What Is Continental Shelf Ecosystems

Continental shelf large marine ecosystem nes lme and their importance in developing ecosystem based fisheries management for this region.

What is continental shelf ecosystems.

Much of these shelves has been exposed during glacial periods and interglacial periods the shelf surrounding an island is known as an insular shelf. Almost all life on earth relies on photosynthetic organisms such as plants and algae. A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water known as a shelf sea. This effort is being made in order acquire more knowledge on the shelf in order to not only increase the nation s economic growth but to also make more.

Even though they are underwater continental shelves are. Continental margin environments including estuarine salt marsh mangrove forest coral reef continental shelf and continental slope ecosystems are the interface zone between oceanic and terrestrial realms with gateways also to the atmosphere and solid earth sediment reservoirs. The delicate ecosystem of the continental shelf is constantly studied and monitored by thousands of marine biologists around the world. A continental shelf is the edge of a continent that lies under the ocean continents are the seven main divisions of land on earth.

It is one of the sub categories within the section dealing with biodiversity of marine habitats and ecosystems it gives an overview about the characteristics processes such as sedimentation and biota. The continental margin between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain comprises a steep continental slope. Continental shelf ecosystem microscopic single celled algae known as phytoplankton are responsible for nearly all primary production globally primary producers generate almost half of earth s oxygen and are the base of most marine food webs. Since 2003 the united states extended continental shelf project has been working to determine the geographical end of america s continental shelf past the 200 nautical miles outlined in the legal boundary.

Transports between these carbon reservoirs exert critical. In the northeast u s. This site describes our current understanding of ecosystem properties of the northeast u s. This article describes the habitat of the continental shelf.

A continental shelf extends from the coastline of a continent to a drop off point called the shelf break from the break the shelf descends toward the deep ocean floor in what is called the continental slope. Effects of pollution and overfishing are devastating to the point of near extinction for some animals and loss of wetlands according to proceedings of the national academy of sciences pnas.