The Northeast Shelf Province is a

biogeographic Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

region of Australia's coastal and continental shelf waters. It includes the tropical coastal waters of the central and southern

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

in northeastern Australia. It is a provincial level bioregion in the

Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia The Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA), formerly the Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia, is a biogeographic regionalisation of the oceanic waters of Australia's exclusive economic zone (EE ...

(IMCRA) system."A Guide to the Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia Version 4.0". Department of Environment and Heritage, Government of Australia. June 2006. ISBN 0 642 552274. It corresponds to the Central and Southern Great Barrier Reef

marine ecoregion A marine ecoregion is an ecoregion, or ecological region, of the oceans and seas identified and defined based on biogeographic characteristics. Introduction A more complete definition describes them as “Areas of relatively homogeneous species ...

in the WWF's Marine Ecoregions of the World system.

Geography

The Northeast Shelf Province extends along the eastern coast of Australia, from

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repai ...

/ Cairns at its northern end to just north of

Baffle Creek The Baffle Creek is a creek in Central Queensland, Australia. Course and features The Baffle Creek rises near Arthurs Seat in the Eurimbula State Forest and just south of the Eurimbula National Park in the Great Dividing Range. The creek fl ...

at its southern end. It extends from the shore to the edge of the continental shelf, and includes the central and southern portion of the Great Barrier Reef. On the north it adjoins the

Northeast Shelf Transition The Northeast Shelf Transition is a biogeographic region of Australia's coastal and continental shelf waters. It includes the tropical coastal waters of the northern Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait in northeastern-most Australia. It is a ...

, which includes the northern portion of the Great Barrier Reef and the

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

. On the south it adjoins the

Central Eastern Shelf Transition Tweed–Moreton, also known as the Central Eastern Shelf Transition, is a marine biogeographic region of eastern Australia. The region includes the coastal and estuarine waters from just north of the Baffle Creek estuary in Queensland to north ...

, the transition between the tropical waters of eastern Australia to the warm temperate coastal waters further south.

Meso-scale bioregions

The province contains six meso-scale bioregions: * West Tropic Coast (WTC) * Central Reef (CR) * Lucinda-Mackay Coast (LMC) * Shoalwater Coast (SC) * Mackay-Capricorn (MC) * Pompey-Swains (PS)

Ecology

The bioregion has the greatest number of coral reef species in Australia. These include many eastern tropical endemic species, some of which extend into the adjacent transition regions.

References

{{reflist Biogeography of Queensland Ecoregions of Australia IMCRA provincial bioregions Central Indo-Pacific Coastline of Queensland Great Barrier Reef