Introduction
1
Environmental problems are best addressed in
the context of geographic areas defined by natural features rather than by political or administrative boundaries. For example, the state of
Colorado in the western United States is neatly
and abruptly divided into two areas with dramatically different ecological, climatological, and
land-use characteristics: the eastern plains and
western mountains (Fig. 1.1). Furthermore, both
areas extend beyond Colorado’s borders.
More and more we recognize that the natural
resources of an area do not exist in isolation.
Instead, they interact so that the use of one
affects another (Fig. 1.2). This understanding
has led entities responsible for the management
of public—and increasingly, private land—to
delineate and manage ecosystems,
1 rather than
individual species or individual resources such as
timber or range.
This approach recognizes that the Earth
operates as a set of interrelated systems within
which all components are linked. A change in
one component causes a change within another
with corresponding geographic distributions, as
when certain vegetation and soil types occur
together with certain types of climate. The
regions occupied by tropical rainforest, for
example, are found in tropical wet climates, and
the underlying soils in the rainforest tend to be
latosols (Oxisols)
2 (Fig. 1.3).
Ecosystems occur on many geographic scales.
We can recognize ecosystems of different size,
from oceans to frog ponds, and vast deserts to
pockets of soil. The smaller systems are embedded, or nested, within larger systems. The larger
systems are the environments of those within,
controlling their behavior. By understanding the
large forces that create macroscale ecosystems,
we can predict how management practices will
affect smaller component systems. For example,
on a macroscale, the continents are embedded in
the ocean systems that control them, through
their influence on climatic patterns. A hierarchical ordering of the scales of ecosystems, from
macro to micro, is presented in detail in my
related book, Ecosystem Geography: From
Ecoregions to Sites (Bailey 2009).
1.1
Concepts of Ecosystem
Regions, or Ecoregions
Large portions of the Earth’s surface over which
the ecosystems have characteristics in common
are called an ecosystem region, or ecoregion.
Plates 1 and 2 (Maps, p. 165) show that areas
1 Terms in bold are defined in the Glossary, p. 153.
2 Great soil group according to the 1938 system of soil
classification (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1938). The
most nearly equivalent orders of the new soil taxonomy
(USDA Soil Survey Staff 1975) are given in parentheses.
Described in the Glossary, p. 153.
R.G. Bailey, Ecoregions, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-0524-9_1, # Springer Science+Media, LLC 2014
1
1
Environmental problems are best addressed in
the context of geographic areas defined by natural features rather than by political or administrative boundaries. For example, the state of
Colorado in the western United States is neatly
and abruptly divided into two areas with dramatically different ecological, climatological, and
land-use characteristics: the eastern plains and
western mountains (Fig. 1.1). Furthermore, both
areas extend beyond Colorado’s borders.
More and more we recognize that the natural
resources of an area do not exist in isolation.
Instead, they interact so that the use of one
affects another (Fig. 1.2). This understanding
has led entities responsible for the management
of public—and increasingly, private land—to
delineate and manage ecosystems,
1 rather than
individual species or individual resources such as
timber or range.
This approach recognizes that the Earth
operates as a set of interrelated systems within
which all components are linked. A change in
one component causes a change within another
with corresponding geographic distributions, as
when certain vegetation and soil types occur
together with certain types of climate. The
regions occupied by tropical rainforest, for
example, are found in tropical wet climates, and
the underlying soils in the rainforest tend to be
latosols (Oxisols)
2 (Fig. 1.3).
Ecosystems occur on many geographic scales.
We can recognize ecosystems of different size,
from oceans to frog ponds, and vast deserts to
pockets of soil. The smaller systems are embedded, or nested, within larger systems. The larger
systems are the environments of those within,
controlling their behavior. By understanding the
large forces that create macroscale ecosystems,
we can predict how management practices will
affect smaller component systems. For example,
on a macroscale, the continents are embedded in
the ocean systems that control them, through
their influence on climatic patterns. A hierarchical ordering of the scales of ecosystems, from
macro to micro, is presented in detail in my
related book, Ecosystem Geography: From
Ecoregions to Sites (Bailey 2009).
1.1
Concepts of Ecosystem
Regions, or Ecoregions
Large portions of the Earth’s surface over which
the ecosystems have characteristics in common
are called an ecosystem region, or ecoregion.
Plates 1 and 2 (Maps, p. 165) show that areas
1 Terms in bold are defined in the Glossary, p. 153.
2 Great soil group according to the 1938 system of soil
classification (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1938). The
most nearly equivalent orders of the new soil taxonomy
(USDA Soil Survey Staff 1975) are given in parentheses.
Described in the Glossary, p. 153.
R.G. Bailey, Ecoregions, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-0524-9_1, # Springer Science+Media, LLC 2014
1