Ecological land classification

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Ecological land classification

Ecological land classification is defined as being a cartographical delineation of distinct ecological

Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
areas, identified by their geology

Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
, topography

Topography

Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, Natural satellite, and asteroids. It is also the description of such surface shapes and features ....
, soil

Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
s, vegetation

Vegetation

refers to the flora system of a specific region....
, climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the temperatures, humidity, atmospheric pressure, winds, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other Meteorology elements in a given region over long periods of time, as opposed to the term weather, which refers to current activity of these same elements....
conditions, living species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
, water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
resources, as well as anthropic factors. These factors are known to control or influence biotic composition and ecological processes. As a consequence, they provide a useful approximation of ecosystem potentials.

Many different lists have been proposed over time.

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Encyclopedia

Ecological land classification is defined as being a cartographical delineation of distinct ecological

Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
areas, identified by their geology

Geology

Topography

Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, Natural satellite, and asteroids. It is also the description of such surface shapes and features ....
, soil

Soil

Vegetation

refers to the flora system of a specific region....
, climate

Climate

Species

Water

Conservation ethic

Conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the Natural environment: its forests, fishery, habitat , and biological diversity....
efforts. Part of the list proposed below is inspired by Miklos Udvardy

Miklos Udvardy

Miklos Dezso Ferenc Udvardy was a biologist and biogeographer. He was born on March 23, 1919 in Debrecen, Hungary to Miklos Udvardy and Elizabeth Komlossy....
classification of the Biographical Provinces in the World which was prepared by Unesco's Man and the Biosphere program, published in 1975 and updated in 1982.

Udvardy's Biogeographical provinces take into account both flora and fauna. Botanists and zoologists have developed other ecological land classification schemes; botanists have identified floristic province

Floristic province

A Phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phtyochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap....
s based on plant communities, while zoologists have identified zoogeographic provinces based on faunal communities.

Important applications of this information is in planning for future land uses and land conservation decisions.

This classification can be applied at different scales with a holistic

Holism

Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave....
approach. Additionally, there are parallel classification terms used in the study of the biotic

Biotic

Biotic means relating to, produced by, or caused by living organisms.The term biotic may also refer to:*Life, or ecosystem, the condition of living organisms,...
and abiotic components of an ecosystem at similar spatial scales. From largest to smallest, classical levels are:

**CLASSIFICATION LEVELS IN ECOSYSTEMS**
	Biotic			Abiotic
_{ECOSYSTEMEcosystem An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment....}	_{BIOGEOGRAPHYBiogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of biodiversity over space and time. It aims to reveal where organisms live, and at what abundance....}	_{ZOOGEOGRAPHYZoogeography Zoogeography is the branch of the science of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of animal species and their attributes....}	_{PHYTOGEOGRAPHYPhytogeography Phytogeography, also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species, or more generally, plants....}	_PHYSIOGRAPHY	_{GEOLOGYGeology Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....}	_{PEDOLOGYPedology (soil study) Pedology is the study of soils in their natural environment. It is one of two main branches of soil science, the other being edaphology. Pedology deals with pedogenesis, soil morphology, and soil classification, while edaphology studies the way soils influence plants, fungi, and other living things....}
ecozone Ecozone An ecozone or biogeographic realm is the largest scale biogeography division of the earth's surface based on the historic and evolutionary distribution patterns of plants and animals....	biome Biome Biomes are Climateally and geographically defined areas of ecologically similar climatic conditions such as Community of plants, animals, and Soil biology, and are often referred to as ecosystems....		floral kingdom
ecoprovince Ecoprovince An Ecoprovince is a biogeography unit smaller than an ecozone, and which contains one or more ecoregions. According to Demarchi , an ecoprovince encompasses areas of uniform climate, geological history and physiography ....			floral province Floristic province A Phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phtyochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap....		geoprovince
ecoregion Ecoregion An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecology and geographically defined area smaller than a "realm" or "ecozone". Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural community and species....	bioregion		floral region Floristic province A Phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phtyochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap....	physioregion	georegion	pedoregion
ecodistrict
ecosection
ecosite
ecotope Ecotope Ecotopes are the smallest ecologically-distinct landscape features in a landscape mapping and classification system. As such, they represent relatively wiktionary:Homogeneous, spatially-explicit landscape functional units that are useful for stratifying landscapes into ecologically distinct features for the measurement and mapping of landsca...	biotope Biotope Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of flora and fauna . Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat , but while the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biocoenosis.... ‡	zootope Zootope Zootope is the total habitat available for colonisation within any certain ecotope or biotope by animal life. The community of animals so established constitutes the zoocoenosis of that ecotope.... ‡	phytotope Phytotope Phytotope is the total habitat available for colonisation within any certain ecotope or biotope by plants and fungi. The community of plants and fungi so established constitutes the phytocoenosis of that ecotope.... ‡	physiotope Physiotope Physiotope is the total abiotic matrix of habitat present within any certain ecotope. The physiotope is the landform, the rocks and the soils, the climate and the hydrology, and the geologic processes which marshalled all these resources together in a certain way and in this time and place....	geotope Geotope Geotope is the geology component of the abiotic matrix present in an ecotope. Example geotopes might be: an exposed outcrop of rocks, an glacial erratic, a grotto or ravine, a cave, an old stone wall marking a property boundary, and so forth.... ‡	pedotope Pedotope Pedotope is the total pedology component of the abiotic matrix present in an ecotope. The pedotope is not one particular kind of soil, nor even the dominant kind of soil available in a location, but rather the total soil component available in the location....
ecoelement	bioelement		geoelement
_{Sources: ‡ These words are all loanwords from German science.}

A crucial concept of land classification, is that each of the areas defined either remains the same over a certain period of time or shows a slow gradual change, without large, sudden changes. This means it is a system in a kind of equilibrium. It postulates an area is an open system

Open system

Open system may refer to:*Open system , one of a class of computers and associated software that provides some combination of interoperability, portability and open software standards, particularly Unix and Unix-like systems...
with a certain self-regulation

Self-regulation

The term self-regulation can signify:*Homeostasis, in systems theory*Self-control, in sociology / psychology*Self-regulated learning, in educational psychology...
(homeostasis

Homeostasis

Homeostasis is the property of a system, either open system or closed system, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition....
or homeorhesis

Homeorhesis

Homeorhesis, derived from the Greek language for "similar flow", is a concept encompassing dynamical systems which return to a trajectory, as opposed to systems which return to a particular state, which is termed homeostasis....
). Indeed management of land usually aims at a steady state

Steady state

A system in a steady state has numerous properties that are unchanging in time. The concept of steady state has relevance in many fields, in particular thermodynamics....
(persistent or at least relatively constant), which means either pure conservation

Conservation ethic

Sustainability

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems....
(no deterioration through use).

Ecological land classification

See also

External links