Coastal marine fauna and marine climates of the Americas
Hayden BP and Dolan R. 1976. Coastal marine fauna and marine climates of the Americas. Journal of Biogeography. 3(1):71-81
Geographic ranges of 968 marine species along coastal areas of the Americas, excluding the Arctic, were analysed for co-ranges and compared with recent classifications of coastal marine and wave climates. Forty-two co-ranges and thirty-nine characteristic endpoints are reported. Many faunal boundaries correspond to those of previous studies, and thirty of the thirty-nine characteristic endpoints coincide with transition regions of the physical environment previously determined through analysis of motion fields of marine and atmospheric fluids. The hydrodynamics of the coastal marine environment give rise to the extant thermal structure of coastal waters and as such to the faunal distributional patterns exhibited. The high level of coincidence between biotic and abiotic zones of change along the coast clearly merits the use of both coastal marine fauna and the hydrodynamics of adjacent waters to establish the marine provinces of the coastal environment. Abstract provided by author.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Hayden, Bruce; Dolan, Robert
- Units
- BISC
- Keywords
- Climates, Coastal, Distributional, environments, Fauna, Hydrodynamics, Identification, Marine, Patterns, Species, Temperature, Wave