Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World

The Conservation Science Program of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US) has completed an ecoregion-based assessments of the status of biodiversity around the world. Building on previous efforts, and incorporating data collected by more than 1,500 biologists, bio-geographers, and other experts around the world over the past several years, scientists at WWF-US (Olson et al., 2001) have produced a new map which divides the terrestrial world into 14 biomes and eight biogeographic realms containing 867 ecoregions. The new map -- Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World -- is more than four times the 193 terrestrial ecoregions depicted on the most detailed global bio-geographic maps to date. Instead of being defined by political boundaries, each ecoregion is distinguished by its shared ecological features, climate, and plant and animal communities. This detailed map of global biodiversity is well-suited for identifying areas of outstanding biodiversity and representative communities for conservation. Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World is available online as an interactive map at [http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/] and for download at [http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/data/terreco.cfm]. Descriptions and photographs of ecoregions of the world are also available online.世界自然基金会美国分会（World Wildlife Fund-US，WWF-US）的保护科学项目已完成基于生态区（ecoregion）的全球生物多样性现状评估。该项目依托既往研究基础，整合了过去数年间全球1500余名生物学家、生物地理学家及其他专家采集的数据，由WWF-US的科研团队（Olson等，2001）绘制了全新地图，将全球陆地划分为14个生物群系（biomes）与8个生物地理界（biogeographic realms），共计涵盖867个生态区。这张名为《全球陆地生态区（Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World）》的新地图，其涵盖的生态区数量是当前最详尽的全球生物地理地图中193个陆地生态区的四倍有余。与以政治边界为划分依据的传统地图不同，每个生态区均以其共有的生态特征、气候条件及动植物群落作为区分标准。这张详尽的全球生物多样性地图，非常适用于识别具有极高生物多样性价值的区域以及具备保护代表性的群落。 《全球陆地生态区》可通过[http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/]在线访问交互式地图，也可在[http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/data/terreco.cfm]获取下载资源。此外，全球各生态区的详细说明与影像资料也可在线查阅。