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.[a][b]
Arctic realm edit
(no provinces identified)
- North Greenland
- North and East Iceland
- East Greenland Shelf
- West Greenland Shelf
- Northern Grand Banks-Southern Labrador
- Northern Labrador
- Baffin Bay-Davis Strait
- Hudson Complex
- Lancaster Sound
- High Arctic Archipelago
- Beaufort-Admunsen-Viscount Melville-Queen Maud
- Beaufort Sea-continental coast and shelf
- Chukchi Sea
- Eastern Bering Sea
- East Siberian Sea
- Laptev Sea
- Kara Sea
- North and East Barents Sea
- White Sea
Temperate Northern Atlantic edit
Northern European Seas edit
- South and West Iceland
- Faroe Plateau
- Southern Norway
- Northern Norway and Finnmark
- Baltic Sea
- North Sea
- Celtic Seas
Lusitanian edit
Mediterranean Sea edit
- Adriatic Sea
- Aegean Sea
- Levantine Sea
- Tunisian Plateau/Gulf of Sidra
- Ionian Sea
- Western Mediterranean
- Alboran Sea
Black Sea edit
Cold Temperate Northwest Atlantic edit
- Gulf of St. Lawrence-Eastern Scotian Shelf
- Southern Grand Banks-South Newfoundland
- Scotian Shelf
- Gulf of Maine-Bay of Fundy
- Virginian
Warm Temperate Northwest Atlantic edit
- Carolinian
- Northern Gulf of Mexico
Temperate Northern Pacific edit
Cold Temperate Northwest Pacific edit
Warm Temperate Northwest Pacific edit
Cold Temperate Northeast Pacific edit
- 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 edit
Tropical Atlantic edit
Tropical Northwestern Atlantic edit
- Bermuda
- Bahamian
- Eastern Caribbean
- Greater Antilles
- Southern Caribbean
- Southwestern Caribbean
- Western Caribbean
- Southern Gulf of Mexico
- Floridian
North Brazil Shelf edit
Tropical Southwestern Atlantic edit
- 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 edit
West African Transition edit
Gulf of Guinea edit
Western Indo-Pacific edit
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden edit
Somali/Arabian edit
Western Indian Ocean edit
- 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 edit
- Western India
- South India and Sri Lanka
Central Indian Ocean Islands edit
Bay of Bengal edit
- Eastern India
- Northern Bay of Bengal
Andaman Sea edit
- Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Andaman Sea Coral Coast
- Western Sumatra
Central Indo-Pacific edit
South China Sea edit
- Gulf of Tonkin
- Southern China
- South China Sea Oceanic Islands
Sunda Shelf edit
- Gulf of Thailand
- Southern Vietnam
- Sunda Shelf/Java Sea
- Malacca Strait
Java Transitional edit
- Southern Java
- Cocos-Keeling/Christmas Island
South Kuroshio edit
- South Kuroshio
Tropical Northwestern Pacific edit
- Ogasawara Islands
- Mariana Islands
- East Caroline Islands
- West Caroline Islands
Western Coral Triangle edit
- Palawan/North Borneo
- Eastern Philippines
- Sulawesi Sea/Makassar Strait
- Halmahera
- Papua
- Banda Sea
- Lesser Sunda
- Northeast Sulawesi
Eastern Coral Triangle edit
- Bismarck Sea
- Solomon Archipelago
- Solomon Sea
- Southeast Papua New Guinea
Sahul Shelf edit
Northeast Australian Shelf edit
Northwest Australian Shelf edit
Tropical Southwestern Pacific edit
Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands edit
- Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands
Eastern Indo-Pacific edit
Hawaii edit
Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice Islands edit
Central Polynesia edit
Southeast Polynesia edit
Marquesas edit
Easter Island edit
Tropical Eastern Pacific edit
Tropical East Pacific edit
- Revillagigedos
- Clipperton
- Mexican Tropical Pacific
- Chiapas-Nicaragua
- Nicoya
- Cocos Islands
- Panama Bight
- Guayaquil
Galapagos edit
Temperate South America edit
Warm Temperate Southeastern Pacific edit
- Central Peru
- Humboldtian
- Central Chile
- Araucanian
Juan Fernandez and Desventuradas edit
Warm Temperate Southwestern Atlantic edit
Magellanic edit
- North Patagonian Gulfs
- Patagonian Shelf
- Falkland Islands
- Channels and Fjords of Southern Chile
- Chiloense
Tristan-Gough edit
Temperate Southern Africa edit
Benguela edit
- Namib
- Namaqua
Agulhas edit
- Agulhas Bank
- Natal
Amsterdam-St Paul edit
Temperate Australasia edit
Northern New Zealand edit
- Kermadec Islands (195)
- Northeastern New Zealand (196)
- Three Kings-North Cape (197)
Southern New Zealand edit
- Chatham Island (198)
- Central New Zealand (199)
- South New Zealand (200)
- Snares Island (201)
East Central Australian Shelf edit
- Tweed-Moreton (202)
- Manning-Hawkesbury (203)
Southeast Australian Shelf edit
- Cape Howe (204)
- Bassian (205)
- Western Bassian (206)
Southwest Australian Shelf edit
- South Australian Gulfs (207)
- Great Australian Bight (208)
- Leeuwin (209)
Western Central Australian Shelf edit
Southern Ocean edit
Subantarctic Islands edit
- Macquarie Island
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands
- Kerguelen Islands
- Crozet Islands
- Prince Edward Islands
- Bouvet Island
- Peter the First Island
Scotia Sea edit
- South Sandwich Islands
- South Georgia
- South Orkney Islands
- South Shetland Islands
- Antarctic Peninsula
Continental High Antarctic edit
- East Antarctic Wilkes Land
- East Antarctic Enderby Land
- East Antarctic Dronning Maud Land
- Weddell Sea
- Amundsen/Bellingshausen Sea
- Ross Sea
Subantarctic New Zealand edit
See also edit
Notes edit
- ^ One classification of the deep oceans is PPOW:
Spalding, Mark D.; Agostini, Vera N.; Rice, Jake; Grant, Susie M. (2012). "Pelagic provinces of the world: A biogeographic classification of the world's surface pelagic waters". Ocean & Coastal Management. 60: 19–30. Bibcode:2012OCM....60...19S. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2011.12.016. - ^ Ocean-floor environments are examined in Watling, et al. 2013:
Watling, Les; Guinotte, John; Clark, Malcolm R.; Smith, Craig R. (April 2013). "A proposed biogeography of the deep ocean floor" (PDF). Progress in Oceanography. 111: 91–112. Bibcode:2013PrOce.111...91W. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2012.11.003.
References edit
- 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 edit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marine ecosystems.
- World Wildlife Fund—WWF: Marine Ecoregions of the World (MEOW)
- Queries listing ecoregions [1] and provinces [2] from Wikidata