Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world

نویسندگان

  • Erle C Ellis
  • Navin Ramankutty
چکیده

© The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.org H have long distinguished themselves from other species by shaping ecosystem form and process using tools and technologies, such as fire, that are beyond the capacity of other organisms (Smith 2007). This exceptional ability for ecosystem engineering has helped to sustain unprecedented human population growth over the past half century, to such an extent that humans now consume about one-third of all terrestrial net primary production (NPP; Vitousek et al. 1986; Imhoff et al. 2004) and move more earth and produce more reactive nitrogen than all other terrestrial processes combined (Galloway 2005; Wilkinson and McElroy 2007). Humans are also causing global extinctions (Novacek and Cleland 2001) and changes in climate that are comparable to any observed in the natural record (Ruddiman 2003; IPCC 2007). Clearly, Homo sapiens has emerged as a force of nature rivaling climatic and geologic forces in shaping the terrestrial biosphere and its processes. Biomes are the most basic units that ecologists use to describe global patterns of ecosystem form, process, and biodiversity. Historically, biomes have been identified and mapped based on general differences in vegetation type associated with regional variations in climate (Udvardy 1975; Matthews 1983; Prentice et al. 1992; Olson et al. 2001; Bailey 2004). Now that humans have restructured the terrestrial biosphere for agriculture, forestry, and other uses, global patterns of species composition and abundance, primary productivity, land-surface hydrology, and the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, have all been substantially altered (Matson et al. 1997; Vitousek et al. 1997; Foley et al. 2005). Indeed, recent studies indicate that human-dominated ecosystems now cover more of Earth’s land surface than do “wild” ecosystems (McCloskey and Spalding 1989; Vitousek et al. 1997; Sanderson et al. 2002, Mittermeier et al. 2003; Foley et al. 2005). It is therefore surprising that existing descriptions of biome systems either ignore human influence altogether or describe it using at most four anthropogenic ecosystem classes (urban/built-up, cropland, and one or two cropland/natural vegetation mosaic(s); classification systems include IGBP, Loveland et al. 2000; “Olson Biomes”, Olson et al. 2001; GLC 2000, Bartholome and Belward 2005; and GLOBCOVER, Defourny et al. 2006). Here, we present an alternate view of the terrestrial biosphere, based on an empirical analysis of global patterns of sustained direct human interaction with ecosystems, yielding a global map of “anthropogenic biomes”. We then examine the potential of anthropogenic biomes to serve as a new global framework for ecology, complete with CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Anthropogenic biomes: a key contribution to earth-system science.

Human activities now dominate most of the ice-free terrestrial surface. A recent article presents a classification and global map of human-influenced biomes of the world that provides a novel and potentially appropriate framework for projecting changes in earth-system dynamics.

متن کامل

تغییرات مکانی و زمانی تولید خالص اولیه (NPP) و ارتباط آن با فاکتورهای اقلیمی طی سال‌های 2014-2000 در استان اصفهان

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the spatial and temporal changes of NPP in different biomes of Isfahan province from 2000 to 2014 and their response to climatic factors. For this purpose, the NPP data of the MODIS satellite were collected and the map of climatic variables was produced using various interpolation methods. The investigation of the spatial and temporal variations of N...

متن کامل

Editorial: What Is Brain Mapping?

G20 World Brain Mapping Initiative (Neuroscience/N-20) is Putting Brain Mapping on the top of Global Economic Issues The Society for Brain Mapping, Therapeutics, and Brain Mapping Foundation are propelling therapeutic advances in Nano-Neurosurgery, Nano-Bio-Electronics, Artificial Intelligence, Neuro-Supercomputing and ‘cross-pollination’ among the bio-medical sciences and engine...

متن کامل

Assessment of Anthropogenic Activities on the Water Quality of Froumad Plain Based on Qualitative Indicators

Tested water samples taken from the ophiolite region of Forumad show that most of the concentrations of calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfate, potassium, bicarbonate, and nitrate elements are in the standard range. Hydrogeochemical studies of the water samples show the existence of magnesium sulfate, chloromagnesium, and chlorosodium. Results of measuring the physical properties of the water show...

متن کامل

Land Transformation Analysis Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques (A Case Study)

The increasing population and economic activities are putting pressure on the available land resources. Human population and their use of land have transformed the terrestrial biosphere into anthropogenic biomes (anthromes). The present study analyses the urban land use/cover change and land transformation in Srinagar city which is located in the valley of the hill state of Jammu and Kashmir. A...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2007