North American vegetation model data for land-use planning in a changing climate:

Data points intensively sampling 46 North American biomes were used to predict the geographic distribution of biomes from climate variables using the Random Forests classification tree. Techniques were incorporated to accommodate a large number of classes and to predict the future occurrence of climates beyond the contemporary climatic range of the biomes. Errors of prediction from the statistical model averaged 3.7%, but for individual biomes, ranged from 0% to 21.5%. In validating the ability of the model to identify climates without analogs, 78% of 1528 locations outside North America and 81% of land area of the Caribbean Islands were predicted to have no analogs among the 46 biomes. Biome climates were projected...

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, Raster; Tags: British Columbia, Data Visualization & Tools, Idaho, Landscapes, Map Layer Service, All tags... Montana, Northwest CASC, Other Landscapes, Random Forests classification tree, Science Tools For Managers, Washington, climate change impacts, climate niche modeling, land management alternatives, vegetation model, Fewer tags