Fig. 1.3
Of the 14 terrestrial ecoregions of the world as defined by Olson et al. (2001), South Africa (including the Prince Edward Islands) has seven. Here the
global extent of these seven biomes is shown to emphasise how much of the world is represented in South Africa, giving rise to the expression
“a world in one
country”. Note a separate analysis has also shown that a significant proportion of the world has a climate similar to South Africa (Richardson and Thuiller 2007).
In particular, while South-East Australia is a different ecoregion, it has a very similar climate to much of South Africa and has donated and received many
invasive species to and from South Africa
8
B. W. van Wilgen et al.
Of the 14 terrestrial ecoregions of the world as defined by Olson et al. (2001), South Africa (including the Prince Edward Islands) has seven. Here the
global extent of these seven biomes is shown to emphasise how much of the world is represented in South Africa, giving rise to the expression
“a world in one
country”. Note a separate analysis has also shown that a significant proportion of the world has a climate similar to South Africa (Richardson and Thuiller 2007).
In particular, while South-East Australia is a different ecoregion, it has a very similar climate to much of South Africa and has donated and received many
invasive species to and from South Africa
8
B. W. van Wilgen et al.