Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-10 (section)

=== 10.3.2 Ecological Characteristics ===

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Ecosystems in Asia are characterised by a variety of climate and topographic effects, and can be divided into several distinct areas (Figure 10.3). In addition, valuable ecosystem services provide vital support for human well-being and sustainable development ( [[#IPBES--2018|IPBES, 2018]] ).

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'''Figure 10.3 |''' '''Terrestrial ecoregions, large marine ecosystems and major fishing areas of Asia.''' Large marine ecosystems: ''26'' Mediterranean Sea; ''32'' Arabian Sea; ''33'' Red Sea; ''34'' Bay of Bengal; ''35'' Gulf of Thailand; ''36'' South China Sea; ''37'' Sulu-Celebes Sea; ''38'' Indonesian Sea; ''47'' East China Sea; ''48'' Yellow Sea; ''49'' Kuroshio Current; ''50'' Sea of Japan; ''51'' Oyashio Current; ''52'' Sea of Okhotsk; ''53'' West Bering Sea; ''54'' Northern Bering and Chukchi seas; ''56'' East Siberian Sea; ''57'' Laptev Sea; ''58'' Kara Sea; ''62'' Black Sea. Developed after [[#Olson--2001|Olson et al. (2001)]] , [[#NOAA--2010|NOAA (2010)]] and [[#FAO--2019|FAO (2019)]] , and made with Natural Earth. Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset archive available at https://www.naturalearthdata.com/ . The software used for generating the map was ArcGIS 10.0. Note that the map is for illustrative purposes only.

Boreal forests and tundra dominate in North Asia: deserts and xeric shrublands in Central and West Asia; and alpine ecosystems in the HKH, Tian Shan, Altai-Sayan, Ural and Caucasus mountain regions. Human-transformed landscapes occupy most parts of other sub-regions. The remaining natural ecosystems in East Asia are temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, and there are subtropical evergreen forests, deserts and grasslands in the West Asia. South Asia has tropical forests and semi-deserts in the northwest, and Southeast Asia is covered mainly by tropical forests (Figure 10.3).

Ocean and coastal regions in Asia have various ecological characteristics, such as high productivity in arctic and subpolar regions, large biodiversity in tropical regions and unique systems in marginal seas. In the atlas of WGI AR6, the ocean biomes in Asia are divided into six sub-regions (WGI AR6 Figure Atlas.4) ( [[#Gutiérrez--2021|Gutiérrez et al., 2021]] ). For the coastal region, the concept of the large marine ecosystem (e.g., see [[#Sherman--1994|Sherman, 1994]] ) provides the biological characteristics of each marginal/semi-enclosed region and the regions characterised by boundary current system.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services play a critical role in socioeconomic development as well as the cultural and spiritual fulfilment of the Asian population ( [[#IPBES--2018|IPBES, 2018]] ). For example, species richness reaches its maximum in the ‘coral triangle’ of Southeast Asia (central Philippines and central Indonesia) (IPCA, 2017), and the extent of mangrove forests in Asia is about 38.7% of the global total ( [[#Bunting--2018|Bunting et al., 2018]] ). These coastal ecosystems provide multiple ecosystem services related to food production by fisheries/aquaculture, carbon sequestration, coastal protection and tourism/recreation ( [[#Ruckelshaus--2013|Ruckelshaus et al., 2013]] ).

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