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Ecoregionalisation is a process that aims to identify areas with distinct biological content and associated environmental conditions. It improves on many traditional approaches to regionalisation by explicitly incorporating biological data into classifications. Ecoregionalisations are useful for improving our ecological understanding of marine ecosystems and for informing spatial management. This includes providing information to aid in defining and prioritising areas for conservation, evaluating current spatial management arrangements, targeting monitoring efforts and managing human activities (e.g. Grant et al., 2006; Douglass et al., 2014). The Kerguelen Plateau is a highly productive region of the southern Indian Ocean that supports lucrative demersal fisheries (Duhamel and Welsford, 2011). It is subject to spatial management in the form of marine protected areas (MPAs) with varying levels of protection (Commonwealth of Australia, 2014; Koubbi et al., 2016). Recently two ecoregionalisations have been independently generated for the northern Kerguelen Plateau; one for benthic invertebrates (Martin et al., 2018) and another for demersal fish (Hill et al., 2017). Here we conduct a preliminary analysis examining the congruence between these ecoregionalisations that represent different components of the demersal ecosystem.

Item Type:	Refereed Conference Paper
Keywords:	bioregionalisation, ecoregionalisation, benthic, fish, invertebrates, conservation
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Ecology
Research Field:	Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology)
Objective Division:	Environmental Management
Objective Group:	Management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments
Objective Field:	Assessment and management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean ecosystems
UTAS Author:	Hill, NA (Dr Nicole Hill)
ID Code:	134767
Year Published:	2019
Deposited By:	Ecology and Biodiversity
Deposited On:	2019-09-03
Last Modified:	2022-11-08
Downloads:	30 View Download Statistics