The Terrestrial Ecosystem Model has used several spatially explicit data sets of vegetation to estimate carbon and nitrogen stocks and fluxes for various regions of the terrestrial biosphere. Most studies, however, are based on a global data set of potential vegetation that we created by digitizing a series of existing maps and then translated the map categories into general vegetation classes (TEMVEG) used by the model. To examine this translation of the map categories into TEMVEG classes, click on the appropriate region in the table below:
|
Region |
Source |
|---|---|
| Africa | Vegetation of Africa (White, 1981) |
| Alaska, USA | Major Ecosystems of Alaska (Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commision for Alaska, 1973) |
| Australia | Vegetation. Atlas of Australian Resources, Third Series (Australian Surveying and Land Information Group, 1990) |
| Canada | Forest Regions of Canada (Rowe, 1972) |
| China | Vegetation Map of China (Hou et al., 1979) |
| South America | Vegetation Map of South America (UNESCO, 1981) |
| Former Soviet Union | Vegetation of the USSR (Institute of Geography of the Siberian Department of USSR Academy of Sciences et al., 1990) |
| Conterminous United States | Potential Natural Vegetation of the Conterminous United States (Kuchler, 1964) |
| Rest of the World | (Matthews, 1983) |
|
TEMVEG |
Description of Vegetation Type |
|---|---|
| 1 | Ice |
| 2 | Alpine Tundra and Polar Desert |
| 3 | Moist and Wet Tundra |
| 4 | Boreal Forest |
| 5 | Forested Boreal Wetlands |
| 6 | Boreal Woodlands |
| 7 | Non-forested Boreal Wetlands |
| 8 | Mixed Temperate Forests |
| 9 | Temperate Coniferous Forests |
| 10 | Temperate Deciduous Forests |
| 11 | Temperate Forested Wetlands |
| 12 | Tall Grasslands |
| 13 | Short Grasslands |
| 14 | Tropical Savanna |
| 15 | Arid Shrublands |
| 16 | Tropical Evergreen Forests |
| 17 | Tropical Forested Wetlands |
| 18 | Tropical Deciduous Forests |
| 19 | Xeromorphic Forests and Woodlands |
| 20 | Tropical Forested Floodplains |
| 21 | Deserts |
| 22 | Tropical Non-forested Wetlands |
| 23 | Tropical Non-forested Floodplains |
| 24 | Temperate Non-forested Wetlands |
| 25 | Temperate Forested Floodplains |
| 26 | Temperate Non-forested Floodplains |
| 27 | Wet Savannas |
| 28 | Salt Marsh |
| 29 | Mangroves |
| 30 | Tidal Freshwater Marshes |
| 31 | Temperate Savannas |
| 32 | Cultivation |
| 33 | Temperate Broadleaved Evergreen |
| 34 | Reserved |
| 35 | Mediterranean Shrublands |