World Grassland Types

World Grassland Types provide a global biogeographical characterization of the Earth's large scale grassland ecosystems. We developed an ecologically meaningful spatial catalogue of grasslands by combining two systems, the International Vegetation Classification, which describes an eight-level hierarchy of ecosystem expression, and the Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World, a biogeographic regionalization of the Earth's terrestrial biodiversity, to provide a distribution map of global grasslands. The framework provided by our geographical mapping effort provides a systematic overview of grasslands and sets the stage for more detailed classification and mapping at finer scales.