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Service Description: In order to support continental-scale assessment of terrestrial ecosystem distribution and condition, we developed a distribution map of the potential location and extent of vegetation types for North America, Meso America, and the Caribbean. NatureServe ecologists lead efforts to develop internationally standardized classifications for terrestrial ecosystems and vegetation. One classification approach is with existing vegetation. The International Vegetation Classification, or EcoVeg approach (Faber-Langendoen et al. in press), grew out of USA federal standards, defining vegetation concepts at multiple thematic levels. Vegetation systems are defined as “moderate sets of diagnostic plant species and diagnostic growth forms that reflect biogeographic differences in composition and sub-continental to regional differences in mesoclimate, geology, substrates, hydrology, and disturbance regimes.” Building from prior national and regional ecological classifications from the area (see Josse et al. 2003; 2007), a hierarchical classification was established for existing vegetation types describing natural upland and wetland conditions. National and regional maps of current extent were reconciled to the standard classification and provided georeferenced locations for use in spatial modeling. Spatial modeling used climate, geophysical data layers, and satellite spectral data, in a sequential process to map potential distributions at several levels of the vegetation classification hierarchy. Inductive modeling in sequential steps, followed by expert review and refinement, resulted in a map of 147 vegetation macrogroups for the North American continent & the Caribbean. This map depicts the location and extent of each macrogroup had there been no intensive human land uses in recent centuries. Initial validation of the map, using a separate, randomized set of labeled sample areas of 0.5km2vs. 1km2vs. 5km2 indicated high agreement at finest spatial resolutions, suggesting that the map is suitable for use in applications requiring a pixel resolution of 270 x 270m2and higher.
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Copyright Text: NatureServe
Spatial Reference:
102100
(3857)
Single Fused Map Cache: false
Initial Extent:
XMin: -1.472089769358192E7
YMin: -2328414.82128233
XMax: -3284233.0262012156
YMax: 8775788.663907073
Spatial Reference:
102100
(3857)
Full Extent:
XMin: -1.5354184756837178E7
YMin: -7633715.531511632
XMax: -2529176.8708916083
YMax: 9674125.494777912
Spatial Reference:
102100
(3857)
Units: esriMeters
Supported Image Format Types: PNG32,PNG24,PNG,JPG,DIB,TIFF,EMF,PS,PDF,GIF,SVG,SVGZ,BMP
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Comments: In order to support continental-scale assessment of terrestrial ecosystem distribution and condition, we developed a distribution map of the potential location and extent of vegetation types for North America, Meso America, and the Caribbean. NatureServe ecologists lead efforts to develop internationally standardized classifications for terrestrial ecosystems and vegetation. One classification approach is with existing vegetation. The International Vegetation Classification, or EcoVeg approach (Faber-Langendoen et al. in press), grew out of USA federal standards, defining vegetation concepts at multiple thematic levels. Vegetation systems are defined as “moderate sets of diagnostic plant species and diagnostic growth forms that reflect biogeographic differences in composition and sub-continental to regional differences in mesoclimate, geology, substrates, hydrology, and disturbance regimes.” Building from prior national and regional ecological classifications from the area (see Josse et al. 2003; 2007), a hierarchical classification was established for existing vegetation types describing natural upland and wetland conditions. National and regional maps of current extent were reconciled to the standard classification and provided georeferenced locations for use in spatial modeling. Spatial modeling used climate, geophysical data layers, and satellite spectral data, in a sequential process to map potential distributions at several levels of the vegetation classification hierarchy. Inductive modeling in sequential steps, followed by expert review and refinement, resulted in a map of 147 vegetation macrogroups for the North American continent & the Caribbean. This map depicts the location and extent of each macrogroup had there been no intensive human land uses in recent centuries. Initial validation of the map, using a separate, randomized set of labeled sample areas of 0.5km2vs. 1km2vs. 5km2 indicated high agreement at finest spatial resolutions, suggesting that the map is suitable for use in applications requiring a pixel resolution of 270 x 270m2and higher.
Subject: This map depicts the potential distribution of approximately 142 vegetation macrogroups as defined by the International Vegetation Classification hierarchy (Faber-Langendoen et al. in press). Standardized, multi-level classifications of upland and we
Category:
Keywords: Ecoystems,Potential Ecological Systems
AntialiasingMode: Fastest
TextAntialiasingMode: Force
Supports Dynamic Layers: true
MaxRecordCount: 10000
MaxImageHeight: 4096
MaxImageWidth: 4096
Supported Query Formats: JSON, AMF, geoJSON
Min Scale: 0
Max Scale: 0
Supports Datum Transformation: true
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