FM1.2 Permanently open riverine estuaries and bays

FM1. Semi-confined transitional waters biome

FM1

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/FM1.2

Brief description

These coastal ecosystems are shifting mosaics of different habitats, depending on the shape of the local coast, and proportional inflow of freshwater and seawater. Combined nutrients from marine, freshwater and land-based sources support very high productivity. Transient large animals like dugongs, dolphins, turtles and shorebirds feed on abundant fish, invertebrates and plant life, and they commonly serve as sheltered nursery areas for fish. Many organisms are adapted to large variations in salinity.

Key features

Productive mosaic systems with variable salinity, often nuseries for fish and supporting abundant seabirds and mammals..

Overview of distribution

Coastlines globally.

Map description

Marine ecoregions (Spalding et al. 2008) containing major or minor occurrences of each ecosystem functional group were identified by consulting global and regional reviews, maps of relevant ecosystems, imagery available in Google Earth and expertise of authors. Occurrences were converted to 30 arc second spatial resolution and clipped to a 20 km buffer along the coastline to exlcude inland and offshore areas of the ecoregions..

Map code and version: FM1.2.web.map v1.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): R Mac Nally; R Kingsford; MJ Bishop; RJ Woodland; KA Dafforn; DA Keith.1
  • v2.01 (NA): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-27): R Mac Nally; R Kingsford; MJ Bishop; RJ Woodland; KA Dafforn; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): RC Mac Nally; RT Kingsford; MJ Bishop; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-05-20): RC Mac Nally; RT Kingsford; MJ Bishop; DA Keith.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Indicative Map (code: FM1.2.IM.orig, version v2.0)
  • Web navigation (code: FM1.2.web.map, version v1.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

  • Web navigation: discarded (code: FM1.2.web.orig, version v2.0)
  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: FM1.2.IM.orig, version v1.0)
  • Web navigation: requires review (code: FM1.2.web.orig, version v1.0)

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Gillanders BM (2007) Linking terrestrial-freshwater and marine environments: an example from estuarine systems Marine ecology (Eds. Connell, SD and Gillanders, BM). Chapter 11. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. ISBN 978-0-19-555302-4

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Spalding MD, Fox HE, Allen GR, Davidson N, Ferdaña ZA, Finlayson M, Halpern BS, Jorge MA, Lombana A, Lourie SA, Martin KD, McManus E, Molnar J, Recchia CA, Robertson J (2007) Marine ecoregions of the world: a bioregionalization of coastal and shelf areas. Bioscience 57: 573–583. DOI:10.1641/B570707

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎