Large Marine Ecosystems

original shapefile provided by Christopher Damon, University of Rhode Island

What are they?

Reviews by experts have associated coastal areas of the world's oceans into large marine ecosystems (LME) which share common fauna and oceanographic characteristics. This is an ongoing process. Further LMEs will be described, and larger ones could be subdivided. LMEs can be used as a structure for ecological models and they roughly nest into larger subdivisons of the world's oceans called biogeochemical provinces. Another important classification scheme for the world's oceans is the Marine Ecoregions.

Global fisheries catch by LME with links to official information on each area, including a list of species and their trophic levels for each is offered by UBC's Sea Around Us project.

More Information

Large Marine Ecosystem Home Pages

http://woodsmoke.edc.uri.edu/Portal/

http://www.edc.uri.edu/lme/intro.htm

Large Graphic http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/worldsummit/images/lme.jpg

updated Feb 2008


original shapefile provided by Christopher Damon, University of Rhode Island
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What are they?
Reviews by experts have associated coastal areas of the world's oceans into large marine ecosystems (LME) which share common fauna and oceanographic characteristics. This is an ongoing process. Further LMEs will be described, and larger ones could be subdivided. LMEs can be used as a structure for ecological models and they roughly nest into larger subdivisons of the world's oceans called biogeochemical provinces. Another important classification scheme for the world's oceans is the Marine Ecoregions.
Global fisheries catch by LME with links to official information on each area, including a list of species and their trophic levels for each is offered by UBC's Sea Around Us project.
More Information
Large Marine Ecosystem Home Pages http://woodsmoke.edc.uri.edu/Portal/ http://www.edc.uri.edu/lme/intro.htm Large Graphic http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/worldsummit/images/lme.jpg
updated Feb 2008