A New Map Of Global Ecological Land Units

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 surface features in a three step approach. The first step involved acquiring or developing four global raster datalayers representing the primary components of ecosystem structure: bioclimate, landform, lithology, and land cover. These datasets generally represent the most accurate, current, globally comprehensive, and finest spatial and thematic resolution data available for each of the four inputs. The second step involved a spatial combination of the four inputs into a single, new integrated raster dataset where every cell represents a combination of values from the bioclimate, landforms, lithology, and land cover datalayers. This foundational global raster datalayer, called ecological facets (EFs), contains 47,650 unique combinations of the four inputs. The third step involved an aggregation of the EFs into the 3,923 ELUs. This subdivision of the Earth's surface into relatively fine, ecological land areas is designed to be useful for various types of ecosystem research and management applications, including assessments of climate change impacts to ecosystems, economic and non-economic valuation of ecosystem services, and conservation planning.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Esri, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), and the American Association of Geographers (AAG) are pleased to present A New Map of Global Ecological Marine Units - An Environmental Stratification Approach. This publication presents maps, data, and a web-based explorer application from a first-of-its-kind effort to partition the ocean into physically and chemically distinct volumetric regions called ecological marine units (EMUs). The EMUs were mapped from sea surface to seafloorin a true three-dimensional characterization of the oceanic water column. The EMUs were developed in a public/private partnership between USGS and Esri, in a collaboration that included a steering committee of international marine scientists. The work to delineate the EMUs follows the development of an analogous global ecological land units (ELUs) product also developed by the ESGS/Esri team, using a similar stratification-based mapping approach. Like the ELUs, the EMUs were commissioned by the GEO as part of a global ecosystem mapping initiative. With this Special Publication, AAG recognizes the work as a contribution to understanding the physical and ecological geography of the Earth.

Ecological Land Classification (ELC) refers to the description of land resources at a range of spatial resolutions (i.e. global to local) and for a range of purposes or values. The emerging science of ELC is in fact a very carefully integrated blend of vegetation and earth sciences, climatology, cartography and ecology with a range of new technologies and methodologies including computer-based geographic information systems, remote sensing and simulation modelling. This publication defines the current `state-of-the-art' of ELC. It provides particular insight into the role of ELC in current and future forest resource planning and management, and emphasizes its application and usefulness at various spatial scales, for a variety of geographic locations, and under a range of management scenarios/constraints. The book is an invaluable and substantial reference source about the current trends in ELC and will be of particular value to ecologists, foresters, geographers, resource managers, wildlife biologists, GIS and remote sensing specialists, educators and students.

"The new book Mapping Ecosystem Services provides a comprehensive collection of theories, methods and practical applications of ecosystem services (ES) mapping, for the first time bringing together valuable knowledge and techniques from leading international experts in the field." (www.eurekalert.org).

Seagrasses are a vital and widespread but often overlooked coastal marine habitat. This volume provides a global survey of their distribution and conservation status.

The analysis and management of ecosystems rely increasingly on sound geographical knowledge. Ecosystem Geography is a landmark contribution which brings the geographer's tools - maps, scales, boundaries, and units - to the study of ecosystems. The author, a senior geographer and program manager with the U.S. Forest Service, has distilled more than two decades of research on ecosystem mapping and classification. His work has had a growing influence on how government and academic scientists are using ecological data to monitor biodiversity, manage land holdings, and interpret the results of climatic change. Ecosystem Geography features spectacular graphics, including diagrams, photographs, and abundant maps. It will be welcomed by ecologists, geographers, land and resource specialists, and anyone involved in the study of ecosystems.

Biodiversity observation systems are almost everywhere inadequate to meet local, national and international (treaty) obligations. As a result of alarmingly rapid declines in biodiversity in the modern era, there is a strong, worldwide desire to upgrade our monitoring systems, but little clarity on what is actually needed and how it can be assembled from the elements which are already present. This book intends to provide practical guidance to broadly-defined biodiversity observation networks at all scales, but predominantly the national scale and higher. This is a practical how-to book with substantial policy relevance. It will mostly be used by technical specialists with a responsibility for biodiversity monitoring to establish and refine their systems. It is written at a technical level, but one that is not discipline-bound: it should be intelligible to anyone in the broad field with a tertiary education.

Predictive Soil Mapping (PSM) is based on applying statistical and/or machine learning techniques to fit models for the purpose of producing spatial and/or spatiotemporal predictions of soil variables i.e. maps of soil properties and classes at different resolutions. It is a multidisciplinary field combining statistics, data science, soil science, physical geography, remote sensing, geoinformation science and a number of other sciences. Predictive Soil Mapping with R is about understanding the main concepts behind soil mapping, mastering R packages that can be used to produce high quality soil maps, and about optimizing all processes involved so that also the production costs can be reduced. The online version of the book is available at: https: //envirometrix.github.io/PredictiveSoilMapping/ Pull requests and general comments are welcome. These materials are based on technical tutorials initially developed by the ISRIC's Global Soil Information Facilities (GSIF) development team over the period 2014?2017

This volume represents a first attempt at holistically classifying and mapping ecological regions across all three countries of the North American continent. A common analytical methodology is used to examine North American ecology at multiple scales, from large continental ecosystems to subdivisions of these that correlate more detailed physical and biological settings with human activities on two levels of successively smaller units. The volume begins with an overview of North America from an ecological perspective, concepts of ecological regionalization. This is followed by descriptions of the 15 broad ecological regions, including information on physical and biological setting and human activities. The final section presents case studies in applications of the ecological characterization methodology to environmental issues. The appendix includes a list of common and scientific names of selected species characteristic of the ecological regions.