A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK TO ECO-REGIONALIZE ONTARIO

Ontario is a spatially heterogenous province. Natural resource policie s and management plans must therefore address and account for this het erogeneity. An eco-regionalization scheme must possess certain minimum criteria to be effective. These criteria are: 1) an explicit explanat ion of spatial and temporal scales and variation; 2) a hierarchical co nstruct of eco-regional domains; 3) an explicit quantitative descripti on of the eco-regional domains; and, most importantly, 4) an ability t o test a given eco-regional scheme as a hypothesis. This paper describ es a hierarchical eco-regional framework (HEF) currently being constru cted for Ontario. HEF is based on the scale-specific expression of eco logical domain structure (geo-climatological parameters) and function (primary productivity). The approach relies on current advances in eco logical hierarchy theory, remote sensing techniques, GIS methodologies , and statistical techniques. When completed, HEF will serve as a hypo thesis which may be tested and validated at several different spatial scales.