Palearctic realm

Biogeographic realm covering most of Eurasia

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The Palearctic realm (in red)

The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.

The realm consists of several bioregions: the Mediterranean Basin; North Africa; North Arabia; Western, Central and East Asia. The Palaearctic realm also has numerous rivers and lakes, forming several freshwater ecoregions.

Both the eastern and westernmost extremes of the Paleartic span into the Western Hemisphere, including Cape Dezhnyov in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the east and Iceland to the west. The term was first used in the 19th century, and is still in use as the basis for zoogeographic classification.

## History

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In an 1858 paper for the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, British zoologist Philip Sclater first identified six terrestrial zoogeographic realms of the world: Palaearctic, Aethiopian/Afrotropic, Indian/Indomalayan, Australasian, Nearctic, and Neotropical. The six indicated general groupings of fauna, based on shared biogeography and large-scale geographic barriers to migration.[1]

Frontispiece to Alfred Russel Wallace's book The Geographical Distribution of Animals

Alfred Wallace adopted Sclater's scheme for his book The Geographical Distribution of Animals, published in 1876. This is the same scheme that persists today, with relatively minor revisions, and the addition of two more realms: Oceania and the Antarctic.

## Major ecological regions

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The Palearctic realm includes mostly boreal/subarctic-climate and temperate-climate ecoregions, which stretch from western Europe to the Bering Sea.

### Euro-Siberian region

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The boreal and temperate Euro-Siberian region is the Palearctic's largest biogeographic region, which transitions from tundra in the northern reaches of Russia and Scandinavia to the vast taiga, the boreal coniferous forests which run across the continent. South of the taiga is a belt of temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and temperate coniferous forests. This vast Euro-Siberian region is characterized by many shared plant and animal species, and has many affinities with the temperate and boreal regions of the Nearctic realm of North America. Eurasia and North America were often connected by the Bering land bridge, and have very similar mammal and bird fauna, with many Eurasian species having moved into North America, and fewer North American species having moved into Eurasia. Many zoologists consider the Palearctic and Nearctic to be a single Holarctic realm. The Palearctic and Nearctic also share many plant species, which botanists call the Arcto-Tertiary Geoflora.

### Mediterranean Basin

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Main article: Mediterranean Basin

The lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea in southern Europe, north Africa, and western Asia are home to the Mediterranean Basin ecoregions, which together constitute the world's largest and most diverse mediterranean climate region of the world, with generally mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. The Mediterranean basin's mosaic of Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub are home to 13,000 endemic species. The Mediterranean basin is also one of the world's most endangered biogeographic regions; only 4% of the region's original vegetation remains, and human activities, including overgrazing, deforestation, and conversion of lands for pasture, agriculture, and urbanization, have degraded much of the region. Formerly the region was mostly covered with forests and woodlands, but heavy human use has reduced much of the region to the sclerophyll shrublands known as chaparral, matorral, maquis, or garrigue. Conservation International has designated the Mediterranean basin as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

### Sahara and Arabian deserts

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A great belt of deserts, including the Atlantic coastal desert, Sahara Desert, and Arabian Desert, separates the Palearctic and Afrotropic ecoregions. This scheme includes these desert ecoregions in the palearctic realm; other biogeographers identify the realm boundary as the transition zone between the desert ecoregions and the Mediterranean basin ecoregions to the north, which places the deserts in the Afrotropic, while others place the boundary through the middle of the desert.

### Western and Central Asia

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The Caucasus mountains, which run between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, are a particularly rich mix of coniferous, broadleaf, and mixed forests, and include the temperate rain forests of the Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests ecoregion.

Central Asia and the Iranian plateau are home to dry steppe grasslands and desert basins, with montane forests, woodlands, and grasslands in the region's high mountains and plateaux. In southern Asia the boundary of the Palearctic is largely altitudinal. The middle altitude foothills of the Himalaya between about 2,000–2,500 m (6,600–8,200 ft) form the boundary between the Palearctic and Indomalaya ecoregions.

### East Asia

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China, Korea and Japan are more humid and temperate than adjacent Siberia and Central Asia, and are home to rich temperate coniferous, broadleaf, and mixed forests, which are now mostly limited to mountainous areas, as the densely populated lowlands and river basins have been converted to intensive agricultural and urban use. East Asia was not much affected by glaciation in the ice ages, and retained 96 percent of Pliocene[citation needed] tree genera, while Europe retained only 27 percent. In the subtropical region of southern China and southern edge of the Himalayas, the Palearctic temperate forests transition to the subtropical and tropical forests of Indomalaya, creating a rich and diverse mix of plant and animal species. The mountains of southwest China are also designated as a biodiversity hotspot. In Southeastern Asia, high mountain ranges form tongues of Palearctic flora and fauna in northern Indochina and southern China. Isolated small outposts (sky islands) occur as far south as central Myanmar (on Nat Ma Taung, 3,050 m; 10,010 ft), northernmost Vietnam (on Fan Si Pan, 3,140 m; 10,300 ft) and the high mountains of Taiwan.

### Freshwater

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The realm contains several important freshwater ecoregions as well, including the heavily developed rivers of Europe, the rivers of Russia, which flow into the Arctic, Baltic, Black, and Caspian seas, Siberia's Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest lake on the planet, and Japan's ancient Lake Biwa.

## Flora and fauna

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One bird family, the accentors (Prunellidae), is endemic to the Palearctic region. The Holarctic has four other endemic bird families: the divers or loons (Gaviidae), grouse (Tetraoninae), auks (Alcidae), and waxwings (Bombycillidae).

There are no endemic mammal orders in the region, but several families are endemic: Calomyscidae (mouse-like hamsters), Prolagidae, and Ailuridae (red pandas). Several mammal species originated in the Palearctic and spread to the Nearctic during the Ice Age, including the brown bear (Ursus arctos, known in North America as the grizzly), red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Europe and the closely related elk (Cervus canadensis) in far eastern Siberia, American bison (Bison bison), and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus, known in North America as the caribou).

### Megafaunal extinctions

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Several large Palearctic animals became extinct from the end of the Pleistocene into historic times, including Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus), aurochs (Bos primigenius), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), North African elephant (Loxodonta africana pharaoensis), Chinese elephant (Elephas maximus rubridens), cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), Straight tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) and European lion (Panthera leo europaea).

## Palearctic terrestrial ecoregions

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The outlined ecoregions of the eastern Palearctic realm, each of a colored biome. The outlined ecoregions of the western Palearctic realm, each of a colored biome. Note that this realm, as a whole, has 10 of 14 biomes, or major habitat types, as defined by Olson & Dinerstein, et al. (2001).[2]

01\. Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

02\. Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests

03\. Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests

04\. Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests

05\. Temperate coniferous forests

06\. Taiga and Boreal forest

07\. Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

08\. Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

09\. Flooded grasslands and savannas

10\. Montane grasslands and shrublands

11\. Tundra

12\. Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub

13\. Deserts and xeric shrublands

14\. Mangroves

Rock and Ice, or Abiotic Land Zones

Palearctic tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions

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Guizhou Plateau broadleaf and mixed forests | China
Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests | China
Palearctic temperate broadleaf and mixed forests

Apennine deciduous montane forests | Italy
Atlantic mixed forests | Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands
Azores temperate mixed forests | Portugal
Balkan mixed forests | Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey
Baltic mixed forests | Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden
Cantabrian mixed forests | France, Portugal, Spain
Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests | Azerbaijan, Iran
Caucasus mixed forests | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey
Celtic broadleaf forests | Ireland, United Kingdom
Central Anatolian deciduous forests | Turkey
Central China loess plateau mixed forests | China
Central European mixed forests | Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine
Central Korean deciduous forests | North Korea, South Korea
Changbai Mountains mixed forests | China, North Korea
Changjiang Plain evergreen forests | China
Crimean Submediterranean forest complex | Russia, Ukraine
Daba Mountains evergreen forests | China
Dinaric Mountains mixed forests | Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia
East European forest steppe | Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine
Eastern Anatolian deciduous forests | Turkey
English Lowlands beech forests | United Kingdom
Euxine–Colchic deciduous forests | Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey
Hokkaido deciduous forests | Japan
Huang He Plain mixed forests | China
Madeira evergreen forests | Portugal
Manchurian mixed forests | China, North Korea, Russia, South Korea
Nihonkai evergreen forests | Japan
Nihonkai montane deciduous forests | Japan
North Atlantic moist mixed forests | Ireland, United Kingdom (Northern Ireland, Scotland), Denmark (Faroe Islands)
Northeast China Plain deciduous forests | China
Pannonian mixed forests | Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine
Po Basin mixed forests | Italy Switzerland
Pyrenees conifer and mixed forests | Andorra, France, Spain
Qin Ling Mountains deciduous forests | China
Rodope montane mixed forests | Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia
Sarmatic mixed forests | Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Sweden
Sichuan Basin evergreen broadleaf forests | China
South Sakhalin–Kurile mixed forests | Russia
Southern Korea evergreen forests | South Korea
Taiheiyo evergreen forests | Japan
Taiheiyo montane deciduous forests | Japan
Tarim Basin deciduous forests and steppe | China
Ussuri broadleaf and mixed forests | Russia
West Siberian broadleaf and mixed forests | Russia
Western European broadleaf forests | Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Luxembourg. Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland
Zagros Mountains forest steppe | Iran, Iraq, Turkey

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Palearctic temperate coniferous forests ecoregions

Alps conifer and mixed forests | Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland
Altai montane forest and forest steppe | China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia
Caledon conifer forests | United Kingdom
Carpathian montane conifer forests | Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine
Da Hinggan–Dzhagdy Mountains conifer forests | China, Russia
East Afghan montane conifer forests | Afghanistan, Pakistan
Elburz Range forest steppe | Iran
Helanshan montane conifer forests | China
Hengduan Mountains subalpine conifer forests | China
Hokkaido montane conifer forests | Japan
Honshū alpine conifer forests | Japan
Khangai Mountains conifer forests | Mongolia
Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests | Algeria, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia
Northeastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests | China, India, Bhutan
Northern Anatolian conifer and deciduous forests | Turkey
Nujiang Langcang Gorge alpine conifer and mixed forests | China
Qilian Mountains conifer forests | China
Qionglai–Minshan conifer forests | China
Sayan montane conifer forests | Mongolia, Russia
Scandinavian coastal conifer forests | Norway
Tian Shan montane conifer forests | China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan

Palearctic boreal forests/taiga ecoregions

* v
* t
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East Siberian taiga | Russia
Iceland boreal birch forests and alpine tundra | Iceland
Kamchatka–Kurile meadows and sparse forests | Russia
Kamchatka–Kurile taiga | Russia
Northeast Siberian taiga | Russia
Okhotsk–Manchurian taiga | Russia
Sakhalin Island taiga | Russia
Scandinavian and Russian taiga | Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden
Trans-Baikal conifer forests | Mongolia, Russia
Urals montane tundra and taiga | Russia
West Siberian taiga | Russia

Palearctic temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregions

* v
* t
* e

Alai–Western Tian Shan steppe | Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Altai steppe and semi-desert | Kazakhstan
Central Anatolian steppe | Turkey
Daurian forest steppe | China, Mongolia, Russia
Eastern Anatolian montane steppe | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey
Emin Valley steppe | China, Kazakhstan
Faroe Islands boreal grasslands | Faroe Islands, Denmark
Gissaro–Alai open woodlands | Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Kazakh forest steppe | Kazakhstan, Russia
Kazakh steppe | Kazakhstan, Russia
Kazakh Uplands | Kazakhstan
Mongolian–Manchurian grassland | China, Mongolia, Russia
Pontic steppe | Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria
Sayan Intermontane steppe | Russia
Selenge–Orkhon forest steppe | Mongolia, Russia
South Siberian forest steppe | Russia
Syrian xeric grasslands and shrublands | Iraq, Jordan, Syria
Tian Shan foothill arid steppe | China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan

Palearctic flooded grasslands and savannas ecoregions

* v
* t
* e

Amur meadow steppe | China, Russia
Bohai Sea saline meadow | China
Nenjiang River grassland | China
Nile Delta flooded savanna | Egypt
Saharan halophytics | Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Tunisia, Western Sahara
Tigris–Euphrates alluvial salt marsh | Iraq, Iran
Ussuri-Wusuli meadow and forest meadow | China, Russia
Yellow Sea saline meadow | China

Palearctic montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregions

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* t
* e

Altai alpine meadow and tundra | China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia
Central Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe | China
Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows | Bhutan, Myanmar, China, India, Nepal
Ghorat–Hazarajat alpine meadow | Afghanistan
Hindu Kush alpine meadow | Afghanistan
Karakoram–West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe | Afghanistan, China, India, Pakistan
Khangai Mountains alpine meadow | Mongolia
Kopet Dag woodlands and forest steppe | Iran, Turkmenistan
Kuh Rud and Eastern Iran montane woodlands | Iran
Mediterranean High Atlas juniper steppe | Morocco
North Tibetan Plateau–Kunlun Mountains alpine desert | China
Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows | China, India, Pakistan
Ordos Plateau steppe | China
Pamir alpine desert and tundra | Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
Qilian Mountains subalpine meadows | China
Sayan alpine meadows and tundra | Mongolia, Russia
Southeast Tibet shrub and meadows | China
Sulaiman Range alpine meadows | Afghanistan, Pakistan
Tian Shan montane steppe and meadows | China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
Tibetan Plateau alpine shrublands and meadows | China
Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows | India, Nepal
Yarlung Zambo arid steppe | China

Palearctic tundra ecoregions

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* e

Arctic desert | Russia, Svalbard (Norway)
Bering tundra | Russia
Cherskii–Kolyma mountain tundra | Russia
Chukchi Peninsula tundra | Russia
Kamchatka Mountain tundra and forest tundra | Russia
Kola Peninsula tundra | Norway, Russia
Northeast Siberian coastal tundra | Russia
Northwest Russian–Novaya Zemlya tundra | Russia
New Siberian Islands arctic desert | Russia
Scandinavian montane birch forest and grasslands | Finland, Norway, Sweden
Taimyr–Central Siberian tundra | Russia
Trans-Baikal Bald Mountain tundra | Russia
Wrangel Island arctic desert | Russia
Yamalagydanskaja tundra | Russia

Palearctic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions

* v
* t
* e

Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests | Greece, North Macedonia, Turkey
Anatolian conifer and deciduous mixed forests | Turkey
Canary Islands dry woodlands and forests | Spain
Corsican montane broadleaf and mixed forests | France
Crete Mediterranean forests | Greece
Cyprus Mediterranean forests | Cyprus
Eastern Mediterranean conifer–sclerophyllous–broadleaf forests | Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey
Iberian conifer forests | Spain
Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests | Portugal, Spain
Illyrian deciduous forests | Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia
Italian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests | France, Italy
Mediterranean acacia-argania dry woodlands and succulent thickets | Morocco, Canary Islands (Spain)
Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe | Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia
Mediterranean woodlands and forests | Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia
Northeastern Spain and Southern France Mediterranean forests | France, Monaco, Spain
Northwest Iberian montane forests | Portugal, Spain
Pindus Mountains mixed forests | Albania, Greece, North Macedonia
South Apennine mixed montane forests | Italy
Southeastern Iberian shrubs and woodlands | Spain
Southern Anatolian montane conifer and deciduous forests | Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey
Southwest Iberian Mediterranean sclerophyllous and mixed forests | Portugal, Spain
Tyrrhenian–Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests | Croatia, France, Italy, Malta
Palearctic deserts and xeric shrublands[3]

Afghan Mountains semi-desert | Afghanistan
Alashan Plateau semi-desert | China, Mongolia
Arabian Desert | Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
Atlantic coastal desert | Mauritania, Western Sahara
Azerbaijan shrub desert and steppe | Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran
Badghyz and Karabil semi-desert | Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Baluchistan xeric woodlands | Afghanistan, Pakistan
Caspian lowland desert | Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan
Central Afghan Mountains xeric woodlands | Afghanistan
Central Asian northern desert | Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
Central Asian riparian woodlands | Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Central Asian southern desert | Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Central Persian desert basins | Afghanistan, Iran
Eastern Gobi desert steppe | China, Mongolia
Gobi Lakes Valley desert steppe | Mongolia
Great Lakes Basin desert steppe | Mongolia, Russia
Junggar Basin semi-desert | China, Mongolia
Kazakh semi-desert | Kazakhstan
Kopet Dag semi-desert | Iran, Turkmenistan
Mesopotamian shrub desert | Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Syria
North Saharan steppe and woodlands | Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara
Paropamisus xeric woodlands | Afghanistan
Persian Gulf desert and semi-desert | Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Qaidam Basin semi-desert | China
Red Sea coastal desert | Egypt, Sudan
Red Sea Nubo–Sindian tropical desert and semi-desert | Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
Registan–North Pakistan sandy desert | Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan
Sahara desert | Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Western Sahara
South Iran Nubo–Sindian desert and semi-desert | Iran, Iraq, Pakistan
South Saharan steppe and woodlands | Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan
Taklimakan desert | China
Tibesti–Jebel Uweinat montane xeric woodlands | Chad, Egypt, Libya, Sudan
West Saharan montane xeric woodlands | Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger

## References

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1. ^ Sclater, Philip Lutley (1858). "On the general geographical distribution of the members of the class Aves". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 2 (7): 130–145\. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1858.tb02549.x.
2. ^ Olson, D. M., Dinerstein, E., Wikramanayake, E. D., Burgess, N. D., Powell, G. V. N., Underwood, E. C., D'Amico, J. A., Itoua, I., Strand, H. E., Morrison, J. C., Loucks, C. J., Allnutt, T. F., Ricketts, T. H., Kura, Y., Lamoreux, J. F., Wettengel, W. W., Hedao, P., Kassem, K. R. (2001). Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on Earth. Bioscience 51(11):933–938, [1] Archived 2012-09-17 at the Wayback Machine.
3. ^ Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545 [2]

## General references

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* Amorosi, T. "Contributions to the zooarchaeology of Iceland: some preliminary notes" in The Anthropology of Iceland (eds. E.P. Durrenberger & G. Pálsson). Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, pp. 203–227, 1989.
* Buckland, P.C., et al. "Holt in Eyjafjasveit, Iceland: a paleoecological study of the impact of Landnám" in Acta Archaeologica 61: pp. 252–271. 1991.
* http://www.Merriam-Webster.com
* http://www.Canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.ca
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/ecozones/Palearctic_ecozone
* Edmund Burke III, "The Transformation of the middle Eastern Environment, 1500 B.C.E.–2000 C.E." in The Environment and World History, ed. Edmund Burke III and Kenneth Pomeranz. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2009, 82–84.

## External links

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Palearctic realm at Wikipedia's sister projects

* Media from Commons
* Travel information from Wikivoyage

* Avionary 1500 Bird species of the Western and Central Palaearctic in 46 languages
* Map of the ecozones

* v
* t
* e

Biogeographic regions

Biomes|

| Terrestrial
biomes|

| Polar/montane|

* Tundra
* Taiga
* Montane grasslands and shrublands
* Alpine tundra

|

Temperate|

* Coniferous forests
* Broadleaf and mixed forests
* Deciduous forests
* Grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Tropical and
subtropical|

* Tropical forest
* Rainforest
* Seasonal forest
* Coniferous forests
* Moist broadleaf forests
* Dry broadleaf forests
* Grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Dry|

* Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub
* Deserts and xeric shrublands
* Steppe

Wet|

* Flooded grasslands and savannas
* Riparian
* Wetland
* Mangrove

Aquatic
biomes|

* Pond
* Littoral
* Intertidal
* Mangroves
* Kelp forests
* Coral reefs
* Neritic zone
* Pelagic zone
* Benthic zone
* Hydrothermal vents
* Cold seeps
* Demersal zone

Other biomes|

* Endolithic zone

Biogeographic
realms|

| Terrestrial|

* Afrotropical
* Antarctic
* Australasian
* Holarctic
* Nearctic
* Palearctic
* Indomalayan
* Neotropical
* Oceanian

|

Marine|

* Antarctic/Southern Ocean
* Arctic
* Central Indo-Pacific
* Eastern Indo-Pacific
* Temperate Australasia
* Temperate Northern Atlantic
* Temperate Northern Pacific
* Temperate South America
* Temperate Southern Africa
* Tropical Atlantic
* Tropical Eastern Pacific
* Western Indo-Pacific

Subdivisions|

* Biogeographic provinces
* Bioregions
* Ecoregions
* Lists of ecoregions
* Global 200 ecoregions

See also|

* Altitudinal zonation
* Ecological classification
* Floristic kingdoms
* Vegetation classifications
* Wallace Line
* Zoogeography

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* United States
* Czech Republic
* Israel

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