GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF RAMS AND SCAR-MarBIN / ANTOBIS DISTRIBUTION DATA
(SCAR-MarBIN Area of Interest)
The SCAR-MarBIN “area of interest” is the Southern Ocean in its wide sense, as used by
oceanographers (e.g. Deacon 1984, Tréguer & Jacques 1992, Longhurst 1998, Rintoul 2007)
(see map below).
The priority however is given to the Antarctic region (Southern Ocean s.s. or “Antarctic
Ocean”), i.e. the water masses extending south of the Polar Front (formerly known as the
Antarctic Convergence) to the coasts of the Antarctic continent. All taxa occurring south of the
Polar Front should be included in RAMS, as well as (as far as possible) all georeferenced
records in SCAR-MarBIN / ANTOBIS.
The sub-Antarctic region, here defined as the expanses of water extending from the Polar
Front in the south to the Subtropical front in the north (see precisions below), is being
progressively covered as well.
The location of the various hydrographic fronts of the Southern Ocean is based on Orsi et al.
(1995), as modified by Moore et al. (1999) for the location of Antarctic Polar Front south of
Kerguelen Islands on the Kerguelen Plateau.
See AAD Southern Ocean maps 2006 (with location of fronts according to Orsi et al. 1995),
downloadable as pdf’s at:
http://www.scarmarbin.be/documents/sthn_ocean_west_300dpi_13276.pdf
http://www.scarmarbin.be/documents/sthn_ocean_east_300dpi_13277.pdf
ANTARCTIC ZONE (Southern Ocean s.s. = Antarctic Ocean):
- True northern limit: Antarctic Polar Front (or Antarctic Convergence, 48°S to 63°S,
convenient average limit: 55°S).
- Operational northern limits for data trawling (see map below):
South Atlantic: - Between 60°W and 50°W:
57°S
- Between 50°W and 30°E:
50°S (same limits as CCAMLR)
Indian Ocean: - Between 30°E and 80°E:
50°S
- Between 80°E and 150°E:
55°S (same limits as CCAMLR)
South Pacific: - Between 150°E and 60°W:
60°S (same limits as CCAMLR)
SUB-ANTARCTIC ZONE
- True southern limit: the Antarctic Polar Front.
- True northern limit: the northernmost limit of the Southern Ocean s.l., i.e. the northern limit
of the extension of the sub-Antarctic water masses, which corresponds to the (nearly)
circumpolar sub-Tropical Front (30°S to 47°S, convenient average limit: 43°S).
In addition to the open ocean zones defined by hydrographic fronts, the SCAR-MarBIN “area of
interest” has also to take into account the sub-Antarctic coastal zones, in particular in southern
South America (i.e. the sub-Antarctic Magellanic biogeographic province; see e.g. Boltovskoy et
al. 1999; Lopez Gappa et al. 2006; De Broyer et al. 2007) and the various islands of the subAntarctic region (e.g. the New Zealand sub-Antarctic islands such as The Snares, Antipodes
and Bounty; see e.g. Knox 1987).
- Operational northern limits for data trawling (see map below):
South Atlantic and Indian Ocean:
Pacific Ocean:
- Between 65°W and 140°E:
- Between 140°E and 176°W:
- Between 176°W and 80°W:
- Between 80°W and 72°W:
43°S
48°S
45°S
41°S
Useful references:
Boltovskoy D., Gibbons M.J., Hutchings L. & Binet D., 1999. General biological features of the South
Atlantic. In: Boltovskoy D. (Ed.), 1999. South Atlantic Zooplankton. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. Vol. 1,
pp. 1-42.
Clarke A. & Johnston N., 2003. Antarctic marine benthic diversity. Oceanography and Marine Biology:
an Annual Review 41: 47-114.
Deacon G.E.R., 1984. The Antarctic Circumpolar Ocean. Cambridge University Press. 180 pp.
De Broyer C., Lowry, J.K., Jazdzewski, K., & Robert, H., 2007. Catalogue of the Gammaridean and
Corophiidean Amphipoda (Crustacea) of the Southern Ocean with distribution and ecological data. In: De
Broyer C. (Ed.). Census of Antarctic Marine Life. Synopsis of the Amphipoda of the Southern Ocean. Vol.
1. Bulletin de l’ Institt royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Biologie 77, Suppl. 1: 1-325.
Knox G.A., 1987. Littoral ecology of the subantarctic region: with special reference to the New Zealand
subantarctic islands. In: Colloque sur l’écologie marine des îles subantarctiques et antarctiques, Paris.
CNFRA, 57: 47–79.
Longhurst A.R., 1998. Ecological geography of the sea. Academic Press, 402 pp.
Lopez Gappa J., Alonso G.M. & Landoni N.A., 2006. Biodiversity of benthic Amphipoda (Crustacea:
Peracarida) in the Southwest Atlantic between 35°S and 56°S. Zootaxa 1342: 1-66.
Moore J.K., Abbott M.R. & Richman J.G., 1999. Location and dynamics of the Antarctic Polar Front from
satellite sea surface temperature data. Journal of Geophysican Research 104 (C2): 3059-3073.
Rintoul S., 2007. Antarctic Circumpolar Current. In: Riffenburgh B. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of the Antarctic.
Routledge, 234-239.
Orsi A.H., Whitworth T. & Nowlin W.D. 1995. On the meridional extent and fronts of the Antarctic
Circumpolar Current. Deep-Sea Research I 42(5): 641-673.
Tréguer P. & Jacques G. 1992. Dynamics of nutrients and phytoplankton, and fluxes of carbon, nitrogen
and silicon in the Antarctic Ocean (Review). Polar Biology 12 (2): 149-162.
Map from De Broyer & Danis, 2011 (How many species in the Southern Ocean? Towards a
dynamic inventory of the Antarctic marine biodiversity. Deep-Sea Research II 58: XX-YY)