The Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecozone is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 marine ecozone

Ecozones of Canada

The ecozones of Canada consist of fifteen terrestrial and five marine ecozones in Canada. These are further subdivided into 53 ecoprovinces, 194 ecoregions, and 1021 ecodistricts...

 forming a transitional region between the cold northern waters of the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

 and the more temperate waters in its southern extent.

Geography

Stretching in a narrow strip offshore from Ellesmere Island

Ellesmere Island

Ellesmere Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Lying within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, it is considered part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, with Cape Columbia being the most northerly point of land in Canada...

 and Devon Island

Devon Island

Devon Island , claimed to be the largest uninhabited island on Earth, is located in Baffin Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada's sixth largest island, and the 27th...

 in Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...

, it runs parallel to the coast of Bylot Island

Bylot Island

Bylot Island lies off the northern end of Baffin Island in Nunavut Territory, Canada. At it is ranked 71st largest island in the world and Canada's 17th largest island. It is also one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. While there are no permanent settlements on this Canadian Arctic...

 and Baffin Island

Baffin Island

Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the largest island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is and its population is about 11,000...

 until meeting it at the Cumberland Peninsula

Cumberland Peninsula

Cumberland Peninsula is a peninsula in the southeastern part of Baffin Island, in Nunavut, Canada. It is located between 64°56' and 67°57' north latitude, and 61°56' to 68° west longitude. The Arctic Circle crosses the peninsula, with the Labrador Sea to the southeast, and the Davis Strait to the...

. It covers the waters of the Davis Strait

Davis Strait

Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis , who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage....

 and the Hudson Strait

Hudson Strait

Hudson Strait links the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay in Canada. It lies between Baffin Island and the northern coast of Quebec, its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley and Resolution Island. It is long...

, Ungava Bay

Ungava Bay

Ungava Bay is a large bay in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik from Baffin Island. The bay is shaped like a rounded square with a side length of about and has an area of approximately...

 and portions of the Labrador Sea

Labrador Sea

The Labrador Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, and northeast. It connects to the north with Baffin Bay through the Davis Strait...

, including all coastal areas of Labrador

Labrador

Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...

 and the northern coast of Newfoundland. It also includes the Gulf of Saint Lawrence

Gulf of Saint Lawrence

The Gulf of Saint Lawrence , the world's largest estuary, is the outlet of North America's Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean...

 to the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River

Saint Lawrence River

The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...

.

The cold, highly saline North Atlantic Deep Water

North Atlantic Deep Water

North Atlantic Deep Water is a water mass that forms in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is largely formed in the Labrador Sea and in the Greenland Sea by the sinking of highly saline, dense overflow water from the Greenland Sea...

 forms in the Labrador Sea and flows at great depth along the western edge of the North Atlantic

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

. Moreover, in this ecozone the cold Labrador Current meets the Gulf Stream

Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...

 at the Grand Banks

Grand Banks

The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus southeast of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream here.The mixing of these waters...

, and together with the freshwater

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 discharge from the Saint Lawrence River, moderate the climate of the coastal areas of the Maritimes

Maritimes

The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...

.

There are more than 440,000 islands in this zone.

Regions

This ecozone consists of eight regions, namely:

• Hudson Strait
  Hudson Strait
  Hudson Strait links the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay in Canada. It lies between Baffin Island and the northern coast of Quebec, its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley and Resolution Island. It is long...
  
  
• Labrador Shelf
• Newfoundland Shelf
• North Gulf Shelf
• Saint Lawrence River Estuary
• Magdalen Shallows
• Laurentian Channel
  Laurentian Channel
  The Laurentian Channel is a submarine valley in eastern Canada.The channel is of glacial origin and is the submerged valley of the historic St. Lawrence River, running 1400 km from a sharp escarpment downstream from the confluence of the St. Lawrence with the Saguenay River, past Anticosti Island...
  
  
• Scotian Shelf (only a small portion near Cape Breton Island
  Cape Breton Island
  Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
  
  )

Climate

This ecozone's climate varies throughout its extent, with temperatures differing by 20°C between the arctic waters in the north and the Gulf Stream in the south. Sub-surface temperatures are always below the freezing point

Freezing Point

Freezing Point is a news journal in the People's Republic of China which has been the subject of controversy over its criticism of Communist Party officials and the sympathetic ear it lent to a Chinese historian who had criticized official history textbooks...

, but the salinity of the waters prevents them from freezing. Surface sea ice

Sea ice

Sea ice is largely formed from seawater that freezes. Because the oceans consist of saltwater, this occurs below the freezing point of pure water, at about -1.8 °C ....

 forms throughout this region, and thousands of iceberg

Iceberg

An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...

s may be observed between the northeast coast of Newfoundland and the Grand Banks. The Saint Lawrence River freezes over during the winter, closing the important shipping channel

Channel (geography)

In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or human-made deeper course through a reef, sand bar, bay, or any shallow body of water...

 until the ice clears in the summer.

Summer tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

s may reach 9 to 12 m, though they tend to be exaggerated in Ungava Bay and more subdued in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.