The Northeast Shelf Transition 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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's coastal and

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

waters. It includes the tropical coastal waters of the northern

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, ...

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 ...

in northeastern-most 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 Torres Strait and Northern Great Barrier Reef

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

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

Geography

The Northeast Shelf Province extends along the eastern coast of Australia, from west of Cape York, the northern tip of Australia, southwards to

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 repairs ...

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

. It extends from the shore to the edge of the continental shelf, and includes the Northern portion of the Great Barrier Reef and the waters around the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

. On the west it adjoins the

Northern Shelf Province The Northern Shelf Province, also known as Arnhem Coast to Gulf of Carpentaria, is a biogeographic region of Australia's continental shelf. It includes the coastal waters of Arnhem Land and the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Australia. Geogr ...

, which includes the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...

and Australian portion of the

Arafura Sea The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea. Geography The Arafura Sea is ...

. On the south it adjoins the

Northeast Shelf Province The Northeast Shelf Province is a biogeographic region of Australia's coastal and continental shelf waters. It includes the tropical coastal waters of the central and southern Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Australia. It is a provincial leve ...

, which includes the central and southern portion of the Great Barrier Reef.

Meso-scale bioregions

The province contains three meso-scale bioregions: * East Cape York (ECY) * Torres Strait (TS) * Ribbons (RBN)

Ecology

The biota includes the a large group of

Central Indo-Pacific The Central Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean, and the connecting seas. The Central Indo-Pacific is a part of the larger Indo-Pacific, w ...

species that reach their eastern limit on Australia's eastern coast, and a smaller group of northeastern Australian endemic species from the North Eastern Province.

References

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