Arctic Council Working Group PAME released a collection of maps and factsheets describing 18 LMEs of the Arctic
Arctic Council says its Working Group PAME (Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment) has recently released a collection of maps and factsheets describing the 18 Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) of the Arctic, as laid out in a revision of the Arctic LME map that was accepted and adopted at the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Kiruna, Sweden in 2013. These maps and factsheets provide a concise overview of each LME, including a species overview. They provide an excellent way to map and understand the Arctic according to natural boundaries.
Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) are regions of ocean space of 200,000 square kilometers or greater that encompass coastal areas from river basins and estuaries to the outer margins of a continental shelf or the seaward extent of a predominant coastal current. The concept of Large Marine Ecosystems has been in use for roughly 30 years, and it is closely related to the Arctic Council’s work on the ecosystem approach to management, much of which is led by PAME.
