What are the 8 factors that are used to determine the boundaries of an ecozone?

Question

Ive been trying to figure this out but it seems to hard for me.
If you know the answer please post it!

Thanks

Answer 1

Hmmm. Very interesting question. Where did you come up with it? I don't know if there ARE eight factors that are used to determine the boundaries of an ecozone. In fact, the whole concept of an ecozone is one of shifting boundaries and definitions, and there aren't any set-in-stone rules i know of as to how ecozones are determined in the first place.

Here's what i know, though, with backup documentation and sites i've outright stole from since they said it better then i can at the moment.

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What's an ecozone?

An ecozone is an area where organisms and their physical environment endure as a system.

The Terrestrial Ecozones of Canada, for example, is an ecological framework developed that provides a standardized geographical reference system for real places out in the world. The use of such a framework of standard ecological units allows for common communication and reporting between people involved in difference kinds of work and study.

This framework consists of 15 ecozones. Within these are 194 ecoregions.

Most of the features which are used to detemine an ecozone are factors normally thought of as natural - landforms, soils, water features, vegetation and climate. However, where human activities are extensive and are key to sustaining the character of the area, they are also considered.

Definitions:
Ecozone: An area of the earth's surface representative of large and very generalized ecological units characterized by interactive and adjusting abiotic and biotic factors.

Ecoregion: A part of a province characterized by distinctive regional ecological factors, including climatic, physiography, vegetation, soil, water, fauna and land use.

Ecodistrict: A part of an ecoregion characterized by distinctive assemblages of relief, geology, landforms and soils, vegetation, water, fauna and land use.

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A little more scientific...What's an ecozone?

Ecozones are global divisions which have their own characteristic interplay of climatic factors, morphodynamics, soil-forming processes, living conditions for plants and animals, and production potentials for agriculture and forestry.

They are distinguished by different climates, landforms, soil units, plant formations and biomes, and land use systems. In the (hierarchical) systems of natural regions, the term ecozone represents the highest class heading. A few of the ecozones are subdivided into comparatively independent subregions or ecoregions, such as the Polar subpolar zone, which is divided into the glacier-covered regions (ice deserts), the frost debris regions and the tundra.

Nine ecozones have been defined:
1. Polar subpolar zone
2. Boreal zone
3. Temperate (or Humid) midlatitudes
4. Dry (or Arid) midlatitudes
5. Subtropics with winter rain (or Mediterranean-type subtropics)
6. Subtropics with year-round rain (or Humid subtropics)
7. Dry tropics and subtropics (or Tropical/subtropical arid lands)
8. Tropics with summer rain (or Seasonal tropics)
9. Tropics with year-round rain (or Humid tropics)

These ecozones occur in bands, often fragmentated because of the distribution of the continents and oceans, from the poles to the equator. All are present in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

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Canada

Canada seems to be the world leader in the ecozone concept. The Canada Committee on Ecological Land Classification was created in 1976 to provide a national forum to encourage the development of (1) a uniform national ecological approach to terrestrial ecosystem classification and mapping as well as (2) a sound application of the ecological approach to sustainable resource management and planning.

The objective of thier approach is to delineate, classify, and describe ecologically distinct areas of the earth's surface at different levels of generalization using various abiotic (nonliving, i.e., soils, rainfall) and biotic (living, i.e., plants and animals) factors at each of the levels.

The ecological units are defined through a combination of these factors. The dominance of any one or more of these factors always varies from one place to another.

By the mid 1980s a hierarchical classification evolved with seven levels of generalization. From the broadest to the smallest, they are: ecozones, ecoprovinces, ecoregions, ecodistricts, ecosections, ecosites and ecoelements

In essence, the individual areas were delineated on the earth's surface (i.e. ecozones, ecoprovinces, ecoregions, ecodistricts, etc.) and they gain their identity through spatial differences in a combination of landscape characteristics. THE FACTORS THAT ARE IMPORTANT VARY FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER AT ALL SCALES.

Key Points in Ecological Land Classification
1. Ecological Land Classification incorporates all major components of ecosystems: air, water, land, and biota, including humans.
2. It is holistic; "the sum is greater than the whole".
3. The number and relative importance of factors helpful in delineating ecological units varies from one area to another, regardless of the level of generalization.
4. It is based on a hierarchy with ecosystems nested within ecosystems.
5. It involves integration of knowledge and is not simply an overlay process.
6. It recognizes that ecosystems are interactive and that characteristics of one ecosystem blend with those of another.
7. It recognizes that map lines generally depict the location of zones of transition.


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Now that i have _not_ answered the question you asked, i can tell you that i just don't think there *are* eight discreet factors that are always used to determine every boundary of every ecozone. It just doesn't work that way. Sorry. Don't know quite where you got the data for your question but i think it's off a bit.