The islands of Oceania – Political geography, biogeography, and terrestrial ecosystems

Abstract

Humans are dependent upon ecosystems for the production of goods and services necessary for their well-being (Daily, 1997). As the service provider units (SPUs) for these benefits of nature (Anderson et al., 2015), ecosystems need to be managed in a way that maximizes their persistence on the planet. Part of that management effort includes knowing a) what the ecosystem types are, b) where they are located on the landscape and in the seascape, and c) what condition they are in. Mapping of ecosystem occurrences as the SPUs for ecosystems goods and services is therefore an important element of ecosystem accounting, an inherently spatial activity. Maps are also needed of the ecosystem accounting areas within which the accounting is conducted. Standardized maps of ecosystem accounting areas and terrestrial ecosystem SPUs have not previously been available for many islands of the Oceania region. We describe the availability of new island shorelines and ecosystems data for Oceania herein, and encourage consideration and evaluation of the data for ecosystem accounting and other applications.