Editing Ecoregion (section)

== Freshwater ==
{{See also|List of freshwater ecoregions}}
<!-- This section is the link target for [[Freshwater ecoregion]] and [[Wild fisheries of the world]] -->
[[File:Mouths of amazon geocover 1990.png|thumb|right|upright=1.15|The [[Amazon River]] in [[Brazil]].]]
A freshwater ecoregion is a large area encompassing one or more freshwater systems that contains a distinct assemblage of natural freshwater communities and species. The freshwater species, dynamics, and environmental conditions within a given ecoregion are more similar to each other than to those of surrounding ecoregions and together form a conservation unit. Freshwater systems include [[river]]s, [[stream]]s, [[lake]]s, and [[wetland]]s. Freshwater ecoregions are distinct from terrestrial ecoregions, which identify biotic communities of the land, and marine ecoregions, which are biotic communities of the oceans.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hermoso|first1=Virgilio|last2=Abell|first2=Robin|last3=Linke|first3=Simon|last4=Boon|first4=Philip|title=The role of protected areas for freshwater biodiversity conservation: challenges and opportunities in a rapidly changing world.|journal=Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems|date=2016|volume=26|issue=s1|pages=3–10|doi=10.1002/aqc.2681|bibcode=2016ACMFE..26S...3H |s2cid=88786689 }}</ref>

A map of Freshwater Ecoregions of the World, released in 2008, has 426 ecoregions covering virtually the entire non-marine surface of the earth.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[World Wide Fund for Nature|WWF]] |url=http://www.feow.org/ |title=Freshwater Ecoregions of the World }}</ref>

[[World Wildlife Fund]] (WWF) identifies twelve major habitat types of freshwater ecoregions: Large lakes, large river deltas, polar freshwaters, montane freshwaters, temperate coastal rivers, temperate floodplain rivers and wetlands, temperate upland rivers, tropical and subtropical coastal rivers, tropical and subtropical floodplain rivers and wetlands, tropical and subtropical upland rivers, xeric freshwaters and endorheic basins, and oceanic islands. The freshwater major habitat types reflect groupings of ecoregions with similar biological, chemical, and physical characteristics and are roughly equivalent to biomes for terrestrial systems.

The [[Global 200]], a set of ecoregions identified by WWF whose conservation would achieve the goal of saving a broad diversity of the Earth's ecosystems, includes a number of areas highlighted for their freshwater [[biodiversity]] values. The Global 200 preceded Freshwater Ecoregions of the World and incorporated information from regional freshwater ecoregional assessments that had been completed at that time.