Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Conterminous United States

Dates

Publication Date: 2010-01-11
Time Period: 2009

Citation

Sayre, R., Comer, P., Cress, J.J., and Warner, H., 2010, Conterminous United States Terrestrial Ecosystems: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P94VQO8E.

Summary

These data were released prior to the October 1, 2016 effective date for the USGS’s policy dictating the review, approval, and release of scientific data as referenced in USGS Survey Manual Chapter 502.8 Fundamental Science Practices: Review and Approval of Scientific Data for Release. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) modeled the distribution of terrestrial ecosystems for the contiguous United States using a standardized, deductive approach to associate unique physical environments with ecological systems characterized in NatureServe's Ecological Systems of the United States classification (Comer et al., 2003). This approach was first developed for South America (Sayre et al., 2008) and is now being implemented globally (Sayre et [...]

Summary

These data were released prior to the October 1, 2016 effective date for the USGS’s policy dictating the review, approval, and release of scientific data as referenced in USGS Survey Manual Chapter 502.8 Fundamental Science Practices: Review and Approval of Scientific Data for Release.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) modeled the distribution of terrestrial ecosystems for the contiguous United States using a standardized, deductive approach to associate unique physical environments with ecological systems characterized in NatureServe's Ecological Systems of the United States classification (Comer et al., 2003). This approach was first developed for South America (Sayre et al., 2008) and is now being implemented globally (Sayre et al., 2007). Unique physical environments were delineated from a massive biophysical stratification of the nation into the major structural components of ecosystems: biogeographic regions (Cress et al., 2008c), land surface forms (Cress et al., 2008a), surficial lithology (Cress et al., 2008d), and topographic moisture potential (Cress et al., 2008b). Each of these structural components was mapped for the contiguous United States and then spatially combined to produce ecosystem structural footprints which represented unique abiotic (physical) environments. Among 49,168 unique structural footprint classes, 13,482 classes which met a minimum pixel count threshold (20,000 pixels) were aggregated into 419 NatureServe ecosystems through semi-automated labeling process using rule set formulations for attribution of each ecosystem.

UPDATE: A newer terrestrial ecosystems datalayer, "World Terrestrial Ecosystems (WTE) 2020", is now available at: https://doi.org/10.5066/P9DO61LP. This datalayer is a global raster dataset at a 250 m spatial resolution where 431 ecosystem types are identified and mapped. Each ecosystem type is a unique combination of vegetation/land cover, climate region, and landform.

Contacts

Point of Contact :: Roger Sayre
Originator :: Roger Sayre, Patrick Comer, Jill Janene Cress, Harumi Warner
Metadata Contact :: Roger Sayre
Publisher :: U.S. Geological Survey
Distributor :: U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
USGS Mission Area :: Core Science Systems
SDC Data Owner :: Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

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us_labeledecosystems_30m_metadata_v2.xml Original FGDC Metadata	View	62.71 KB	application/fgdc+xml
		1.35 GB	application/zip
us_isobioclimates_1km.zip		952.8 KB	application/zip
us_landsurfaceforms_30m.zip		576.23 MB	application/zip
us_lithology_1km.zip		1,007.47 KB	application/zip
		1.35 GB	application/zip
us_ecosys_lookup_tables.xls		104 KB	application/vnd.ms-excel

Related External Resources

Type: Related Primary Publication

Sayre, Roger, Comer, Patrick, Warner, Harumi, and Cress, Jill, 2009, A new map of standardized terrestrial ecosystems of the conterminous United States: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1768, 17 p., https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1768.	https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1768/
Sayre, Roger, Comer, Patrick, Cress, Jill, and Warner, Harumi, 2010, Terrestrial ecosystems of the conterminous United States: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3106, scale 1:5,000,000, 1 sheet.	https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3106/

Purpose

This dataset delineates the distribution of deductively-modeled NatureServe terrestrial ecosystems for the contiguous United States.

Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Conterminous United States

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