Oceanographers are carving up the world’s seas like the last of the holiday turkey. A new 3D map sorts global water masses—from deep, frigid circumpolar waters to the oxygen-starved Black Sea—into 37 categories. The map groups together marine regions of similar temperature, salinity, oxygen and nutrient levels. It has been available for only a few months, and researchers are still working through how they might use it. But its international team of developers hopes that the map will help conservationists, government officials and others to better understand the biogeography of the oceans and make decisions about which areas to preserve.
