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• Executive Summary
• 1.0 Introduction
• 2.0 Methods
• 3.1 The Oceanography of the New Zealand Marine Ecoregion
• 3.2 Cetaceans, seals, and seabirds
• 3.3 Fishes
• 3.4 Benthic invertebrates, algae, and plants
• 3.5 Information gaps
• 3.6 Future steps for the future of Biodiversity
• 4.0 Discussion
• 5.0 References
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Appendix 3
• Appendix 4

Appendix 1

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WWF Methodology for selection of the Global 200 ecoregions

Ecoregions were derived using a hierarchical methodology in which biodiversity was stratified by the terrestrial, freshwater, and marine realms, major habitat types, and biogeography. In the terrestrial realm 14 major habitat types were identified, such as mangroves, flooded grasslands and savannas, temperate coniferous forests, and tundra. Among the seven major freshwater habitats types are large rivers, small lakes, and xeric basins. The marine realm includes a total of nine major habitats types: polar, temperate shelf and seas, temperate upwelling, tropical upwelling, tropical coral, pelagic trades, pelagic westerlies, abyssal, and hadal (Olson et al. 2000). ¹³

In order to represent the unique biota on different continents or ocean basins each major habitat type was further subdivided by biogeographic realm, such as nearctic, southern ocean, Indo-Malayan, or Afrotropical. Consultation with regional experts, supplemented with extensive literature reviews led to the identification and evaluation of ecoregions. Ecoregion boundaries are intended to encompass an area within which important ecological and evolutionary processes strongly interact. Compared with the terrestrial realm, marine ecoregions are considered to be more dynamic ecological and biogeographic units both spatially and temporally. Thus, the ecoregion boundaries for the marine environment were not as clearly defined.

Of the ecoregions identified, 238 were considered to be globally outstanding in terms of their biological distinctiveness and were selected as the subset known as the Global 200. The parameters used to define biological distinctiveness were species richness, endemism, higher taxonomic uniqueness, extraordinary ecological or evolutionary phenomena, and global rarity of the major habitat type (Olson et al. 2000). Inclusion of ecoregions in the Global 200 based on these criteria estimates the “urgency” for action in these areas based on opportunities for conserving distinct units around the world.

^{13 Although nine major habitat types were identified for the marine realm, four were not assessed for the Global 200 marine analysis: pelagic trades, pelagic westerlies, abyssal, and hadal habitats. These habitat types differed in scale from other Global 200 ecoregions and have particularly limited biodiversity information.}