Scholes African Ecoregions

Ecoregion description

We separated Africa into five functionally different ecoregions in order to assist with the interpretation of Greenhouse Gas flux estimates for the Regional Carbon Cycle and Assessment Phase 2 (RECCAP2) project (https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/reccap/). For the synthesis paper (in prep), the analyses therefore included Africa as a whole and where possible separate estimates for the ecoregions.

The Scholes African Ecoregion Map was delineated by regrouping and smoothing the vegetation classification of the UNESCO/AETFAT/UNSO (White's) Vegetation Map of Africa (White, 1983) in accordance with the delineations of the distributions of Mean Annual Precipitation-determined (‘stable’) and Disturbance-determined (‘unstable’) savannas in Africa by Sankaran et al. (2005).

In honour of the late Prof. Robert J. Scholes (Bob), who encouraged the creation of the map, we named it the “Scholes African Ecoregion Map”. The spatial maps are available as a shapefile and as grids in netcdf format at 1° and 0.05° spatial resolution.

References

White, Frank; 1983; Vegetation of Africa - a descriptive memoir to accompany the Unesco/AETFAT/UNSO vegetation map of Africa; Natural Resources Research Report XX; U. N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris, France; 356 pages.

Sankaran, M., Hanan, N., Scholes, R. et al. Determinants of woody cover in African savannas. Nature 438, 846–849 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04070