Ecological Land Classification (ELC) refers to the description of land resources at a range of spatial resolutions (i.e. global to local) and for a range of purposes or values. The emerging science of ELC is in fact a very carefully integrated blend of vegetation and earth sciences, climatology, cartography and ecology with a range of new technologies and methodologies including computer-based geographic information systems, remote sensing and simulation modelling. This publication defines the current `state-of-the-art' of ELC. It provides particular insight into the role of ELC in current and future forest resource planning and management, and emphasizes its application and usefulness at various spatial scales, for a variety of geographic locations, and under a range of management scenarios/constraints. The book is an invaluable and substantial reference source about the current trends in ELC and will be of particular value to ecologists, foresters, geographers, resource managers, wildlife biologists, GIS and remote sensing specialists, educators and students.

This volume represents a first attempt at holistically classifying and mapping ecological regions across all three countries of the North American continent. A common analytical methodology is used to examine North American ecology at multiple scales, from large continental ecosystems to subdivisions of these that correlate more detailed physical and biological settings with human activities on two levels of successively smaller units. The volume begins with an overview of North America from an ecological perspective, concepts of ecological regionalization. This is followed by descriptions of the 15 broad ecological regions, including information on physical and biological setting and human activities. The final section presents case studies in applications of the ecological characterization methodology to environmental issues. The appendix includes a list of common and scientific names of selected species characteristic of the ecological regions.

Our Landscape Heritage provides an overview of the history and ecological makeup of the landscapes of New Brunswick to help ecological seekers starting out with basic knowledge about geology, soils, climate, and vegetation, to better understand why plants and animals are today distributed as they are. Part I outlines the rationale and history of ecological land classification (ELC) in New Brunswick, and presents basic scientific concepts and facts that help the reader to interpret the information that follows. Part II, Portrait of New Brunswick Ecoregions and Ecodistricts presents a detailed look at the variety and distribution of ecosystems across the geographic expanse of New Brunswick. Each of the seven chapters of Part II provides a high level description of the ecoregion, followed by detailed descriptions of each ecodistrict within the ecoregion.--Includes text from document.