Map design by Adam P. DixonScience & Innovation World Wildlife Fund - United StatesAugust 2014
1. a non-wetland formation;
2. at least 10% vascular vegetation canopy cover;
4. broad-leaved herbs (forbs) may have variable levels of cover and dominance;
3. graminoids have at least 25% (but if < 25% cover, graminoids exceed that of other herbaceous and shurb cover);
5. shurbs have < 25% canopy cover;
5. and trees: (i) temperate regions, trees typically have < 10% canopy cover, are <5 m tall and single-layered, (ii) or in tropical regions, trees typically have less than 40% canopy cover, are < 8 m tall, and single-layered.
Unmapped North American Grasslands Vancouverian and Rocky Mountain Grassland & ShrublandEastern North American Grassland, Meadow & ShrublandWestern North America Interior Sclerophyllous Chaparral ShrublandSoutheastern North American Grassland & ShrublandNorth American Boreal Grassland, Meadow & ShrublandCaribbean and Central American Montane Shrubland and Grassland
Unmapped Oceana Grasslands Polynesian Montane Shrubland, Grassland & SavannaEastern Melanesian Montane Shrubland, Grassland & SavannaIndomalayan Mesic Savanna and GrasslandsPolynesian Lowland Shrubland, Grassland & SavannaEastern Melanesian Lowland Shrubland, Grassland & Savanna
Unmapped Eurasian Grasslands Mediterranean Basin Montane Grassland & ScrubEuropean Grassland & HeathIndomalayan Mesic Savanna and GrasslandsPolynesian Lowland Shrubland, Grassland & Savanna
1:35,000,000
National and international policy frameworks – such as the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive – increasingly seek to conserve and reference ‘highly biodiverse grasslands’. We propose a synthesized
biogeographic methodology to characterize grassland types with the Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World (TEOW) – a spatial regionalization of the earth’s terrestrial biodiversity.
We mapped forty-nine taxonomically distinct macroscale vegetation assemblages. Sixteen additional distinct but with limited extent grassland types are recognized, but unable to be mapped with our approach.
Australia Warm Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland
Australian Alpine Scrub, Forb Meadow& Grassland
Australian Mediterranean Scrub
Australian Temperate Grassland & Shrubland
Australian Tropical Savanna
Indomalayan Montane Meadow
New Guinea Montane Meadow
New Zealand Alpine Scrub, Forb Meadow & Grassland
New Zealand Grassland & Shrubland
Central Asian Alpine Scrub, Forb Meadow & Grassland
Eastern Eurasian Cool Semi-Desert Scrub & GrasslandMediterranean Basin Dry Grassland
European Alpine Vegetation
Eurasian Boreal Grassland, Meadow & Shrubland
Eastern Eurasian Grassland & Shrubland
Northeast Asia Grassland & Shrubland
Western Eurasian Cool Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland
Western Eurasian Grassland & Shrubland
South African Cape Mediterranean Scrub
West-Central African Mesic Woodland and Savanna
Sudano Sahelian Dry Savanna
Southern African Montane Grassland
North Sahel Semi-Desert Scrub and Grassland
Mopane Savanna
Miombo and Associated Broadleaf Savanna
Mediterranean Basin Dry Grassland
Eastern and Southern African Dry Savanna & Woodland
Eastern Africa Xeric Scrub and Grassland
African Montane Grassland & Shrubland
African (Madagascan) Montane Grassland and Shrubland
Guianan Montane Shrubland and Grassland
Brazilian-Parana Freshwater Marsh, Wet Meadow & Shrubland
Guianan Lowland Shrubland, Grassland & Savanna
Amazonian Shrubland & Savanna
Colombian-Venezuelan Lowland Shrubland, Grassland & Savanna
Pampean Grassland & Shrubland (semi-arid Pampa)
Pampean Grassland & Shrubland
Mediterranean and Southern Andean Cool Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland
Colombian-Venezuelan Freshwater Marsh, Wet Meadow & Shrubland
Chaco Freshwater Marsh and Shrubland
Brazilian-Parana Montane Shrubland and Grassland
Brazilian-Parana Lowland Shrubland, Grassland & Savanna
Patagonian Cool Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland
Patagonian Grassland and Shrubland
Tropical Andean Cool Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland
Tropical Andean Shrubland & Grassland
California Grassland & Meadow
Great Plains Grassland & Shrubland
North American Warm Desert Scrub & Grassland
Western North American Cool Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland
Tropical Lowland Grassland, Shrubland & Savanna
Tropical Montane Shrubland, Grassland & Savanna
Temperate Grassland, Meadow & Shrubland Cool Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland
Warm Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland
Alpine Scrub, Forb Meadow & Grassland
Mediterranean Scrub, Grassland & Forb MeadowTropical Freshwater Marsh, Wet Meadow & Shrubland
Global Grasslands 13,151,600 km2
8,104,830 km 2
5,661,110 km 2
3,030,720 km 2
3,005,020 km 2
1,594,750 km2
591,357 km2
465,015 km246,322 km
2
2
Boreal Grassland, Meadow & Shrubland
Dixon A.P., Faber-Langendoen, D., Josse, C., Morrison, J., Loucks, C.J. (2014) Distribution mapping of world grassland types. Journal of Biogeography, in press.
Faber-Langendoen, D., Keeler-Wolf, T., Meidinger, D., Tart, D., Hoagland, B., Josse, C., Navarro, G., Ponomarenko, J.P.S., Weakley, A. & Comer, P. (2014) EcoVeg: a new approach to vegetation description and classi�cation. Ecological Monographs, in press.
Faber-Langendoen, D., Josse, C. (2010) World Grasslands and Biodiversity Patterns. NatureServe, Arlington, VA.
Olson D.M., Dinerstein, E., Wikramanayake, E.D., Burgess, N.D., Powell, G.V.N., Underwood, E.C., D’Amico, J.A., Itoua, I., Strand, H.E., Morrison, J.C., Loucks, C.J., Allnutt, T.F., Ricketts, T.H., Kura, Y., Lamoreux, J.F., Wettengel, W.W., Hedao, P., Kassem, K.R. (2001) Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World. WWF-United States. Washington, DC.