Anthropogenic biomes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For more than a century, the biosphere has been described in terms of global ecosystem units called biomes, which are vegetation types like tropical rainforests and grasslands that are identified in relation to global climate patterns. Now that humans have fundamentally altered climate systems and global patterns of ecosystem form, process, and biodiversity, it is time to remap the terrestrial biosphere to include ecological patterns produced by humans.

Anthropogenic biomes, also known as "anthromes" or "human biomes", describe the terrestrial biosphere in its contemporary, human-altered form using global ecosystem units defined by global patterns of sustained direct human interaction with ecosystems, offering a new way forward for ecological research and education. These provide a 21st century challenge to the classic images of Earth's wild ecosystems that appear in nearly every ecology and earth science textbook.

Contents 1 Major Anthropogenic Biomes 2 See also 3 External links 4 References

[edit] Major Anthropogenic Biomes

• Dense Settlements
• Villages
• Croplands
• Rangelands
• Forested

[edit] See also

• Biomes
• Anthropocene

[edit] External links

• Discovery Channel Video on Anthropogenic Biomes
• View the Anthropogenic Biomes in Google Earth
• Anthropogenic Biomes at Encyclopedia of Earth
• Can we conserve Nature in an anthropogenic biosphere?
• Anthropogenic Biomes project web site (with downloadable data)

[edit] References

• Ellis, E. C. and N. Ramankutty. 2008. Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 6, http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/070062link