bioclim {climates}

R Documentation

Bioclim - Bioclimatic Variables

Description
bioclim

recreates the standard 19 bioclimatic variables (BIOCLIM) created using

ANUCLIM http://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/publications/software/anuclim.php or used by
Worldclim http://www.worldclim.org/.
These measures are described below but include annual and quarterly summaries of
temperature and precipitation.

Usage
bioclim(tmin=NULL, tmax=NULL, prec=NULL, tmean=NULL, vois=1:19,
cov=FALSE,
t.as.int=TRUE, period="month")

Arguments
tmin

a data.frame or matrix with 12 or 52 columns representing monthly or weekly

minimum temperature data; rows represent different locations.
tmax
a data.frame or matrix as with tmin representing maximum temperature data.
prec
a data.frame or matrix as with tmin representing precipitation data.
tmean
a data.frame or matrix as with tmin representing mean temperature data.
vois
a vector of values between 1 & 19 defining the bioclimatic variables to be
calculated; see details for variable description.
cov
a boolean value where TRUE represents Temperature seasonality (4) is
calculated as in ANUCLIM and FALSE is calclated as with Worldclim; see
details for further information.
t.as.int a boolean value where TRUE will convert all temperature values to integers by
rounding(temp*10); FALSE will leave temperater values as is.
period
can be either "month" or "week" representing the temporal period for which
values are calculated; see details for further description.

Details
The variables created here are based primarily on BIOCLIM variables created by
ANUCLIM http://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/publications/software/anuclim.php. Below is a
description of the variables and how they are calculated from the ANUCLIM website, with
Temperature Seasonality description modified for the different method Worldclim uses.
The descriptions below assume you are using a weekly time step. If you are using months,

the monthly values rather than the weekly values will be used when calculating these
parameters.
The quarterly parameters are not aligned to any calendar quarters. BIOCLIM's definition of
a quarter is any 13 consecutive weeks, (or any consecutive 3 months if running with a
monthly time step). For example, the driest quarter will be the 13 consecutive weeks that
are drier than any other set of 13 consecutive weeks.
1. Annual Mean Temperature
The mean of all the weekly mean temperatures. Each weekly mean temperature is
the mean of that week's maximum and minimum temperature.
2. Mean Diurnal Range(Mean(period max-min))
The mean of all the weekly diurnal temperature ranges. Each weekly diurnal range
is the difference between that week's maximum and minimum temperature.
3. Isothermality 2/7
The mean diurnal range (parameter 2) divided by the Annual Temperature Range
(parameter 7).
4. Temperature Seasonality
ANUCLIM (cov=TRUE) returns the temperature Coefficient of Variation (C of V)
as the standard deviation of the weekly mean temperatures expressed as a
percentage of the mean of those temperatures (i.e. the annual mean). For this
calculation, the mean in degrees Kelvin is used. This avoids the possibility of
having to divide by zero, but does mean that the values are usually quite small.
Worldclim (cov=FALSE) returns the the standard deviation of the weekly mean
temperatures.
5. Max Temperature of Warmest Period
The highest temperature of any weekly maximum temperature.
6. Min Temperature of Coldest Period
The lowest temperature of any weekly minimum temperature.
7. Temperature Annual Range (5-6)
The difference between the Max Temperature of Warmest Period and the Min
Temperature of Coldest Period.
8. Mean Temperature of Wettest Quarter
The wettest quarter of the year is determined (to the nearest week), and the mean
temperature of this period is calculated.
9. Mean Temperature of Driest Quarter
The driest quarter of the year is determined (to the nearest week), and the mean
temperature of this period is calculated.
10. Mean Temperature of Warmest Quarter
The warmest quarter of the year is determined (to the nearest week), and the mean
temperature of this period is calculated.
11. Mean Temperature of Coldest Quarter
The coldest quarter of the year is determined (to the nearest week), and the mean
temperature of this period is calculated.
12. Annual Precipitation
The sum of all the monthly precipitation estimates.

13. Precipitation of Wettest Period

The precipitation of the wettest week or month, depending on the time step.
14. Precipitation of Driest Period
The precipitation of the driest week or month, depending on the time step.
15. Precipitation Seasonality(C of V)
The Coefficient of Variation (C of V) is the standard deviation of the weekly
precipitation estimates expressed as a percentage of the mean of those estimates (i.e.
the annual mean).
16. Precipitation of Wettest Quarter
The wettest quarter of the year is determined (to the nearest week), and the total
precipitation over this period is calculated.
17. Precipitation of Driest Quarter
The driest quarter of the year is determined (to the nearest week), and the total
precipitation over this period is calculated.
18. Precipitation of Warmest Quarter
The warmest quarter of the year is determined (to the nearest week), and the total
precipitation over this period is calculated.
19. Precipitation of Coldest Quarter
The coldest quarter of the year is determined (to the nearest week), and the total
precipitation over this period is calculated.

Value
a matrix with columns representing variables requested and the number of rows(and order
of them) the same as the input tmin, tmax, prec or tmean.

Author(s)
Jeremy VanDerWal jjvanderwal@gmail.com

Examples
#need to fill in

[Package climates version 0.1-1.3 Index]