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Interpretable biome-aligned temperature zones for climate classification via average monthly temperatures
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Authors
Kai Xu 
,
William Lauenroth
Abstract
We introduce temperature zones based on average monthly temperatures that closely align with biome boundaries, intended for use in climate classification. This new system retains the simplicity and interpretability of existing classifications, such as those of Köppen-Geiger and Trewartha, while providing an improved fit to biome boundaries. Unlike previous classifications, we developed our system by analyzing contemporary climate and land cover datasets. Our classification focuses on temperature, but it is designed so that future analyses could combine our results with precipitation criteria from new or existing systems to offer a more comprehensive climate classification framework.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31223/X5J715
Subjects
Environmental Sciences
Keywords
seasonal temperature, continental climate, oceanic climate, midlatitude climate, polar climate, vegetation zones, Climate modeling, remote sensing, Google Earth Engine, Potential natural vegetation, MFPNA, tropical climate, mean monthly temperature, warmest month temperature, coldest month temperature, land-water classification, precipitation criteria, Climate Change Impacts, temperature thresholds, bioclimatology, climate region delineation, growing season, temperature zones, biome boundaries, Köppen-Geiger, Trewartha, climate data, land cover data, Geospatial Analysis, monthly temperatures, annual temperature range, Climate classification, climate mapping, False Positives, false negatives, Ice cap, Tundra, boreal forest, hemiboreal forest, temperate forest, subtropical forest
Dates
Published: 2025-01-25 14:15
Last Updated: 2025-01-25 22:15
License
CC BY Attribution 4.0 International
Additional Metadata
Data Availability (Reason not available):
The data supporting the findings of this study are publicly available from the following sources:
1. Earth Engine Data Catalog: Accessible at https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets
2. WorldClim Official Website: Accessible at https://www.worldclim.org/data/worldclim21.html
These repositories provide open access to the datasets used in the study.
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare no competing interests that could be perceived to bias the work presented in this manuscript.
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.