What is an Ecoregion? | Channel Introduction

The vast biological and geographic diversity of planet Earth requires some form of system for grouping its myriad of ecosystems into manageable units of study. Today's classification system was pioneered by Eric Dinerstein, lead scientist at the World Wildlife Fund for most of the past twenty years, along with countless other scientists around the world. The WWF scheme is a magnum opus of ecological research, classifying the world into 1,525 ecoregions, of which 867 are terrestrial, 426 are freshwater, and 232 are marine. My goal with this channel is to introduce one ecoregion per video, highlighting its resident flora and fauna, its geography, and the ways in which human beings use or misuse it. Nature is beautifully diverse, and I believe the WWF ecoregion system is the best way to illustrate it. Thank you for joining me.

Check out this handy ecoregion map! https://ecoregions.appspot.com/

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), nor with any researcher involved in creating the WWF ecoregions classification scheme, nor with the website "ecoregions.appspot.com".