Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America: <i>Revisions for all taxa from the United States and Canada and new taxa from the western United States</i>

Abstract

This is the seventh volume in an atlas series that explores the relations between the geographic distributions of woody plant species and climatic variables in North America. A 25-kilometer (km) equal-area grid of modern climatic and bioclimatic variables was constructed from weather data. The geographic distributions of selected tree and shrub species were digitized, and the presence or absence of each species was determined for each point on the 25-km grid, thus providing a basis for comparing climatic data and species' distributions. The relations between climate and plant distributions are presented in graphical and tabular form. The results of this effort are intended primarily for use in biogeographic, ecologic, paleoclimatic, and global-change research. This volume of the atlas provides numerous changes, updates, and enhancements from previous volumes. Its geographic coverage is now restricted to Canada and the continental United States, and the source and time period of the climatic data have changed. New variables were added, including monthly values for temperature and precipitation, and measures of interannual variability. The distribution maps for all previously published species were redigitized, some distribution maps were revised, and 148 new species were added from the arid and semiarid western United States. The graphical displays were expanded to illustrate the new climatic variables, and the data tables were modified to provide more detail on the population distributions of plant taxa relative to climatic variables.