Key ecological features are the parts of the marine ecosystem that are considered to be of importance for a marine region's biodiversity or ecosystem function and integrity. Key ecological features (KEFs) meet one or more of the following criteria: 1. a species, group of species, or a community with a regionally important ecological role (e.g. a predator, prey that affects a large biomass or number of other marine species); 2. a species, group of species, or a community that is nationally or regionally important for biodiversity; 3. an area or habitat that is nationally or regionally important for: a) enhanced or high productivity (such as predictable upwellings - an upwelling occurs when cold nutrient-rich waters from the bottom of the ocean rise to the surface); b) aggregations of marine life (such as feeding, resting, breeding or nursery areas); c) biodiversity and endemism (species which only occur in a specific area); or 4. a unique seafloor feature, with known or presumed ecological properties of regional significance. KEFs have been identified by the Australian Government on the basis of advice from scientists about the ecological processes and characteristics of the area. A workshop held in Darwin in 2007 also contributed to this scientific advice and helped to underpin the identification of key ecological features. As new information becomes available, the spatial representations of identified key ecological features will continue to be refined and updated. Sixteen KEFs have been identified in the South-west Marine Region: 1. Commonwealth marine environment surrounding the Houtman Abrolhos Islands 2. Perth Canyon and adjacent shelf break, and other west coast canyons 3. Commonwealth marine environment within and adjacent to the west coast inshore lagoons 4. Commonwealth marine environment within and adjacent to Geographe Bay 5. Cape Mentelle upwelling 6. Naturaliste Plateau 7. Diamantina Fracture Zone 8. Albany Canyons group and adjacent shelf break 9. Commonwealth marine environment surrounding the Recherche Archipelago 10. Ancient coastline at 90-120 m depth 11. Kangaroo Island Pool, canyons and adjacent shelf break, and Eyre Peninsula upwellings. 12. Meso-scale eddies (points). 13. Western demersal slope and associated fish communities. 14. Western rock lobster. 15. Benthic invertebrate communities of the eastern Great Australian Bight. No spatial representation available. 16. Small pelagic fish of the South-west Marine Region. No spatial representation available. Thirteen KEFs have been identified in the North-west Marine Region: 1. Ancient coastline at 125 m depth contour 2. Ashmore Reef and Cartier Island and surrounding Commonwealth waters 3. Canyons linking the Argo Abyssal Plain and Scott Plateau 4. Canyons linking the Cuvier Abyssal Plain and the Cape Range Peninsula 5. Carbonate bank and terrace system of the Sahul Shelf 6. Commonwealth waters adjacent to Ningaloo Reef 7. Continental Slope Demersal Fish Communities 8. Exmouth Plateau 9. Glomar Shoals 10. Mermaid Reed and Commonwealth waters surrounding the Rowley Shoals 11. Pinnacles of the Bonaparte Basin 12. Seringapatam Reef and Commonwealth waters in the Scott Reef Complex 13. Wallaby Saddle Eight KEFs have been identified in the North Marine Region: 1. Carbonate bank and terrace system of the Van Diemen Rise 2. Shelf break and slope of the Arafura Shelf 3. Tributary canyons of the Arafura Depression 4. Gulf of Carpentaria basin 5. Gulf of Carpentaria coastal zone 6. Plateaux and saddle north-west of the Wellesley Islands 7. Pinnacles of the Bonaparte Basin 8. Submerged coral reefs of the Gulf of Carpentaria Three KEFs have been identified in the Coral Sea: 1. Tasmantid seamount chain 2. Reefs, cays and hebivorous fish of the Queensland Plateau 3. Reefs, cays and hebivorous fish of the Marion Plateau Eight KEFs were identified in the Temperate East marine Region: 1. Tasmantid seamount chain 2. Lord Howe seamount chain 3. Norfolk Ridge 4. Canyons on the eastern continental slope 5. Shelf rocky reefs 6. Elizabeth and Middleton reefs 7. Upwelling off Fraser Island 8. Tasman Front and eddy field Eight KEFs were identified in the South-east Marine Region. 1. Seamounts, east and south of Tasmania 2. West Tasmanian canyons 3. Bonney coast upwelling 4. Upwelling east of Eden 5. Big Horseshoe canyon 6. East Tasmania tropical convergence zone. No spatial representation available 7. Bass cascade. No spatial representation available 8. Shelf rocky reefs and hard substrate. No spatial representation available In order to create a spatial representation of KEFs for each Marine Region, some interpretation of the information was required. DSEWPaC has made every effort to use the best available spatial information and best judgement on how to spatially represent the features based on the scientific advice provided. This does not preclude others from making their own interpretation of available information.

Consistent with the Australian Government's commitment to develop a National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), networks of Commonwealth Marine Reserves have been proclaimed for Commonwealth waters across the South-west, North-west, North, Coral Sea and Temperate East Marine Regions. These networks build on previous Marine Protected Area proclamations, including the South-east network declared in 2007.\\n\\nThis dataset is released under Creative Commons by Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Australia (CC BY-NC 3.0).\\n\\nIMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR MARINE USERS\\nTransitional arrangements apply to the South-west, North-west, North and Temperate East Networks and the Coral Sea reserve, until management plans come into effect. These arrangements involve NO CHANGES ON THE WATER for marine users. Note, there are no changes to management arrangements in the marine reserves that existed prior to the establishment of the new reserves, that is, the same restrictions on activities will continue to apply even where those reserves have been incorporated into new reserves. The South-east Network of Commonwealth Marine Reserves is managed under the South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserves Network Management Plan 2013-23, in place from 1 July 2013. More information is available at www.environment.gov.au/marinereserves \\n\\nThis data contains spatial and contextual information about Commonwealth Marine Reserves under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth governments Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which are managed by the Australian Government Department of the Environment. It does not include data on MPA's in other Australian jurisdictions (e.g. the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, State/Territory parks), or Terrestrial Protected Areas with marine components (eg Pulu Keeling National Park).

A regionalisation of Australian waters (excluding waters adjacent to the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and waters adjacent to the Australian Antarctic Territory) derived from deep-water demersal fish assemblages. A total of 41 onshelf and offshelf provincial bioregions were identified for IMCRA v4.0. Onshelf provincial bioregions are based on the 17 IMCRA v3.3 demersal provinces and biotones identified in 1997. Offshelf provincial bioregions were defined in 2004 as part of a program run by Geoscience Australia, CSIRO Marine Research and the National Oceans Office. They represent units that contain broad patterns in biodiversity, as represented by deep-water demersal fish assemblages, based on the assumption that the demersal fish distributions are a surrogate of marine faunal distributions. Below 2,000 m water depth, the boundaries of the benthic provincial bioregions are defined solely by the NMB (National Marine Bioregionalisation) geomorphic features data set. A total of 24 offshelf benthic provincial bioregions were defined on this basis, including 15 core bioregions representing areas of endemism, and 9 transition zones representing areas of faunal mixing. For IMCRA v4.0 the coastline was replaced with the national 100k coastline to provide greater consistency. The Australian EEZ limit was sourced from AMB v2. Based on a decision by the Bioregionalisation Working Group, the shelf break from IMCRA v3.3 was largely retained, although in some instances the shelf break from the NMB (National Marine Bioregionalisation) provincial bioregions was used.