The Southeast 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 country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

'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 islan ...

waters. It covers a portion of Australia's southeastern coast, from southern

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

to eastern

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, including the islands of the

Kent Group The Kent Group are a grouping of six granite islands located in Bass Strait, north-west of the Furneaux Group in Tasmania, Australia. Collectively, the group is comprised within the Kent Group National Park. The islands were named Kent's Grou ...

and

Furneaux Group The Furneaux Group is a group of approximately 100 islands located at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named after British navigator Tobias Furneaux, who sighted the eastern side of ...

at the eastern end of the

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The ...

. 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 (EEZ ...

(IMCRA) system, and is a transitional region between the warm temperate Central Eastern Shelf Province to the northeast and the cool temperate Bass Strait Shelf and Tasmanian Shelf provinces to the west and south."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 Cape Howe

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 Southeast Shelf Province extends along Australia's southeastern coast from south of

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

in New South Wales to

Wilsons Promontory Wilsons Promontory is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. South Point (Wilsons Promontory), South Point at is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promon ...

in Victoria, and south to Cape Portland at Tasmania's northeastern tip, enclosing the Furneaux and

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

groups of islands at the eastern end of the

. It adjoins the Bass Strait Shelf Province on the southwest, and the Tasmanian Shelf Province on the south. On the east it extends to the edge of the

. The transition marks the southernmost influence of the warm

East Australian Current The East Australian Current (EAC) is a warm, southward, western boundary current that is formed from the South Equatorial Current (SEC) crossing the Coral Sea and reaching the eastern coast of Australia. At around 15° S near the Australian co ...

, which brings warmer water as far as the eastern Bass Strait.

Meso-scale bioregions

The province contains three meso-scale bioregions: * Twofold Shelf * Batemans Shelf * Flinders

Ecology

The biota of the bioregion is dominated by warm temperate species characteristic of the Central Eastern Province, with a smaller number of cool-temperate species from the Bass Strait Shelf and Tasmanian provinces, and a few tropical species from the

Northeast Shelf Province The Northeast Shelf Province is a biogeography, 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 pro ...

. There is a major disjunction of species' ranges at

Cape Howe Cape Howe is a coastal headland in eastern Australia, forming the south-eastern end of the Black-Allan Line, a portion of the border between New South Wales and Victoria. History Cape Howe was named by Captain Cook Captain James Cook ...

, which marks the southernmost range of several warm water species and the northern extent of several cold temperate species.

References

{{reflist Biogeography of New South Wales Biogeography of Victoria (state) Biogeography of Tasmania Ecoregions of Australia Marine ecoregions IMCRA provincial bioregions Temperate Australasia Coastline of New South Wales Coastline of Tasmania Coastline of Victoria (state)