Information about Ecozone

An ecozone or biogeographic realm is the largest scale biogeographic division of the earth's surface based on the historic and evolutionary distribution patterns of plants and animals. Ecozones represent large areas of the earth's surface where plants and animals developed in relative isolation over long periods of time, and are separated from one another by geologic features, such as oceans, broad deserts, or high mountain ranges, that formed barriers to plant and animal migration. Ecozones correspond to the floristic kingdoms of botany or zoogeographic regions of mammal zoology.

Ecozones are characterized by the evolutionary history of the plants and animals they contain. As such, they are distinct from biomes, also known as major habitat types, which are divisions of the earth's surface based on life form, or the adaptation of plants and animals to climatic, soil, and other conditions. Biomes are characterized by similar climax vegetation, regardless of the evolutionary lineage of the specific plants and animals. Each ecozone may include a number of different biomes. A tropical moist broadleaf forest in Central America, for example, may be similar to one in New Guinea in its vegetation type and structure, climate, soils, etc., but these forests are inhabited by plants and animals with very different evolutionary histories.

The patterns of plant and animal distribution in the world's ecozones was shaped by the process of plate tectonics, which has redistributed the world's land masses over geological history.

The term ecozone, as used here, is a fairly recent development, and other terms, including kingdom, realm, and region, are used by other authorities to denote the same meaning. J. Schultz uses the term "ecozone" to refer his classification system of biomes.

History

Phytogeography

The systems of biogeographical regions started with Augustin de Candolle in 1820. In his study Essai Elementaire de Geographie Botanique he was very interested in documenting the nature and floral composition, also known as biomes. He was the first author to define endemic areas.

It was only after the acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution that Adolf Engler associated the development of different floras to different regions of the world. His studies on biogeographical regions were based on de Candolle's climatic and physiological studies. Engler's four regions included: the temperate and cold regions of the northern hemisphere; the old world tropics, extending from Africa to northern Australia; the new world tropics, including most of Central and South America; and an "Ancient Ocean" realm which included coastal Chile, Tierra del Fuego, the Cape region and south coast of South Africa, most of Australia, Tasmania, the South Island of New Zealand, and the Subantarctic islands of the southernmost Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.

In 1908, Ludwig Diels placed New Zealand in the Palaetropical Realm and subdivided the "Ancient Ocean" Realm into four realms.

British botanist Ronald Good devised a system of six floristic kingdoms (Antarctic, Australian, Boreal, Cape, Neotropical, and Palaeotropical). Good's system, which was further developed by Armen Takhtajan, is widely used by botanists.

Zoogeography

Nineteenth-century zoologists also contributed to the biogeographical schemes. Alfred Russel Wallace introduced biogeographical regions based on mammal distributions, and these remain in acceptance by the scientific community. Philip Sclater recognized six regions in 1858 based on passerine bird distributions. Mammalian zoogeographers also identified six kingdoms (African, Australian, Nearctic, Neotropical, Oriental, and Palaearctic), although with different boundaries than those of plant geographers.

Many zoogeographers combine the Nearctic and Palearctic into a Holarctic zone. These two zones have been connected by the Bering land bridge for long periods in their histories, and thus have very similar mammal and bird fauna.

Biogeographical realms

In 1975 Miklos Udvardy proposed a system of 203 biogeographical provinces, which were grouped into eight biogeographical realms (Afrotropical, Antarctic, Australian, Indomalayan, Nearctic, Neotropical, Oceanian, and Palaearctic). Udvardy's goal was to create an integrated ecological land classification system that could be used for conservation purposes.

WWF Ecozones

The WWF ecozones are based largely on the biogeographic realms of Pielou (1979) and Udvardy (1975). A team of biologists convened by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) developed a system of eight biogeographic realms (ecozones) as part of their delineation of the world's over 800 terrestrial ecoregions.

• Nearctic 22.9 mil. km² (including most of North America)
• Palearctic 54.1 mil. km² (including the bulk of Eurasia and North Africa)
• Afrotropic 22.1 mil. km² (including Sub-Saharan Africa)
• Indomalaya 7.5 mil. km² (including the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia)
• Australasia 7.7 mil. km² (including Australia, New Guinea, and neighbouring islands). The northern boundary of this zone is known as the Wallace line.
• Neotropic 19.0 mil. km² (including South America and the Caribbean)
• Oceania 1.0 mil. km² (including Polynesia, Fiji and Micronesia)
• Antarctic 0.3 mil. km² (including Antarctica).

The WWF scheme is broadly similar to Udvardy's system, the chief difference being the delineation of the Australasian ecozone relative to the Antarctic, Oceanic, and Indomalayan ecozones. In the WWF system, The Australasia ecozone includes Australia, Tasmania, the islands of Wallacea, New Guinea, the East Melanesian islands, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. Udvardy's Australian realm includes only Australia and Tasmania; he places Wallacea in the Indomalayan Realm, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and East Melanesia in the Oceanian Realm, and New Zealand in the Antarctic Realm.

Bioregions

The WWF scheme further subdivides the ecozones into bioregions, defined as "geographic clusters of ecoregions that may span several habitat types, but have strong biogeographic affinities, particularly at taxonomic levels higher than the species level (genus, family)." The WWF bioregions are as follows:

• Afrotropic
• Antarctic
• Australasia
• Wallacea
• New Guinea and Melanesia
• Indomalaya
• Indian Subcontinent
• Indochina
• Sunda Shelf and Philippines
• Nearctic
• Canadian Shield
• Eastern North America
• Northern Mexico
• Western North America
• Neotropical
• Amazonia
• Caribbean
• Central America
• Central Andes
• Eastern South America
• Northern Andes
• Orinoco
• Southern South America
• Oceania
• Palearctic

References

• Cox, C. Barry; Peter D. Moore (1985). Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach (Fourth Edition). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.
• Dinerstein, Eric; David Olson; Douglas J. Graham; et al. (1995). A Conservation Assessment of the Terrestrial Ecoregions of Latin America and the Caribbean. World Bank, Washington DC.
• Ricketts, Taylor H., Eric Dinerstein, David M. Olson, Colby J. Loucks, et al. (1999). Terrestrial Ecoregions of North America: a Conservation Assessment. Island Press, Washington DC.
• Schultz, J.: Die Ökozonen der Erde, Ulmer Stuttgart, 3rd ed. 2002 (1st ed. 1988). ISBN 3-8252-1514-8
• Schultz, J.: Handbuch der Ökozonen, Ulmer Stuttgart 2000. ISBN 3-8252-8200-7
• Schultz, J.: The Ecozones of the World, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2n ed. 2005. ISBN 3540200142
• Udvardy, M. D. F. (1975). A classification of the biogeographical provinces of the world. IUCN Occasional Paper no. 18. Morges, Switzerland: IUCN.
• Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002). Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment. Island Press; Washington, DC.