Global Ecosystems Framework: A Summary 
Jerry S. Olson 
Global Patterns Company and GlobeVu Inc. 
USA 
ABSTRACT: Mapping Earth's changes requires the tracking of ecosystems by many specialists 
and resource managers. No one legend serves all needs of modeling or mapping; however, a basic 
approach does offer a framework uniting vegetation and landscape patterns important for many global 
problems. Ecosystem types are defined by criteria of 1 ) height and cover of plants (producers), 2) 
seasonal foliage trends and climate, and 3 ) indicator taxa adapted to a life support system under 
regional environmental constraints. From the basic types, computer dictionaries are then devised to 
translate various short legends. Some are needed to define boundary conditions for climate models 
such as BATS and SiB. Running's Remote Sensing classes, International Geo-sphere -Biosphere 
Program (IGBP) land cover, and finer breakdowns (UNESCO formations ? species types ?) for all 
continents or countries are further examples of an open-ended strategy supporting global change 
research and resource management. 
INTRODUCTION. The varied modeling, mapping and assessment needs for coping with global 
change prevent any single scheme from serving all purposes. Yet experience suggests a basic 
ecosystem list with enough distinctions to allow translations into short lists meeting needs such as 
those just listed in the abstract. we don't have to start over for each specialized need --- if the basic 
list has been devised with such translation in mind. . 
TWO reports (Olson 1994a,b) for the EROS Data Center of the U.S.Geological Survey further 
explain this strategy for mapping and interpreting worldwide land cover at ~1 km cells. Table 1 in 
this SUMMARY combines key ideas from both 1994 reports, obtainable from Tom Loveland or the 
author. Report 1 defines the terms of reference and nominates a 1994 list of ecosystem types. Most 
are named after primary producers for the food chains of each region. But other landscape, substrate 
or water features also help define the ineracting physical-biological systems that make up our global 
ecosystem. 
BACKGROUND. Categories in the basic list emerged from needs of global systems research. Oak 
Ridge National Laboratory's Numeric Data Set 017 (Olson et al. 1985; available from ORNL's 
Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center, CDIAC) was quantified first for my bio- 
geochemical modeling. Changes in income-loss models of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse 
gases were related to pools of organic carbon in live vegetation, and also to biomass burning ( Olson 
1981). Land clearing and burning have greatly reduced biospheric carbon from pre-agricultural 
estimates mapped by Olson ( 1970, after Bazilevich ). 
My legend extended that of Humel and Reck's (1979) computer mapping of cover for climatic 
modeling. In 1988, the Oak Ridge legend was extended to serve such bio-geophysical needs for the 
Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS), in the NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric 
Research ) Community Climate Model 2. (CCM2; Dickinson et al. 1993 ). Volunteer work at the 
National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC of NOAA, also in Boulder ) started to refine previous 
half-degree cell resolution for NOAA's 1989 Africa Diskette Project, and then the Global Ecosystem 
Database (GED, of Kineman 1992 ). 
Ata 1991 GIS Modeling Workshop in Boulder and a 1992 Global Change Symposium before the 
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