triangle

  • Palawan/North Borneo
  • Eastern Philippines
  • Sulawesi Sea/Makassar Strait
  • Halmahera
  • Papua
  • Banda Sea
  • Lesser Sunda
  • Northeast Sulawesi

Eastern Coral Triangle

Sahul Shelf

Northeast Australian Shelf

  • Torres Strait and Northern Great Barrier Reef
  • Central and Southern Great Barrier Reef

Northwest Australian Shelf

  • Exmouth to Broome
  • Ningaloo

Tropical Southwestern Pacific

Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands

  • Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands

Eastern Indo-Pacific

Hawaii

Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice Islands

Central Polynesia

  • Line Islands
  • Phoenix/Tokelau/Northern Cook Islands
  • Samoa Islands

Southeast Polynesia

Marquesas

  • Marquesas

Easter Island

Tropical Eastern Pacific

Tropical East Pacific

Galapagos

  • Northern Galapagos Islands
  • Eastern Galapagos Islands
  • Western Galapagos Islands

Temperate South America

Warm Temperate Southeastern Pacific

  • Central Peru
  • Humboldtian
  • Central Chile
  • Araucanian

Juan Fernandez and Desventuradas

  • Juan Fernandez and Desventuradas

Warm Temperate Southwestern Atlantic

  • Southeastern Brazil
  • Rio Grande
  • Rio de la Plata
  • Uruguay-Buenos Aires Shelf

Magellanic

  • North Patagonian Gulfs
  • Patagonian Shelf
  • Falkland Islands
  • Channels and Fjords of Southern Chile
  • Chiloense

Tristan-Gough

Temperate Southern Africa

Benguela

  • Namib
  • Namaqua

Agulhas

Amsterdam-St Paul

Temperate Australasia

Northern New Zealand

Southern New Zealand

East Central Australian Shelf

  • Tweed-Moreton
  • Manning-Hawkesbury

Southeast Australian Shelf

  • Cape Howe
  • Bassian
  • Western Bassian

Western Central Australian Shelf

  • Shark Bay
  • Houtman

Southern Ocean

Subantarctic Islands

Scotia Sea

Continental High Antarctic

Subantarctic New Zealand

See also

  • List of terrestrial ecoregions (WWF)

References

  • Spalding, Mark D., Helen E. Fox, Gerald R. Allen, Nick Davidson et al. "Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas". Bioscience Vol. 57 No. 7, July/August 2007, pp. 573–583.

External links

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