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Temperate Australasia is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the temperate and subtropical waters of
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
and
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
, including both the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
and Pacific coasts of the continent and adjacent islands. Temperate Australasia is a marine realm, one of the great biogeographic divisions of the world's ocean basins. Temperate Australasia encompasses the western, southern, and southeastern coasts of Australia, and Tasmania. The tropical waters of northern Australia are part of the
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 ...
marine realm. Temperate Australasia includes New Zealand's
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...
and
South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
s, the
Kermadec Islands The Kermadec Islands ( mi, Rangitāhua) are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are in total ar ...
, Chatham Island, and Snares Island. The rest of New Zealand's subantarctic islands are part of the
Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-smal ...
realm.Spalding, Mark D., Helen E. Fox, Gerald R. Allen, Nick Davidson ''et al'' (2007). "Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas". ''Bioscience'' Vol. 57 No. 7, July/August 2007, pp. 573–58

/ref> In large parts of the realm along the southern coast of continental Australia, a network of rocky reefs and kelp forests has created a unique biodiversity hotspot known popularly as the
Great Southern Reef The Great Southern Reef is a system of interconnected reefs that spans the southern coast of continental Australia and Tasmania and extends as far north as Brisbane to the east and Kalbarri to the west. It covers of ocean and straddles five sta ...
.


Subdivisions

The Temperate Australasia realm is divided into five marine provinces. The provinces are divided into marine ecoregions. * Northern New Zealand province **
Kermadec Islands The Kermadec Islands ( mi, Rangitāhua) are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are in total ar ...
** Northeastern New Zealand **
Three Kings-North Cape 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...
* Southern New Zealand province ** Chatham Island ** Central New Zealand ** South New Zealand ** Snares Island * East Central Australian Shelf province **
Tweed-Moreton 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 ...
**
Manning-Hawkesbury The Central Eastern Shelf Province is a biogeographic region of Australia's coastal and continental shelf waters. It includes the warm temperate coastal waters of eastern Australia. It is a provincial level bioregion in the Integrated Marine and ...
* Southeast Australian Shelf province ** Cape Howe ** Bassian **
Western Bassian The Western Bass Strait Shelf Transition is a biogeographic region of Australia's coastal and continental shelf waters. It is a transitional region between the cold-temperate Bass Strait Shelf and Tasmanian Shelf provinces and the warm-tempera ...
* Southwest Australian Shelf province **
South Australian Gulfs The Spencer Gulf Shelf Province, also known as the South Australian Gulfs marine ecoregion, is a biogeographic region of Australia's continental shelf and coastal waters. It includes the warm temperate coastal waters of South Australia's central ...
(207) **
Great Australian Bight The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia. Extent Two definitions of the extent are in use – one used by the International Hydrog ...
(208) ** Leeuwin (209) * Western Central Australian Shelf province **
Shark Bay Shark Bay ( Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...
** Houtman


References

{{Biomes Marine realms Indian Ocean Pacific Ocean