By Dorothy Janick
Source: ESA
When you hear the word “biome,” you likely picture a landscape that is inhabited by wildlife, away from human influence, like a savanna, rainforest, or desert. A “biome” refers to a large geographic region characterized by specific climatic conditions, vegetation, and animal life. But humans are animals, too, and we play a large role in shaping the climatic conditions, vegetation, and animal life around us. Throughout human history, we have manipulated our environment through fire, agriculture, and, more recently, urbanization.
This week’s map explores the concept of anthropogenic biomes, or landscapes transformed by human activity. In 2008, researchers Erle C. Ellis and Navin Ramankutty created this map to challenge previous ideas of biomes that excluded or downplayed human influence. By analyzing land use, land cover, and population data, they classified anthropogenic biomes into eighteen categories, from urban areas to residential rangelands to pastoral villages, that cover more than 75 percent of the world’s ice-free land surface. According to their analysis, less than a quarter of land can be considered wild, or not directly altered by humans.
It may be tempting to think of the natural world as separate from human life, but in reality, we are constantly reshaping the world, altering conditions not only for ourselves but also for the other beings with whom we share a planet. Mapping anthropogenic biomes in this way provides a more integrated perspective, highlighting the deep connections between humans and the ecosystems of which we are just one part.
Source:
Ellis, C. E., & Ramankutty, N. (2008). Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 6(8): 439–447. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/070062.