Terrestrial Ecosystems of South America

Abstract

Standardized terrestrial ecosystems of South America were mapped using a biophysical stratification approach, and employing an ecological systems classification recently developed for Latin America and the Caribbean. The classification effort involved the development of diagnostic criteria and names for describing expert-derived ecological systems. The mapping/modeling effort stratified the continent into unique physical environments supporting a variety of land cover types. Ecosystem footprints were delineated by overlaying continental datalayers for elevation class, landform, lithology, bioclimate, and image-derived land cover. Polygonal occurrences of these ecosystem footprints were developed at a working pixel resolution of 450m (20 hectares). The ecosystem footprint polygons were subsequently labeled using the standardized ecosystems. 659 ecosystem types were identified and mapped across the South American continent; by comparison there are 110 World Wildlife Fund (Olson et al., 2001) terrestrial ecoregions. These standardized ecosystems, mapped for the entire continent at a relatively fine scale, are useful for a variety of biodiversity conservation and resource management applications. These data can be used to identify areas deserving of management attention due to their value for biodiversity conservation, as well as the production of ecosystem goods and services (e.g., food, water, fuel, fiber, forage, etc.).

Citation

Sayre, R., Bow, J., Josse, C., Sotomayor, L. and Touval, J., 2008. Terrestrial ecosystems of south America. North America Land Cover Summit, pp.131-152.