What Are Earth's Eight Ecozones?
The Earth's land surface is divided into eight ecozones. Ecozone boundaries are based on a combination of man-made continental lines and natural boundaries consisting of harsh terrain and oceans. These zones consist of animals and plants that evolved in their own habitats, rather than being introduced by man over the centuries.
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Palearctic and Afrotropic
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The Palearctic ecozone covers the region of North Africa and Eurasia. It covers the whole of Europe and Northern Asia, and some of the Middle East, and it stretches to the foothills of the Himalayas. The Palearctic is mostly a temperate zone, though at its outer edges there are more temperature extremes, with the heat of North Africa and the cold of Siberia. In terms of size, it is more than twice as large as any other terrestrial ecozone. The Palearctic covers 20.9 million square miles, or 54.1 million square kilometers. Further south is the Afrotropic Sub-Saharan Africa ecozone. The Afrotropic zone is mainly a tropical environment.
Nearctic and Neotropic
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The Nearctic and Neotropic are two ecozones of similar size. The Nearctic ecozone covers North America, including the United States, Canada and Greenland. The Nearctic also covers most of Mexico and is largely a temperate zone. The Neotropic ecozone includes the whole of the Caribbean and South America, as well as much of Central America. The Neotropic ecozone consists of both tropical and temperate areas. These two ecozones have their boundaries made up virtually along continental lines.
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Australasia and Indo-Malaya
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Australasia consists of Australia, New Guinea and surrounding islands and has a combination of tropical, sub-tropical and temperate climates. Some of the islands of Indonesia are also included in the Australasian ecozone. The Indo-Malaya ecozone is a tropical and sub-tropical zone and covers South-East Asia, the Indian sub-continent, and the rest of the Indonesian islands. Both the Australasia and Indo-Malaya ecozones are almost exactly the same size in terms of square miles.
Oceania and Antarctic
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The two smallest terrestrial ecozones are Oceania and Antarctic. Oceania is a tropical and sub-tropical ecozone and is made up of New Zealand, Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. Parts of Australia also make up the total Oceania ecozone area of 0.39 million square miles (1 million square kilometers). Antarctic is the smallest ecozone. Covering Antarctica, it covers 0.12 million square miles (0.3 million square kilometers). Antarctic is the coldest and driest ecozone.
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References
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