List of marine ecoregions

As defined by the WWF and The Nature Conservancy

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

(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

Black Sea

Black 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

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

Tropical Atlantic

Tropical Northwestern Atlantic

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

North Brazil Shelf

Tropical Southwestern Atlantic

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

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

Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Andaman Sea Coral Coast
Western Sumatra

Central Indo-Pacific

South China Sea

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

Northeast Australian Shelf

Northwest Australian Shelf

Tropical Southwestern Pacific

Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands

Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands

Eastern Indo-Pacific

Hawaii

Hawaii

Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice Islands

Central Polynesia

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

Tristan-Gough

Tristan-Gough

Temperate Southern Africa

Benguela

Namib
Namaqua

Agulhas

Agulhas Bank
Natal

Amsterdam-St Paul

Amsterdam-Saint-Paul

Temperate Australasia

Northern New Zealand

Kermadec Islands (195)
Northeastern New Zealand (196)
Three Kings-North Cape (197)

Southern New Zealand

Chatham Island (198)
Central New Zealand (199)
South New Zealand (200)
Snares Island (201)

East Central Australian Shelf

Tweed-Moreton (202)
Manning-Hawkesbury (203)

Southeast Australian Shelf

Cape Howe (204)
Bassian (205)
Western Bassian (206)

Southwest Australian Shelf

Western Central Australian Shelf

Shark Bay (210)
Houtman (211)

Southern Ocean

Subantarctic Islands

Scotia Sea

Continental High Antarctic

Subantarctic New Zealand

Notes

^ 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

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)
Queries listing ecoregions [1] and provinces [2] from Wikidata

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