ABSTRACT
The Indian Tropical Region, named for the Indian Subcontinent, spans the northern half of the Indian Ocean, from southern Mozambique to southern Somalia along East Africa, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea coast from Pakistan to southern India, the entire Bay of Bengal, the western coast of Thailand to northern Sumatra, and the Andaman Sea, but does not include the west coast of Australia. Numerous very large rivers empty into the Indian Ocean basin, increasing the nutrient levels along much of the adjacent coastlines and supporting species-rich, high-productivity ecosystems. Some of these high-effluent rivers include the Irrawaddy of Myanmar, the Ganges, Godavari, and Indus of India and Pakistan, and the Zambezi, Ruvuma, and Tana of East Africa. Named for the Malabar Coast of southwestern India (Goa south to Kanyakumari), the Malabaran Subprovince encompasses the entire eastern half of the Arabian Sea and also the Laccadive and Maldive Atolls.
