4.01 BIOMES IN AFRICA

Data ID

Description:

13 biomes of Africa

Chapter:

4 Living Resources

File name:

biomes in Africa

File type:

ArcView shapefile

Geographical area:

Africa

Keywords:

biomes

vegetation

ecology

Notes on data, analysis and

The shapefile is mainly based on the map of White (F. Bourliere (1983). Ecosystems of the world. No.13. Tropical

compilation:

savannas. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam. 730 pp). However, the terminology and map boundaries

of some units in the southern and northern parts have been slightly adapted according to the biome map of southern

Africa by Rutherford & Westfall (1994) (M.C. Rutherford & R.H. Westfall (1994). Biomes of Southern Africa: An

objective categorization. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa. (63): 94 pp).

The biome map of Namibia by Irish (J. Irish (1994). The biomes of Namibia, as determined by objective categorization.

Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum Bloemfontein. 10(13): 549-592) and an ecoregions map by Bailey in

Groomsbridge (1992). (B. Groombridge (1992). Global biodiversity: Status of the Earth’s living resources. From the

World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Chapman & Hall, London. 585 pp)

The result is an African biome map that corresponds well in terms of terminology and map boundaries with the existing

biome maps in South Africa & Namibia. The outline shapefile used for Africa came from the Africa Data Sampler. This

was amended to incorporate the 'definitive borders of Namibia shapefile' used in the atlas (Fig 1.01). For biomes in

Namibia, biome boundaries were made to fit exactly with the associated vegetation type boundaries (Fig 4.02).

Data quality and organisation

Positional Accuracy:

Very generalised

Vector/Raster:

Vector

Spatial reference

Projection:

Geographic

Fields

Field name

Field description

BIOME

Biome name

Source/Distribution

Data Source:

Wynand du Plessis

Distribution notes:

Unrestricted