Scholes African Ecoregions

<p><strong>Ecoregion description</strong></p> <p>We separated Africa into five functionally different ecoregions in order to assist with the interpretation of Greenhouse Gas flux estimates for the Regional Carbon Cycle and Assessment Phase 2 (RECCAP2) project (https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/reccap/). For the synthesis paper (in prep), the analyses therefore included Africa as a whole and where possible separate estimates for the ecoregions.</p> <p>The Scholes African Ecoregion Map was delineated by regrouping and smoothing the vegetation classification of the UNESCO/AETFAT/UNSO (White&#39;s) Vegetation Map of Africa (White, 1983) in accordance with the delineations of the distributions of Mean Annual Precipitation-determined (&lsquo;stable&rsquo;) and Disturbance-determined (&lsquo;unstable&rsquo;) savannas in Africa by Sankaran et al. (2005).</p> <p>In honour of the late Prof. Robert J. Scholes (Bob), who encouraged the creation of the map, we named it the &ldquo;Scholes African Ecoregion Map&rdquo;. The spatial maps are available as a shapefile and as grids in netcdf format at 1&deg; and 0.05&deg; spatial resolution.</p> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p>White, Frank; 1983; Vegetation of Africa - a descriptive memoir to accompany the Unesco/AETFAT/UNSO vegetation map of Africa; Natural Resources Research Report XX; U. N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris, France; 356 pages.</p> <p>Sankaran, M., Hanan, N., Scholes, R.&nbsp;et al.&nbsp;Determinants of woody cover in African savannas.&nbsp;Nature&nbsp;438,&nbsp;846&ndash;849 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04070</p>