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Bioregions 2023

One Earth's Bioregions 2023 framework — 185 discrete bioregions organized within 52 subrealms, 14 realms, and 8 major biogeographical realms. A novel biogeographical classification of Earth's terrestrial surface, building on RESOLVE Ecoregions 2017 (844 ecoregions) and offering a nature-based alternative to political geography for conservation planning.

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/climate-and-environment/bioregions-2023/
https://datahub.io/climate-and-environment/bioregions-2023/_r/-/README.md
https://datahub.io/climate-and-environment/bioregions-2023/_r/-/data/bioregions.csv
https://datahub.io/climate-and-environment/bioregions-2023/_r/-/datapackage.json
Key Files

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datapackage.jsonmetadata & schema
https://datahub.io/climate-and-environment/bioregions-2023/_r/-/datapackage.json
README.mddocumentation
https://datahub.io/climate-and-environment/bioregions-2023/_r/-/README.md
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  1. 1. Fetch datapackage.json to inspect schema and resources
  2. 2. Download data resources listed in datapackage.json
  3. 3. Read README.md for full context

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bioregions

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Schema

nametypedescription
codestringBioregion identifier: two-letter biogeographic realm prefix (NA, NT, PA, AT, IM, AU, OC, AN) followed by a number (e.g. NA1, AT12, PA53)
namestringFull name of the bioregion (e.g. 'Greater Eurasian Tundra', 'Amazon River Estuary')
biogeographic_realmstringOne of the eight traditional biogeographic realms: Nearctic, Neotropical, Palearctic, Afrotropical, Indomalayan, Australasian, Oceanian, Antarctic
realmstringOne Earth realm — 14 intermediate geographic divisions. The Nearctic splits into Subarctic America and Northern America; Neotropical into Central America and Southern America; Palearctic into Subarctic Eurasia, Western Eurasia, Central Eurasia, Eastern Eurasia, and Southern Eurasia. The remaining five biogeographic realms each map to a single One Earth realm.
subrealmstringOne Earth subrealm — 52 named groupings of ecologically related bioregions within each realm (e.g. 'Canadian Boreal Forests', 'Mediterranean', 'Amazonia')

Data Files

FileDescriptionSizeLast modifiedDownload
bioregions
All 185 One Earth bioregions with their classification within the biogeographical hierarchy: biogeographic realm (8), One Earth realm (14), and subrealm (52). Each bioregion is identified by a two-letter realm code plus a number (e.g. NA1, AT12, PA53).16.4 kBabout 2 months ago
bioregions
FilesSizeFormatCreatedUpdatedLicenseSource
116.4 kBcsvabout 2 months agoCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 InternationalBioregions 2023 — One Earth

Bioregions 2023

185 discrete bioregions delineating Earth's terrestrial surface by ecological character, developed by One Earth. A nature-based alternative to political geography for conservation planning.

Background

The Bioregions 2023 framework was developed by One Earth, building upon the RESOLVE Ecoregions 2017 dataset (Dinerstein et al., 2017 — 844 ecoregions). Bioregions aggregate ecologically similar ecoregions into coherent biogeographic units at a scale relevant to conservation policy and science communication.

The framework organises the world's land surface into a four-level hierarchy:

LevelCountExample
Biogeographic realms8Nearctic, Palearctic, Afrotropical …
One Earth realms14Northern America, Western Eurasia …
Subrealms52Mediterranean, Amazonia, Canadian Boreal Forests …
Bioregions185PA18 Aegean Sea & East Mediterranean Mixed Forests

The average bioregion covers approximately 715,000 km². Each bioregion is anchored in shared ecological and evolutionary history, reflecting natural boundaries such as mountain ranges, river basins, and climate zones.

Data

data/bioregions.csv

One row per bioregion (185 total). Columns:

ColumnDescription
codeBioregion identifier (e.g. NA1, AT12, PA53). Two-letter realm prefix + number.
nameFull bioregion name
biogeographic_realmOne of eight traditional biogeographic realms
realmOne Earth realm (14 total)
subrealmOne Earth subrealm grouping (52 total)

Realm code prefixes:

PrefixBiogeographic RealmOne Earth Realms
NANearcticSubarctic America, Northern America
NTNeotropicalCentral America, Southern America
PAPalearcticSubarctic Eurasia, Western Eurasia, Central Eurasia, Eastern Eurasia, Southern Eurasia
ATAfrotropicalAfrotropics
IMIndomalayanIndomalaya
AUAustralasianAustralasia
OCOceanianOceania
ANAntarcticAntarctica

Bioregion counts by biogeographic realm:

RealmCount
Palearctic53
Nearctic31
Neotropical29
Afrotropical24
Indomalayan18
Australasian16
Oceanian11
Antarctic3
Total185

Source & License

Data compiled from the One Earth Bioregions 2023 framework:

Underlying ecoregion framework: Dinerstein, E. et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm. BioScience, 67(6), 534–545. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix014

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 — non-commercial use with attribution to One Earth.