World Terrestrial Ecosystems
Description
The World Terrestrial Ecosystems (WTEs) datalayer, produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, Esri, and The Nature Conservancy, is a new map and associated raster geospatial data of globally comprehensive, standardized, high resolution (250 m), and data-derived World Terrestrial Ecosystems. The WTEs are land areas with distinct combinations of climate regime, landforms, and vegetation/land cover assemblages. 431 ecosystems were mapped. The approach taken to map the WTEs was an ecosystem structure-based mapping approach, including both abiotic structural elements (climate and landforms), and biotic structural elements (vegetation assemblages). Data were obtained to understand the global distribution of terrestrial ecosystems that were identified and mapped using a standardized, data-derived process, and to assess their representation in global protected areas.