Advancing the EcoVeg approach as a terrestrial ecosystemtypology: From global biomes to local plant communities

Abstract

The goal of the EcoVeg approach is to fully describe and classify the diversityof the Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems based on vegetation and ecological pro-cesses. The EcoVeg approach was used to develop the International VegetationClassification (IVC) and various national classifications, which integrate pat-terns of vegetation growth form, structure, and floristics with ecological andbiogeographic drivers at multiple spatial scales, from global formations to localplant communities. The approach remains unique among terrestrial ecologicalclassifications in providing types at these scales. However, as a terrestrialtypology, lack of context with respect to freshwater, marine and subterraneanrealms limited its clarity. Further, growth forms and structure were limited toreadily observable features, which excluded important functional traits. Therelease by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) of theGlobal Ecosystem Typology (GET) presented an opportunity to revisit theEcoVeg approach because GET has a conceptually robust, scalable, and spa-tially explicit functional approach for all of earth’s ecosystems (terrestrial,freshwater, marine, subterranean). Here, we briefly introduce the EcoVeg approach and the GET, and then outline a biome-based revision to EcoVegand the IVC that builds on the strengths of GET for global terrestrial types andthe IVC for continental to local terrestrial types. The outcome is a revised IVCthat we rename the ecosystem-based International Vegetation Classification(eIVC). As with GET, the eIVC has a conceptual foundation based on realmsand transitional realms, but it focuses on the terrestrial and transitional terres-trial (wetland) realms. It then fully implements terrestrial biome conceptsacross all the upper levels based on the integration of vegetation with globalecosystem processes and properties. Interoperable compatibility with GET isreflected in the fact that 84% of the global ecosystem types are largely equiva-lent, which facilitates the linkage of GET with the continental to local ecosys-tem types of the eIVC. The revisions that now form the eIVC will enhancecollaborative development of ecosystem types across the globe and providemore robust opportunities for co-application of the eIVC and GET in the ter-restrial realm for management, conservation, and restoration.

Citation

Faber-Langendoen,Don, David A. Keith, Javier Loidi, EileenH. Helmer, Wolfgang Willner, Gonzalo Navarro,John Hunter, Changcheng Liu, ReginaldT. Guuroh, and Patricio Pliscoff. 2025. “Advancing the EcoVeg Approach as a Terrestrial EcosystemTypology: From Global Biomes to Local Plant Communities.” Ecosphere 16(5): e70237. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70237