Large amounts of nutrients arrive from the northwest flowing Malvinas Current and from the continental runoff of the Rio de la Plata.

The region is of particular conservation concern because this elevated biodiversity is combined with pollution and development of the nearby ports and cities, and a warming trend in the surface currents.

[1] The bordering coast is generally sandy beach, a string of coastal lagoons, and scrub shrub; the terrestrial interior is the Uruguayan savanna ecoregion.

South of the Rio de la Plata, the coast becomes dunes and cliffs fronting the flat grassland of the Humid Pampas.

[1] The most commercially important fish are the white mouth croaker (genus Micropogonias), striped weakfish (Cynoscion guatucupa), and among the cephalopods the shortfin squid (Illex argentinus).