Nicola Arndt und Matthias Pohl - Neobiota

Table 3: Global Ecological Zones of Europe.
Global Ecological Zone
Surface area
Km 2 % of total land area
Europe
% of GEZ world total
Subtropical dry forest 816 400 8.1 51.3
Subtropical steppe 5 008 0.0 0.1
Subtropical desert 0 0 0
Subtropical mountain systems 149 240 1.5 3.1
Temperate oceanic forest 1 287 121 12.8 71.3
Temperate continental forest 2 906 694 29.0 41.9
Temperate steppe 955 497 9.5 16.2
Temperate desert 150 343 1.5 2.8
Temperate mountain systems 605 384 6.0 8.4
Boreal coniferous forest 2 195 688 21.9 25.9
Boreal tundra woodland 87 788 0.9 2.2
Boreal mountain systems 457 623 4.6 7.3
Polar 422 632 4.2 7.8
Total land area
10 039 418
The other cause is due to offset of lines of the polygons on both sides, even though they may have the
same labels. For this problem, we edited manually the coverage and change locations of the lines. This
sometimes required more ancillary data and maps such as: composite of NOAA AVHRR spectral
bands, classified continental-scale land cover (such as the USGS global land cover database), and
digital elevation model (DEM) data.
4.4 Mapping of the Europe GEZ map
All regional source maps that were used to compile the global GEZ map are presented in the Annex.
The process of map development is illustrated with the part for Europe. The GEZ mapping of Europe
was done in cooperation with Udo Bohn of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation of Germany.
The source map to compile the GEZ for Europe is the General Map of the Natural Vegetation of
Europe (BOHN & KATENINA 2000). The map shows the distribution of dominant (potential) natural
plant communities corresponding to the actual climate and edaphic conditions. Further, it shows the
regular natural distribution of the vegetation in correlation with longitude, latitude and altitude as well
as the distribution and structure of the most important azonal vegetation types. The classification is
organized in a hierarchic structure. At the highest level, 19 vegetation formations and formation
complexes are distinguished, based on physiognomic-ecological features of the natural plant cover.
They are designated by capital letters A to U. 14 of these main units (A-O) represent the predominant
zonal formations characterized by the prevailing life forms. They correspond to the main
macroclimatic zones and belts in a sequence following the gradient from a cold and wet (northnorthwest,
high altitude) to a warm and dry (south-southeast) climate. The azonal formations P-U are
partly characterized by heterogeneous physiognomy dependent on varied site conditions, especially
coastal, mire and flood plain units. At the next level, each formation is subdivided into subgroups
according to its most important features such as prevailing life forms, dominant species and species
groups. For instance, within the mesophytic deciduous broadleaved and mixed coniferous-broadleaved
64
100