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Global Ecosystems Active

By Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center July 14, 2017

A global ecological classification of coastal segment units to complement marine biodiversity observation network assessments

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Global Ecological Land Units

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Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Conterminous United States

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The Earth contains an astonishing variety of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, which provide biological resources and services that are essential to our survival. A high resolution, data-derived, global ecosystems map will improve our ability to manage, conserve, and restore ecosystems that are increasingly threatened by fragmentation, alteration, loss, invasive species, fire, climate change, and incompatible resource extraction. We are classifying and mapping global ecosystems in a standardized, robust, and practical manner at scales appropriate for on-the-ground management.

Global Ecosystems GEO
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

This work has been commissioned by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a consortium of over 100 nations that seek to promote earth observation for solving some of society's most difficult problems. GEO is building the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), and one of the GEOSS programs is the Global Ecosystems (GECO) initiative. A GECO task is to develop objective (data-derived) and management-appropriate global ecosystem maps for terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. This effort is producing consistent and innovative classification and mapping of global ecosystems at a finer spatial resolution than any existing ecoregionalization of the planet.

Continental Data Research

Pilot continental-scale efforts in the United States, South America, and Africa developed and refined an approach to mapping standardized global terrestrial ecosystems which models ecosystem occurrences as unique physical environments with biotic and abiotic components. Ecosystems were geospatially delineated as facets of the landscape generated through biophysical stratification by bioclimate, biogeography, lithology, landforms, surface moisture, and land cover. Several standardized geospatial ecosystem models were produced from these efforts, enabling the use of ecosystem occurrences as, for example, a robust spatial unit of analysis for assessing climate change effects on ecosystems.

Global Data Research

Subsequent global efforts then focused on an ecological land classification approach where the emphasis is placed on ecologically meaningful characteristics of the land, such as bioclimate, landform type, and lithology. Most recently, as part of a major collaboration between USGS and Esri, a rich, spatially explicit database and map of global ecological land units (ELUs) at a base resolution of 250 meters was developed. These data allow for a fine resolution inventory of land-based ecological features anywhere on Earth, and contribute to increased understanding of terrestrial ecological pattern and terrestrial ecosystem distributions.

Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Conterminous United States

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with support from NatureServe, has modeled the potential distribution of 419 terrestrial ecosystems for the conterminous United States using a comprehensive biophysical stratification approach that identifies distinct biophysical environments and associates them with known vegetation distributions (Sayre and others, 2009). This standardized ecosystem mapping effo
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Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Terrestrial Ecosystems-Surficial Lithology of the Conterminous United States

As part of an effort to map terrestrial ecosystems, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has generated a new classification of the lithology of surficial materials to be used in creating maps depicting standardized, terrestrial ecosystem models for the conterminous United States. The ecosystems classification used in this effort was developed by NatureServe. A biophysical stratification approach, dev
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Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Terrestrial Ecosystems - Topographic Moisture Potential of the Conterminous United States

As part of an effort to map terrestrial ecosystems, the U.S. Geological Survey has generated topographic moisture potential classes to be used in creating maps depicting standardized, terrestrial ecosystem models for the conterminous United States, using an ecosystems classification developed by NatureServe. A biophysical stratification approach, developed for South America and now being implement
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Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Terrestrial Ecosystems - Land Surface Forms of the Conterminous United States

As part of an effort to map terrestrial ecosystems, the U.S. Geological Survey has generated land surface form classes to be used in creating maps depicting standardized, terrestrial ecosystem models for the conterminous United States, using an ecosystems classification developed by NatureServe . A biophysical stratification approach, developed for South America and now being implemented globally,
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Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Terrestrial ecosystems - Isobioclimates of the conterminous United States

As part of an effort to map terrestrial ecosystems, the U.S. Geological Survey has generated isobioclimate classes to be used in creating maps depicting standardized, terrestrial ecosystem models for the conterminous United States, using an ecosystems classification developed by NatureServe . A biophysical stratification approach, developed for South America (Sayre and others, 2008) and now being
By
Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Global Ecosystems research publications:

A global ecological classification of coastal segment units to complement marine biodiversity observation network assessments

A new data layer provides Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) labels for global coastal segments at 1 km or shorter resolution. These characteristics are summarized for six US Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) sites and one MBON Pole to Pole of the Americas site in Argentina. The global coastlines CMECS classifications were produced from a partitioning of a 3
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Core Science Systems, Land Change Science Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Earth's coastlines

With approximately half the world’s population living less than 65 miles from the ocean, coastal ecosystems are arguably Earth’s most critical real estate. Yet coastlines are among the more difficult features to accurately map; until now, no comprehensive high-resolution geospatial dataset existed. This chapter presents a new map and ecological inventory of global coastlines developed by Esri, the
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Core Science Systems, Land Change Science Program

The geography of islands

Islands come in all shapes, sizes and types, from tiny rocky outcrops, to enormous continental landmasses. The true number of islands distributed in the planet’s seas and oceans is still elusive. Recent efforts bolstered by an abundance of detailed satellite imagery and the sophistication of geographic information systems (GIS) are bringing real answers to those questions closer than ever.
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Core Science Systems, Land Change Science Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

A new 30 meter resolution global shoreline vector and associated global islands database for the development of standardized ecological coastal units

A new 30-m spatial resolution global shoreline vector (GSV) was developed from annual composites of 2014 Landsat satellite imagery. The semi-automated classification of the imagery was accomplished by manual selection of training points representing water and non-water classes along the entire global coastline. Polygon topology was applied to the GSV, resulting in a new characterisation of the num
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Core Science Systems, Land Change Science Program

A new high-resolution map of world mountains and an online tool for visualizing and comparing characterizations of global mountain distributions

Answers to the seemingly straightforward questions “what is a mountain?” and “where are the mountains of the world?” are in fact quite complex, and there have been few attempts to map the mountains of the earth in a consistent and rigorous fashion. However, knowing exactly where mountain ecosystems are distributed on the planet is a precursor to conserving them, as called for in Sustainable Develo
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Core Science Systems, Land Change Science Program

A new map of global ecological land units—An ecophysiographic stratification approach

In response to the need and an intergovernmental commission for a high resolution and data-derived global ecosystem map, land surface elements of global ecological pattern were characterized in an ecophysiographic stratification of the planet. The stratification produced 3,923 terrestrial ecological land units (ELUs) at a base resolution of 250 meters. The ELUs were derived from data on land surfa
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Core Science Systems, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Land Change Science Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

A new map of standardized terrestrial ecosystems of Africa

Terrestrial ecosystems and vegetation of Africa were classified and mapped as part of a larger effort and global protocol (GEOSS – the Global Earth Observation System of Systems), which includes an activity to map terrestrial ecosystems of the earth in a standardized, robust, and practical manner, and at the finest possible spatial resolution. To model the potential distribution of ecosystems, new

A New Map of Standardized Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Conterminous United States

A new map of standardized, mesoscale (tens to thousands of hectares) terrestrial ecosystems for the conterminous United States was developed by using a biophysical stratification approach. The ecosystems delineated in this top-down, deductive modeling effort are described in NatureServe's classification of terrestrial ecological systems of the United States. The ecosystems were mapped as physicall

Global Ecosystems Viewer

The Global Ecosystems Viewer provides visualization and feature identification of continental and global ecosystems data. Data from the Global Ecosystems activity allow for a fine resolution inventory of land-based ecological features anywhere on Earth, and contribute to increased understanding of ecological pattern and ecosystem distributions.

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Land Change Science Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Below are partners associated with this project.

American Association of Geographers (AAG)

Environmental Systems Research Institute

Group on Earth Observations

NatureServe

The Nature Conservancy

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)