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.

by realm and province

Arctic realm

(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

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

• Adriatic Sea
• Aegean Sea
• Levantine Sea
• Tunisian Plateau/Gulf of Sidra
• Ionian Sea
• Western Mediterranean
• Alboran Sea

Cold Temperate Northwest Atlantic

• 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

• Carolinian
• Northern Gulf of Mexico

Black Sea

• Black Sea

Temperate Northern Pacific

Cold Temperate Northwest Pacific

• Sea of Okhotsk
• Kamchatka Shelf and Coast
• Oyashio Current
• Northern Honshu
• Sea of Japan
• Yellow Sea

Warm Temperate Northwest Pacific

• Central Kuroshio Current
• East China Sea

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

• Southern California Bight
• Cortezian
• Magdalena Transition

Tropical Atlantic

Tropical Northwestern Atlantic

• Bermuda
• Bahamian
• Eastern Caribbean
• Greater Antilles
• Southern Caribbean
• Southwestern Caribbean
• Western Caribbean
• Southern Gulf of Mexico
• Floridian

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

• St. Helena and Ascension Islands

West African Transition

• Cape Verde
• Sahelian Upwelling

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

• Northern and Central Red Sea
• Southern Red Sea
• Gulf of Aden

Somali/Arabian

• Persian Gulf
• Gulf of Oman
• Western Arabian Sea
• Central Somali Coast

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

• Maldives
• Chagos

Bay of Bengal

• Eastern India
• Northern Bay of Bengal

Andaman Sea

• Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Andaman Sea Coral Coast
• Western Surmatra

Central Indo-Pacific

South China Sea

• Gulf of Tonkin
• Southern China
• South China Sea Oceanic Islands

Sunda Shelf

• Gulf of Thailand
• Southern Vietnam
• Sunda Shelf/Java Sea
• Malacca Strait

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

• Bismarck Sea
• Solomon Archipelago
• Solomon Sea
• Southeast Papua New Guinea

Sahul Shelf

• Gulf of Papua
• Arafura Sea
• Arnhem Coast to Gulf of Carpentaria
• Bonaparte Coast

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

• Tonga Islands
• Fiji Islands
• Vanuatu
• New Caledonia
• Coral Sea

Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands

• Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands

Eastern Indo-Pacific

Hawaii

• Hawaii

Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice Islands

• Marshall Islands
• Gilbert and Ellice Islands

Central Polynesia

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

Southeast Polynesia

• Tuamotus
• Rapa-Pitcairn
• Southern Cook/Austral Islands
• Society Islands

Marquesas

• Marquesas

Easter Island

• Easter Island

Tropical Eastern Pacific

Tropical East Pacific

• Revillagigedos
• Clipperton
• Mexican Tropical Pacific
• Chiapas-Nicaragua
• Nicoya
• Cocos Islands
• Panama Bight
• Guayaquil

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
• Malvinas/Falklands
• Channels and Fjords of Southern Chile
• Chiloense

Tristan Gough

• Tristan Gough

Temperate Southern Africa

Benguela

• Namib
• Namaqua

Agulhas

• Agulhas Bank
• Natal

Amsterdam-St Paul

• Amsterdam-St Paul

Temperate Australasia

Northern New Zealand

• Kermadec Islands
• Northeastern New Zealand
• Three Kings-North Cape

Southern New Zealand

• Chatham Island
• Central New Zealand
• South New Zealand
• Snares Island

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

• Macquarie Island
• Heard Island and McDonald Islands
• Kerguelen Islands
• Crozet Islands
• Prince Edward Islands
• Bouvet Island
• Peter the First Island

Scotia Sea

• South Sandwich Islands
• South Georgia
• South Orkney Islands
• South Shetland Islands
• Antarctic Peninsula

Continental High Antarctic

• East Antarctic Wilkes Land
• East Antarctic Enderby Land
• East Antarctic Dronning Maud Land
• Weddell Sea
• Amundsen/Bellingshausen Sea
• Ross Sea

Subantarctic New Zealand

• Bounty and Antipodes Islands
• Campbell Island
• Auckland Island

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marine ecosystems.

• World Wildlife Fund—WWF: Marine Ecoregions of the World (MEOW)

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