Temperate South America

Temperate South America is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the temperate and subtropical waters of South America, including both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the continent and adjacent islands. It also includes the remote Gough Island and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Marine life off the coast of Santa Catarina, Brazil

Temperate Southern Africa is a marine realm, one of the great biogeographic divisions of the world's ocean basins.

On the Atlantic coast, Temperate South America transitions to the Tropical Atlantic marine realm near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. On the Pacific coast, it extends to Punta Aguja in northern Peru, where it transitions to the Tropical Eastern Pacific realm. To the south lies the Southern Ocean.[1]

The Atlantic coast is influenced by the Brazil Current, which carries warm tropical waters south along the coast. On the Pacific coast, the cold Humboldt Current carries cold Antarctic waters north towards the tropics.

Subdivisions

The Temperate South America realm is divided into five marine provinces. The three larger provinces are composed of smaller ecoregions.[2]

  • Warm Temperate Southeastern Pacific
  • Warm Temperate Southwestern Atlantic

References
  1. 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. 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.
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