Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (FEOW) provides a global biogeographic regionalization of the Earth’s freshwater biodiversity. The map and associated species data comprehensively cover the globe. Distribution data of freshwater fish, amphibians, turtles, and crocodiles are available at the ecoregion level. The map and associated data provide a useful tool for underpinning global and regional conservation planning, particularly for identifying outstanding and imperiled freshwater systems; serving as a logical framework for large-scale conservation strategies; providing a global-scale knowledge base for increasing freshwater biogeographic literacy.
The freshwater ecoregion map serves as a complement to the global terrestrial and marine ecoregion maps and differs from them in that freshwater species (primarily fish) and freshwater processes drove the map delineation.
FEOW has been developed by the WWF Conservation Science Program in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and 200 freshwater scientists from institutions around the world.
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Citation: Abell, R., M. Thieme, C. Revenga, M. Bryer, M. Kottelat, N. Bogutskaya, B. Coad, N. Mandrak, S. Contreras-Balderas, W. Bussing, M. L. J. Stiassny, P. Skelton, G. R. Allen, P. Unmack, A. Naseka, R. Ng, N. Sindorf, J. Robertson, E. Armijo, J. Higgins, T. J. Heibel, E. Wikramanayake, D. Olson, H. L. Lopez, R. E. d. Reis, J. G. Lundberg, M. H. Sabaj Perez, and P. Petry. 2008. Freshwater ecoregions of the world: A new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation. BioScience 58:403-414.
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