The Southern Ocean Ecosystem (Antarctic)
The Polar Front relegates the Southern Ocean as a closed ecosystem.
The Southern Ocean consists of deep basins separated from each other by three large undersea mountain ridges:
- “Macquarie Ridge” south of New Zealand and Tasmania;
- Kerguelen–Gaussberg Ridge positioned at approximately 80°E; and
- Scotia Ridge which stretches from the coastal shelf at South Patagonia arching eastward toward the South Shetland Islands and islands of the Antarctic Ocean.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is an ocean current that transports 90-140 Sverdrup (Sv) of polar…
