It is widely recognized that interlinked ecosystems combine to form a whole that is. The principal plant communities are creosotetarbush desert scrub, desert grassland, yucca and juniper savannahs, and mountain forests of pinon pine and oak. Because of its size and range of latitude, topography, and climate, india is home to a great diversity of ecoregions, ranging from permanent ice and snow to tropical rainforests. In 1997, wwf embarked on ecoregion conservation as a response to the increased pace of degradation of the worlds. The information contained herein is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the cec, or the governments of canada, mexico or the united states of america. Learn more about this work in wwf documents and reports from priority ecoregions. Download datasets from the world wildlife funds conservation.
Indigenous and traditional peoples of the world and. Biodiversity hotspots and wwf global 200 ecoregions data basin. Ecoregions or biomes are large geographic units that encompass areas of unique ecological characteristics, often of a similar forest or vegetation type. Epa national health and environmental effects laboratory nheerl, 200 sw 35th street, corvallis, or 97333. This article, from the annals of the missouri botanical garden, explains the idea behind the global 200 238 ecoregions that represent the worlds most unique, irreplaceable and biologically diverse terrestrial, freshwater, and marine regions for easy analysis and comparison. Pdf file annals of the missouri botanical garden 89. Apr 11, 2011 biodiversity hotspots and wwf global 200 ecoregions apr 11, 2011 last modified apr 3, 2012 created by conservation biology institute. This process yielded 238 ecoregionsthe global 200comprised of 142 terrestrial, 53 freshwater, and. Priority ecoregions for global conservation1 david m. The global 200 ecoregions biodiversity is not spread evenly across the earth but follows complex patterns determined by climate, geology and the evolutionary history of the planet. Additionally, each state section contains links to downloadable maps in pdf format, and files containing gis datasets shapefiles, metadata, and symbology data.
Gould ecoregions with county outlines and county names\r\n keywords. Omernik 2004 elaborates on this by defining ecoregions as. I am removing the merge template from this article. Description of the ecoregions of the united states 2nd ed. The global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by wwf, the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. The consensus at list of ecoregions see talk seemed to be to leave list of ecoregions as a full list of wwf ecoregions, and this list as a list of wwfs global 200 ecoregions. Environmental protection agency office of research and developments western ecology division.
Due to the diversity of soils and elevations, many vegetation types exist in the region. Maps available in pdf format level iv ecoregions of texasposter front side 45 x 35 3. The intent of this paper is to analyze factors affecting the distribution of the earths major marine ecoregions. A total of 238 global 200 ecoregions have been identified of which 142 60% are terrestrial, 53 22% are freshwater, and 43 18% are marine. Dec 01, 2009 download datasets from the world wildlife funds conservation science program december 1, 2009 matt artz the conservation science program is developing its capacity to make available more of the data that wwf have created andor improved. This layer has been viewed 26206 times by 16290 users layer styles. Another 36 are agglomerations of two tow ecoregions into a single global 200 ecoregion. Conservation organizations and environmental agencies use the concept of an ecoregion to systematically understand how biodiversity levels and ecosystem dynamics differ. Level iii ecoregions of the continental united states. According to wwf, an ecoregion is defined as a relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species dynamics, and environmental conditions.
The applications of the ecoregions are explained in gallant et al. May, 2010 the global 200 ecoregions represent those ecoregions where wwf is initially focusing its ecoregion conservation efforts to develop biodiversity visions. The various subregions reflect the diversity of the transpecos. Ecoregions recur in similar form in various parts of the world. Indigenous and traditional peoples of the world and ecoregion. List of regions of india and climatic regions of india. In this study, we used a suite of models of global climate and vegetation change to investigate three important global warminginduced threats to the terrestrial global 200 ecoregions. The alps are amongst the 12 priority ecoregions of europe and the middle east as they represent a fine example of a particular habitat type, namely the europeanmediterranean montane mixed forests. The data is available from the usgs global ecosystems website. The material herein may be reproduced without seeking.
A global strategy to conserve biodiversity must aim to protect representative examples of all of the worlds ecosystems, as well as those areas that contain. Terrestrial ecoregions of the world oxford academic journals. An ecoregionbased approach to protecting half the terrestrial realm. We have developed a detailed map of the terrestrial ecoregions of the. Spacesterrestrial ecoregions, for the secretariat of the commission for environmental cooperation. There is a relevantly new usgs global ecosystem classification sayre et al. Ecoregions, gould, county outlines, county names created date. This process yielded 238 ecoregionsthe global 200comprised of 142 terrestrial, 53 freshwater, and 43 marine priority ecoregions. Biodiversity hotspots and wwf global 200 ecoregions apr 11, 2011 last modified apr 3, 2012 created by conservation biology institute. The following styles are associated with this data set.
The original ecoregion data was projected from albers to web mercator for this map service. This united states environmental protection agency us epa shared enterprise geodata and services segs web service displays level iii and level iv ecoregions of the united states and was created from ecoregion data. Erc is a philosophy and methodology of intervention recommended for ecoregions identified through the global 200 campaign of wwf. Biodiversity assessment and threats analysis for the wwf global. Environmental protection agency the ecoregions shown here have been derived from omernik 1987 and from refinements of omerniks framework that have been made for other projects.
Access to level iii and iv maps, gis data, and descriptive information can be obtained by clicking on any completed state in the status map below. Ecoregions prioritised for conservation, in the arctic wwf. In the united states, the epa and the united states geological survey usgs are the principal federal agencies working with the cec to define and map ecoregions. There are two global 200 ecoregions where we chose to aggregate a large number of regional scale ecoregions. Ecoregions of the rocky mountain research station robert g. Ecoregion conservation is currently well underway in many of wwfs global 200 ecoregions. Level iii ecoregions of the continental united states revised december 2011 national health and environmental effects research laboratory u. Download datasets from the world wildlife funds conservation science program december 1, 2009 matt artz the conservation science program is developing its capacity to make available more of the data that wwf have created andor improved.
This process yielded 238 ecoregions the global 200 comprised of 142 terrestrial, 53 freshwater, and 43 marine priority ecoregions. The pattern of these local ecosystems within regions recurs predictably. This graphic presents the ecoregion definitions identified by the world wildlife fund and associated experts, and specifically those ecoregions that have been designated as priority areas global 200 database for conservation. The global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by wwf as priorities for conservation. Clickable map of level iii and iv ecoregions by state. The 200 ecoregions were ranked based on their current and future threats and conservation status. Because funding for conservation action is limited, governments, donors, and conservation groups must be strategic and ear. The global 200 ecoregions represent those ecoregions where wwf is initially focusing its ecoregion conservation efforts to develop biodiversity visions. World wildlife fund global 200 terrestrial ecoregions. Wwf global 200 ecoregions bc integrated land management bureau bc ministry of forests regulations bc ministry of the environment environmental framework world resources institute frontier forest intact forests landscapes not mentioned as a biodiversity hotspot by conservation international, nor a wwf global ecoregion.
The objective is to go beyond empirical description by suggesting mechanisms that are responsible for producing the world pattern. Indigenous and traditional peoples of the world and ecoregion conservation. Wwfs global 200 ecoregion approach, african heartlands is not a strict. Terrestrial ecoregions world world wide fund for nature. An ecoregion is a recurring pattern of ecosystems associated with characteristic combinations of soil and landform that characterise that region. A representation approach to conserving the earths most biologically valuable ecoregions the current extinction crisis requires dramatic action to save the variety of life on earth. Ethnolinguistic groups in the global 200 ecoregions.
Terrestrial ecoregions of africa and madagascar book. This map service displays level iii and level iv ecoregions of the united states and was created from ecoregion data obtained from the u. Global 200 biome the biome of the global 200 region that the ecoregion is a component of. The himalaya, which runs across indias northern tier, is the boundary between two of the earths great ecozones the palearctic, which covers most of temperatetoarctic eurasia, and indomalaya, which covers most of the indian subcontinent and extends into indochina, sundaland malaysia and western indonesia and the philippines. Amazon ecoregions and ecology the fao global ecological zones provide a general overview of the habitat types of the amazon region and south america. Occasionally a global 200 region is made up of ecoregions of different biomes. The terrestrial global 200 ecoregions targets ecoregions with.
List of ecoregions in the united states epa wikipedia. Ecoregions may be identified by similarities in geology, physiography, vegetation, climate, soils, land use. The global 200 provides a conservation guide to the worlds most important terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecoregions. Some web content for level iv ecoregions is under construction. The methodology is presented in a new map of global ecological land units an ecophysiographic stratification approach.