The provinces represent the large areas of Earth's surface within which organisms have been evolving in relative isolation over long periods of time, separated from one another by geographic features, such as oceans, broad deserts, or high mountain ranges, that constitute barriers to migration.
Biomes are characterized by similar
climax vegetation, though each realm may include a number of different biomes. A
tropical moist broadleaf forest in Brazil, for example, may be similar to one in New Guinea in its vegetation type and structure, climate, soils, etc., but these forests are inhabited by plants with very different evolutionary histories.
The hierarchy of the scheme is (with early replaced terms in parentheses):[1]
biogeographic realm (= biogeographic regions and subregions), with 8 categories
biogeographic province (= biotic province), with 193 categories, each characterized by a major biome or biome-complex
biome, with 14 types: tropical humid forests (1); subtropical and temperate rain forests or woodlands (2); temperate needle-leaf forests or woodlands (3); tropical dry of deciduous forests (including monsoon forests) or woodlands (4); temperate broad-lead forests or woodlands and subpolar deciduous thickets (5); evergreen sclerophyllous forests, scrubs or woodlands (6); warm deserts and semideserts (7); cold-winter (continental) deserts and semideserts (8); tundra communities and barren arctic desert (9); tropical grassland and savannas (10); temperate grasslands (11); mixed mountain and highland systems with complex zonation (12); mixed island systems (13); lake systems (14).
So, for example, the Australian Central Desert province is in the Australasian realm (6), is the 9th biogeographic province in that realm, and its biome falls within "warm deserts and semideserts" (7), so it is coded 6.9.7.
The realms and provinces of the scheme are hence coded as follows:
The provinces represent the large areas of Earth's surface within which organisms have been evolving in relative isolation over long periods of time, separated from one another by geographic features, such as oceans, broad deserts, or high mountain ranges, that constitute barriers to migration.
Biomes are characterized by similar
climax vegetation, though each realm may include a number of different biomes. A
tropical moist broadleaf forest in Brazil, for example, may be similar to one in New Guinea in its vegetation type and structure, climate, soils, etc., but these forests are inhabited by plants with very different evolutionary histories.
The hierarchy of the scheme is (with early replaced terms in parentheses):[1]
biogeographic realm (= biogeographic regions and subregions), with 8 categories
biogeographic province (= biotic province), with 193 categories, each characterized by a major biome or biome-complex
biome, with 14 types: tropical humid forests (1); subtropical and temperate rain forests or woodlands (2); temperate needle-leaf forests or woodlands (3); tropical dry of deciduous forests (including monsoon forests) or woodlands (4); temperate broad-lead forests or woodlands and subpolar deciduous thickets (5); evergreen sclerophyllous forests, scrubs or woodlands (6); warm deserts and semideserts (7); cold-winter (continental) deserts and semideserts (8); tundra communities and barren arctic desert (9); tropical grassland and savannas (10); temperate grasslands (11); mixed mountain and highland systems with complex zonation (12); mixed island systems (13); lake systems (14).
So, for example, the Australian Central Desert province is in the Australasian realm (6), is the 9th biogeographic province in that realm, and its biome falls within "warm deserts and semideserts" (7), so it is coded 6.9.7.
The realms and provinces of the scheme are hence coded as follows: