The biome inventory – standardizing global biogeographical land units

• Main Authors: Fischer, Jan-Christopher, Walentowitz, Anna, Beierkuhnlein, Carl
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2022
• Subjects: Biosphere; Boreal; climate zones; Desert; temperate forest; tundra; rainforest; Ecozones; land cover; savanna; Tundra
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hqbzkh1jm

The subdivision of the Earth's terrestrial surface into different biomes, ecozones, bio-climatic realms or other large ecological land units is an essential reference for global biogeographical and ecological studies. Various classification schemes exist. They differ significantly in terms of the considered criteria for classification and the underlying methodology of class assignments. Evident divergences between global biome concepts are elusive, weakening hereon based analyses and assumptions. Compilation and standardization are essential for obtaining a framework that enables the comparison of different products. To address this need, we created a catalogue of standardized categorial maps comprising 31 different global products based on various methodological approaches. Those were processed individually to facilitate their use in large-scale biogeographical and ecological analyses. This data set contains a RasterStack object with 31 layers of standardized global biome and land-cover classifications (Biome_Inventory_RasterStack.tif). Legends of all maps are provided in an associated text file (Biome_Inventory_Legends.txt). They are presented in the same order like the layers in the RasterStack object. The data set can be processed with RStudio . Exemplary code to open and visualize the RasterStack of the biome inventory from the file "Biome_Inventory_RasterStack.tif" with legend data from the file "Biome_Inventory_Legends.txt" is presented in the associated README-file (README_biome_inventory.txt). Funding provided by: University of Bayreuth* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: