Central Indo-Pacific

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A sling-jaw wrasse off the coast of Ko Tao, Thailand Epibulus insidiator in Ko Tao, Thailand 1098.jpg
A sling-jaw wrasse off the coast of Ko Tao, Thailand

The Central Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean, and the connecting seas.

Contents

The Central Indo-Pacific is a part of the larger Indo-Pacific, which includes the tropical Indian Ocean, the western and central tropical Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia. The Central Indo-Pacific may be classified as a marine realm, one of the great biogeographic divisions of the world's ocean basins, or as a subrealm of the Indo-Pacific. [1]


The Central Indo-Pacific realm covers eastern shores of the tropical Indian Ocean, including most of the Indian Ocean coast of the Indonesian archipelago, the northern Australian coast, and the Cocos and Christmas islands. It extends through the tropical seas connecting the Pacific and Indian oceans, including the Java Sea in central Indonesia, the South China Sea between the Asian mainland and the Philippine and Malay archipelagos, and the Arafura Sea separating Australia and New Guinea. It includes the seas surrounding island groups of the western Pacific, including the Ryukyu Islands, Caroline Islands, Marianas Islands, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, and Lord Howe Island. [1]

It is bounded on the west by the Western Indo-Pacific, with the transition at the Strait of Malacca and in southern Sumatra. The Central Indo-Pacific includes the seas surrounding the northern half of Australia, while the Temperate Australasia marine realm includes the seas surrounding the southern half of Australia. The boundaries between those two marine realms lie in Western Australia and southern Queensland. The Eastern Indo-Pacific lies to the east, extending across most of tropical Polynesia. To the north, the Taiwan Strait forms the boundary with the Temperate Northern Pacific, which also includes the larger Japanese islands. [1]

The Central Indo-Pacific includes the Coral Triangle region, which has the greatest diversity of tropical coral reef species in the world. The Coral Triangle has 605 tropical coral species, including 15 endemic species, about 76% of the world's total (798 species). The Coral Triangle has 2,228 species of reef fishes, of which 235 (7.8%) are endemic, about 37% of the world total (6000 species). [2] It includes the largest and second-largest coral formations in the world, Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the New Caledonia Barrier Reef.

Subdivisions

The Central Indo-Pacific is further subdivided into marine provinces, and the marine provinces divided into marine ecoregions: [1]

South China Sea

Sunda Shelf

Java Transitional

South Kuroshio

Tropical Northwestern Pacific

Western Coral Triangle

Eastern Coral Triangle

Sahul Shelf

Northeast Australian Shelf

Northwest Australian Shelf

Tropical Southwestern Pacific

Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands

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Torres Strait Navigable sea passage between Australia and New Guinea

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Indo-Pacific Biogeographic marine region of Earth

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Arafura Sea Marginal sea between Australia and Indonesian New Guinea

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Western Indo-Pacific Biogeographic region of the Earths seas, comprising the tropical waters of the eastern and central Indian Ocean.

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Temperate Northern Pacific Biogeographic region of the Earths seas, comprising the temperate waters of the northern Pacific Ocean

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Coral Triangle Roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste

The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ecoregion. The Coral Triangle is located between the Pacific and Indian oceans and encompasses portions of two biogeographic regions: the Indonesian-Philippines Region, and the Far Southwestern Pacific Region. As one of eight major coral reef zones in the world, the Coral Triangle is recognized as a global centre of marine biodiversity and a global priority for conservation. Its biological resources make it a global hotspot of marine biodiversity. Known as the "Amazon of the seas", it covers 5.7 million square kilometres (2,200,000 sq mi) of ocean waters. It contains more than 76% of the world's shallow-water reef-building coral species, 37% of its reef fish species, 50% of its razor clam species, six out of seven of the world's sea turtle species, and the world’s largest mangrove forest. In 2014, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reported that the gross domestic product of the marine ecosystem in the Coral Triangle is roughly $1.2 trillion per year and provides food to over 120 million people. According to the Coral Triangle Knowledge Network, the region annually brings in about $3 billion in foreign exchange income from fisheries exports, and another $3 billion from coastal tourism revenues.

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The Solomon Islands archipelago is an archipelago in the western South Pacific Ocean, located northeast of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesia subregion and bioregion of Oceania. It forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. The archipelago forms much of the territory of Solomon Islands. The main islands are Choiseul, the Shortland Islands, the New Georgia Islands, Santa Isabel, the Russell Islands, the Florida Islands, Tulagi, Malaita, Maramasike, Ulawa, Owaraha, Makira, and Guadalcanal. The largest island, Bougainville Island, is geographically part of the Solomon Islands archipelago, while politically an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. The nation state of Solomon Islands covers a subset of the Solomon Islands archipelago and includes isolated low-lying coral atolls and high islands including Sikaiana, Rennell Island, Bellona Island and the Santa Cruz Islands.

New Guinea, lying within the tropics and with extensive mountain areas, comprises a wide range of ecoregions. These include rainforests, grasslands and mangrove.

<i>Acropora lutkeni</i> Species of coral

Acropora lutkeni is a species of acroporid coral found in the central Indo-Pacific, Japan, Australia, the northern Indian Ocean, the East China Sea, southeast Asia, and the central and western Pacific Ocean. The species also occurs in the south Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Palau, the Andaman Islands, Fiji, the Philippines, the Banggai Islands, Samoa, the Raja Ampat Islands, the Line Islands, Papua New Guinea, and the Chagos Archipelago. It exists in tropical shallow reefs on upper slopes that are exposed to the action of strong waves or currents, and subtidally on edges of reefs and in submerged reefs. It exists at depths of between 3 and 12 metres and probably spawns in October.

<i>Acropora valida</i> Species of coral

Acropora valida is a species of acroporid coral found in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the southwestern, northwestern and northern Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the central Indo-Pacific, Australia, southeast Asia, Japan, the East China Sea, the oceanic western, central and far eastern Pacific Ocean, the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Johnston Atoll. It occurs in tropical shallow reefs in a variety of reef habitats, at depths of 1 to 15 metres.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 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.
  2. Briggs, John C. and Brian W. Bowen (2013) "Marine shelf habitat: biogeography and evolution". Journal of Biogeography, June 2013, Vol. 40, No. 6 (June 2013), pp. 1023-1035.