involved with monitoring global change. For example, worldwide monitoring of agricultural and other natural-resource ecosystems is needed to assess
the effects of possible climate changes and/or air pollution on our global
resource base. Monitoring of all sites is neither possible nor desirable for
large areas, and so a means of choice has to be devised and implemented.
This is where ecoregions come in. Ecoregion maps show the Earth’s land
areas subdivided into regions based on large patterns of ecosystems. These
regions define large areas within which local ecosystems recur in a predictable pattern. By observing the behavior of the different systems within a
region, it is possible to predict the behavior of an unvisited one. Hence the
maps can be used to spatially extend data obtained from limited sample sites.
The results of observations at representative sample sites from each region
are potentially useful in detecting and monitoring global change effects.
Content of this revised edition borrows heavily from my previous works
specifically because the repetition provides the information framework necessary to support the new material.
Once again I would like to thank many people who made the completion
of this book possible: Nancy Maysmith for re-creating many of the first
edition diagrams and drawing the several new ones; Michael Wilson,
Program Manager for Inventory, Monitoring, and Analysis at the Rocky
Mountain Research Station, for his support. I appreciate the helpful criticism
of several reviewers of the first edition; but I should mention especially Fred
Smeins, Jeffrey Walck, Philip Keating, Gary Griggs, Andrew Millington,
Frank Kuserk, David McNeil, and David Scarnecchia. James Bockheim and
Paul Jepson gave numerous helpful suggestions on the content of this new
edition. Special thanks to Kevin Cook, who did his best to make the book
readable. As always, it has been a pleasure to work with Janet Slobodien at
Springer in translating this work to print.
Fort Collins, CO
Robert G. Bailey
December 2013
viii
Preface to the Second Edition
the effects of possible climate changes and/or air pollution on our global
resource base. Monitoring of all sites is neither possible nor desirable for
large areas, and so a means of choice has to be devised and implemented.
This is where ecoregions come in. Ecoregion maps show the Earth’s land
areas subdivided into regions based on large patterns of ecosystems. These
regions define large areas within which local ecosystems recur in a predictable pattern. By observing the behavior of the different systems within a
region, it is possible to predict the behavior of an unvisited one. Hence the
maps can be used to spatially extend data obtained from limited sample sites.
The results of observations at representative sample sites from each region
are potentially useful in detecting and monitoring global change effects.
Content of this revised edition borrows heavily from my previous works
specifically because the repetition provides the information framework necessary to support the new material.
Once again I would like to thank many people who made the completion
of this book possible: Nancy Maysmith for re-creating many of the first
edition diagrams and drawing the several new ones; Michael Wilson,
Program Manager for Inventory, Monitoring, and Analysis at the Rocky
Mountain Research Station, for his support. I appreciate the helpful criticism
of several reviewers of the first edition; but I should mention especially Fred
Smeins, Jeffrey Walck, Philip Keating, Gary Griggs, Andrew Millington,
Frank Kuserk, David McNeil, and David Scarnecchia. James Bockheim and
Paul Jepson gave numerous helpful suggestions on the content of this new
edition. Special thanks to Kevin Cook, who did his best to make the book
readable. As always, it has been a pleasure to work with Janet Slobodien at
Springer in translating this work to print.
Fort Collins, CO
Robert G. Bailey
December 2013
viii
Preface to the Second Edition