Global ecosystem typology

Alternative site for the Global ecosystem typology with additional information for ecosystem profiles and indicative maps.

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T2.5 Temperate pyric humid forests

Biome: T2. Temperate-boreal forests and woodlands biome

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(texts)

Forests with the tallest flowering trees on earth are complex in structure, with an open canopy of sclerophyll trees 40-90m tall allowing light to filter through to multiple understorey layers and a ground flora of ferns, grasses and mosses. The complex forest structure sustains a high diversity of birds, reptiles mammals, and canopy invertebrates, as well as a moist microclimate and deep, moist leaf litter on the forest floor that supports a diversity of soil invertebrates, fungi, and other microbes. These highly productive, fast-growing forests are notable carbon sinks, but extreme droughts make them prone to the most ferocious forest fires on earth at century-scale intervals. Seedbanks are crucial to the forest persisting after fire.

Key Features

Tall, moist and complex multi-layered forests in wet-temperate climates; characterised by sclerophyll dominant trees and diverse mesophyll understorey; population processes driven by fire regimes.

Overview of distribution

Subtropical - temperate southeast and temperate southwest Australia.

Profile versions

Main references

Selected references for this functional group:

  • Mac Nally RC (1995) On large-scale dynamics and community structure in forest birds: Lessons from some eucalypt forests of southeastern Australia Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 350B: 369-79

  • Wardell-Johnson G, Neldner J, Balmer J (2017) Wet sclerophyll forests Australian vegetation (Ed. DA Keith), pp 281-313. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-1-107-11843-0

Diagrammatic assembly model

Diagrammatic assembly model of T2.5 Temperate pyric humid forests. See general notes on diagrams. Open image full size.

Maps

Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (coloured red) or minor occurrences (coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. See general notes on maps.

There are 2 alternative versions of the indicative map for this functional group, please compare description and sources below.

T2.5.IM.alt_v2.0

Datasets

  • Vegetation-height-Australia
  • Vegetation-height-Australia
  • KG-climate-2018

Map references

  • Armston, J., Scarth, P., Lucas, R., Lewis, P., Disney, M., Phinn, S. (2015) Validation of continental scale vertical plant profile mapping using waveform lidar airborne laser scanning Silvilaser 2015 (Conference Proceedings). La Grande Motte, France, 28-30 September.

  • Hao Tang, John Armston, Steven Hancock, Suzanne Marselis, Scott Goetz, Ralph Dubayah (2019) Characterizing global forest canopy cover distribution using spaceborne lidar, Remote Sensing of Environment 231: 111262 DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2019.111262

  • Beck, H., Zimmermann, N., McVicar, T. et al. (2018) Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution Sci Data 5, 180214 DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.214

T2.5.web.alt_v2.0

Remote sensing estimates of canopy height were used as a direct indicator of the distribution of this group of tall forest ecosystems (Armston et al. 2015, Hao et al. 2019). We selected all areas with tree canopies taller than 40m, and clipped to the spatial extent of temperate climate types (Beck et al. 2018). Mapped occurrences were then aggregated to half degree spatial resolution and reclassified as major occurrences (>20% of cell area) and minor occurrences (< 20% of cell area). Open image full size.

Datasets

  • Vegetation-height-Australia
  • KG-climate-2018
  • Vegetation-height-Australia

Map references

  • Hao Tang, John Armston, Steven Hancock, Suzanne Marselis, Scott Goetz, Ralph Dubayah (2019) Characterizing global forest canopy cover distribution using spaceborne lidar, Remote Sensing of Environment 231: 111262 DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2019.111262

  • Beck, H., Zimmermann, N., McVicar, T. et al. (2018) Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution Sci Data 5, 180214 DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.214

  • Armston, J., Scarth, P., Lucas, R., Lewis, P., Disney, M., Phinn, S. (2015) Validation of continental scale vertical plant profile mapping using waveform lidar airborne laser scanning Silvilaser 2015 (Conference Proceedings). La Grande Motte, France, 28-30 September.

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