Antarctic Ecosystem Inventory: Spatial data for Ice-free lands v1.0

This is Antarctica’s first comprehensive ecosystem map of ice-free lands. The data comprise a spatially explicit 3-tiered hierarchical ecosystem classification with nine Major Environment Types (tier 1), 33 Habitat Complexes (tier 2) and 269 Bioregional Ecosystem Types (tier 3). These Bioregional Ecosystem Types are aligned with ‘level 4’ of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology (Keith et al. 2022). 

The spatial data are available in raster format (TIF) at 100 m resolution in the Polar Stereographic Projected Coordinate System (GCS_WGS_1984) for all known ice-free areas south from latitude -57.330551 decimal degrees South (pdf map shows extent of ice-free areas in relation to terrestrial ice and ice shelves). A value attribute table (VAT) provides text fields containing codes and full names for each unit in each level of the classification hierarchy and the spatial extent of tier 3 units in hectares.

Methods of development, source data and uses of the inventory are detailed by Tóth et al. (2025a). Descriptive profiles for tier 1 and 2 units are available in Tóth et al. (2025b).

ReferencesKeith, D.A., Ferrer-Paris, J.R., Nicholson, E., Bishop, M.J., Polidoro, B.A., Ramirez-Llodra, E., Tozer, M.G., Nel, J.L., Nally, R. Mac, Gregr, E.J., Watermeyer, K.E., Essl, F., Faber-Langendoen, D., Franklin, J., Lehmann, C.E.R., Etter, A., Roux, D.J., Stark, J.S., Rowland, J.A., Brummitt, N.A., Fernandez-Arcaya, U.C., Suthers, I.M., Wiser, S.K., Donohue, I., Jackson, L.J., Pennington, R.T., Iliffe, T.M., Gerovasileiou, V., Giller, P., Robson, B.J., Pettorelli, N., Andrade, A., Lindgaard, A., Tahvanainen, T., Terauds, A., Chadwick, M.A., Murray, N.J., Moat, J., Pliscoff, P., Zager, I. & Kingsford, R.T. (2022) A function-based typology for Earth’s ecosystems. Nature 610, 513–518. [doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05318-4].Tóth, A.B., Terauds, A., Chown, S.L., Hughes, K.A., Convey, P., Hodgson, D.A., Cowan, D.A., Gibson, J., Leihy, R.I., Murray, N.J., Robinson, S.A., Shaw, J.D., Stark, J.S., Stevens, M.I., van den Hoff, J., Wasley, J. and Keith D.A. (2025a). A dataset of Antarctic ecosystems in ice-free lands: classification, descriptions, and maps. Scientific Data 12, 133. [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04424-y] Tóth, A.B., Terauds, A., Chown, S.L., Hughes, K.A., Convey, P., Hodgson, D.A., Cowan, D.A., Gibson, J., Leihy, R.I., Murray, N.J., Robinson, S.A., Shaw, J.D., Stark, J.S., Stevens, M.I., van den Hoff, J., Wasley, J. & Keith D.A. (2025b). Antarctic Ecosystem Inventory: Descriptive profiles for ice-free lands v1.0. DOI: 110.5281/zenodo.14625890. Australian Antarctic Data Centre.