Clarify ecozone vs biogeographic realm

[pbuttigieg]

An older class, ecozone, seems almost the same as biogeographic region.

According to Wikipedia, the UK's BBC used the terms interchangeably. However, 'ecozone' seems to be used loosely, see this disambiguation page.

@timalamenciak we'll have to clean that up, either using ecozone as a superclass for all other biogeographic ecosystems, or by obsoleting ecozone and making the term a synonym of biogeographic realm, ecoregion, and so on.

[timalamenciak]

I think ecozone is a good synonym for biogeographic realm (which is how the BBC and Canada uses it), but it doesn't make sense to me to add it as a synonym for biome, bioregion (no ENVO term) and ecoregion. If we did, the term becomes meaningless since it can refer to an ecosystem delineation at any scale.

I also think this is closely tied to #1571 and will put some thoughts there.

[dr-shorthair]

@DavidKeith - the discussion here is consequent on ENVO challenging that the GET Realms are logically part of an ecosystem type hierarchy.
The Freshwater/Marine/Terrestrial/Atmospheric/Subterranean classification is useful, but not as the top of a specialization hierarchy for ecosystems.
I think the idea would be that the Biomes are associated with (one or more) zones from this partition of global geography, but the GET Realms are not ecosystem types themselves.

Arranging classifications in mono-hierarchies (trees) is a strong instinct, and helps with a visual presentation, but does not reflect the actual logic in this case.

[dr-shorthair]

@pbuttigieg refers to IUCN GET 'Realms' as 'planetary compartments'

[pbuttigieg]

@pbuttigieg refers to IUCN GET 'Realms' as 'planetary compartments'

@dr-shorthair the objective, as always, is clarity.

Colloquially, many scientists use terms like "marine realm" etc. however, when placed in the same context as ecoregions, "realm" must now be associated with biogeography to be consistent.

The contention is that the atmosphere, seas and oceans, etc can be referred to directly, "realm" doesn't add anything useful.

The IUCN realms can be mapped to these parts of the planet (or the ecosystems which infuse them)

[dr-shorthair]

Yep. Got that, and I agree with your analysis. My comments are my attempt to keep @DavidKeith apprised of your thinking. (David is the primary designer of GETV2).

I routinely advocate for my colleagues in the eco sciences to take a look at ENVO but finding the best entry point is tricky.

[timalamenciak]

Added pull request to address this issue by deprecating ecozone and creating it as a synonym for biogeographical realm. Moving discussion to pull request.

[pbuttigieg]

@timalamenciak please don't close issues in favour of PRs. If the PR is closed without merging then we'll have to hunt for and reopen issues.

The way is to include action words like "Closes" followed by the hash-number of the issue in the PR itself. If and when the latter is merged, the issues will be closed automatically.

https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/closing-issues-via-commit-messages/