Continental Antarctica (AN1) Continental Antarctica (AN1)

Image credits: (1) Courtesy of Hannes Grobe (2) Courtesy of Aleks Terauds

Continental Antarctica Bioregion

The bioregion’s land area is provided in units of 1,000 hectares. The protection goal is the combined Global Safety Net (GSN1) areas for the component ecoregions. The protection level indicates the percentage of the GSN goal that is currently protected on a scale of 0-10. N/A means data is not available at this time.

  • N/A
    Total Land Area (1000 ha)
  • 10
    Number of Ecoregions
  • N/A
    Protection Target
  • N/A
    Protection level

The main Antarctica bioregion includes the entirety of the Antarctic continent, with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula. It consists of ice-covered land, glaciers, and coastal ice sheets but also includes a variety of coastal tundra habitats important for biodiversity. The bioregion includes 10 tundra ecoregions altogether—Adelie Land Tundra (117), Dronning Maud Land Tundra (119), East Antarctic Tundra (120), Ellsworth Land Tundra (121), Ellsworth Mountains Tundra (122), Enderby Land Tundra (123), Marie Byrd Land Tundra (124), North Victoria Land Tundra (125), South Victoria Land Tundra (132) Transantarctic Mountains Tundra (134)—and adjacent marine areas in the Southern Ocean, which shelter an abundance of wildlife, including penguins, blue whales, orcas, colossal squids, fur seals, many endemic fish species, and the nesting ground for over 100 million birds.

Learn more about each of the Continental Antarctica ecoregions below.

Snow petrel

Iconic Species

Snow petrel
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