A first approach to calculate BIOCLIM variables and climate zones for Antarctica

Abstract

For testing the hypothesis that macroclimatological factors determine the occurrence, biodiversity, and species specificity of both symbiotic partners of Antarctic lecideoid lichens, we present a first approach for the computation of the full set of 19 BIOCLIM variables, as available at http://www.worldclim. org/ for all regions of the world with exception of Antarctica. Annual mean temperature (Bio 1) and annual precipitation (Bio 12) were chosen to define climate zones of the Antarctic continent and adjacent islands as required for ecological niche modeling (ENM). The zones are based on data for the years 2009-2015 which was obtained from the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) database of the Ohio State University. For both temperature and precipitation, two separate zonings were specified; temperature values were divided into 12 zones (named 1 to 12) and precipitation values into five (named A to E). By combining these two partitions, we defined climate zonings where each geographical point can be uniquely assigned to exactly one zone, which allows an immediate explicit interpretation. The soundness of the newly calculated climate zones was tested by comparison with already published data, which used only three zones defined on climate information from the literature. The newly defined climate zones result in a more precise assignment of species distribution to the single habitats. This study provides the basis for a more detailed continental-wide ENM using a comprehensive dataset of lichen specimens which are located within 21 different climate regions.

Myco- and photobiont associations in crustose lichens in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (Antarctica) reveal high differentiation along an elevational gradient

“…For this we tested the only relevant variable which was elevation. All other variables such as latitude, longitude, and the BIOCLIM variables generated by Wagner et al (2017) providing a spatial resolution of 1 km, were not suitable for the relatively small area (data not shown…”

Summer activity patterns for mosses and lichens in Maritime Antarctica

“…Mean temperatures for the Dry Valleys and Livingston Island for the warmest months are -4.8°C and 1.3°C, respectively, and for the coldest months -30.5°C and -7.0°C, respectively (Sancho et al 2007). Annual precipitation increases from the very dry 50 mm (rain equivalent) in the Dry Valleys to c. 800 mm at Livingston Island (Wagner et al 2017).…”

“…Antarctica provides excellent opportunities for investigating links between vegetation and climate. Since the continent spans a large latitudinal range of 26.5°from the South Pole to the extreme northerly point, Trinity Peninsula, of the Antarctica Peninsula at 63.5°S, large gradients exist within it for both climate and vegetation (Wagner et al 2017). Temperature and precipitation both change substantially with latitude.…”

Modelling Suitable Habitat and Ecological Characteristics of Old Trees Using DIVA-GIS in Anhui Province, China

“…), is a free GIS software program used for the analysis of geographical data [43][44][45][46][47][48][49], and the data are processed into standard GIS formats that can be applied to other general software. BIOCLIM was the first SDM program in widespread use [50]. BIOCLIM can be applied to conservation biogeography, such as quantifying the environmental niche of a species, identifying areas where a species might be invasive, assisting conservation planning and assessing the likely impacts of climate change on species distributions [29].…”