Check It Out Environmental Protection Agency Ecoregions The Environmental Protection Agency EPA has developed the ecoregions schema for organizing ecosystems They provide a detailed description and a series of maps One defining characteristic that they use is a nested approach where you can see the nation divided into a few general ecological areas with other tiers more and more detailed So check it out The United States Geological Survey USGS in partnership with several other commercial and non profit organizations developed the Ecological Land Unit classification schema This global project has defined multiple ecological characteristics based on a 250 meter grid These ecological characteristics include Bioclimate A description of the temperature and precipitation Land Cover The type of vegetation and how the land is being used Land Form The physiographic features the physical landscape Lithography the soil type or characteristic For several continents more specific details have been provided for each of these ecological characteristics In the following section you will explore the global ecological land units 1 What are the three different ways of classifying the biosphere Hint each method was discussed in the paragraphs above 2 What are the similarities among the three schemas 3 What are the main differences among the three schemas