Ecozones

Ecosystems are distinctive areas where organisms, including humans, and the physical environment (i.e., soils, water, climate) interact as a system. Since ecosystems represent common biophysical characteristics, they are valuable for monitoring the impact of natural and human-sourced stress on the environment and for the analysis of socio-economic information.

The desire for a national approach to ecosystem classification and mapping in Canada led to the development of a hierarchical ecological classification framework. The objective of the approach was to delineate, classify and describe ecologically distinct areas of the earth's surface at different levels of generalization. The ecological framework was developed by identifying distinct areas of non-living (abiotic) and living (biotic) factors that are ecologically related. This hierarchical system ranges from site-specific ecoelements (such as ponds, woodlots and meadows) to broad-level ecozones that encompass large portions of the earth's surface (such as tundra, boreal forests, grasslands and deserts). The framework is designed so that the various orders of ecosystems are related in a hierarchy, in which a lower order ecosystem is nested within a higher order one. From the broadest to the smallest, the hierarchical classification consists of seven levels of generalization: ecozones, ecoprovinces, ecoregions, ecodistricts, ecosections, ecosites and ecoelements.

The hierarchical ecological classification framework divides the country into 15 terrestrial ecozones. The 15 terrestrial ecozones can be further broken down into 53 ecoprovinces, 194 ecoregions, and 1,021 ecodistricts. The 15 ecozones are:

Mapping ecosystems provides the spatial basis for applying the "ecosystem perspective"—recognizing the importance of viewing ourselves as part of, rather than separate from, Canada's ecosystems.