DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8411069
title: TreeGOER Global Zones: Global atlas for the Climatic Moisture Index (CMI), Maximum Climatological Water Deficit (MCWD) and the number of months with average temperature > 10 degrees C (Tmo10)

description: The TreeGOER (Tree Globally Observed Environmental Ranges) database documents the environmental ranges for 48,129 tree species and is available from files archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7922927. Details on the preparation of this database from 30 arc-second global grid layers are provided by Kindt, R. (2023). TreeGOER: A database with globally observed environmental ranges for 48,129 tree species. Global Change Biology, 00, 1–16. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16914. The atlas from this archive was designed to be used together with TreeGOER and possibly also with the GlobalUsefulNativeTrees database (Kindt et al. 2023) to allow users to filter suitable tree species based on environmental conditions of the planting site.

TreeGOER includes a file (TreeGOER_Tmo10_classes.txt) that documents the distribution of species in zones defined by the number of months with average temperature > 10 degrees C. TreeGOER also includes a file (TreeGOER_CMI_classes.txt) that documents the distribution of species in zones defined by the Climatic Moisture Index (CMI). The atlas provided here shows the global distribution of the Tmo10 zones and CMI zones at high resolution on six sheets each, including three sheets in the northern hemisphere and three sheets in the southern hemisphere.

The atlas also includes six sheets that show the global distribution of the Maximum Climatological Water Deficit (MCWD), another environmental variable covered by the TreeGOER database.

 

Zone        Classes                                   Comment

Tmo10      Tmo10 = 12                             tropical (zone A)

                8 ≤ Tmo10 < 12                       subtropical (zone C)

                4 ≤ Tmo10 < 8                         temperate (zone D)

                1 ≤ Tmo10 < 4                         boreal (zone E)

                Tmo10 < 1                              polar (zone F)

CMI          CMI ≥ 0.5                                (zone A)

                0 ≤ CMI < 0.5                          (zone B) 

                −0.35 ≤ CMI < 0                      (zone C) 

                −0.5 ≤ CMI < −0.35                 dry sub-humid (zone D)

                −0.8 ≤ CMI < −0.5                   semi-arid (zone E)

                −0.95 ≤ CMI < −0.8                 arid (zone F)

                CMI < −0.95                            hyper-arid (zone G)

MCWD      MCWD ≤ -100         

                −200 ≤ MCWD < −100              

                −200 ≤ MCWD < −100              

                −400 ≤ MCWD < −200              

                −600 ≤ MCWD < −400              

                −800 ≤ MCWD < −600              

                −1000 ≤ MCWD < −800            

                −1250 ≤ MCWD < −1000          

                −1500 ≤ MCWD < −1250          

                −1750 ≤ MCWD < −1500          

                −2000 ≤ MCWD < −1750          

                −2500 ≤ MCWD < −2000          

 

A fourth map series in the atlas combines information from the Climatic Moisture Index with the distribution of 52,602 cities that were included in the CitiesGOER database, available from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8175429.

Maps were created from the environmental raster layers used to create the TreeGOER via the terra package (Hijmans et al. 2022, version 1.7-46) in the R 4.2.1 environment.

Added country boundaries were obtained from Natural Earth as Admin 0 – countries vector layers (version 5.1.1). Also added after obtaining them from Natural Earth were Admin 0 – Breakaway, Disputed areas (version 5.1.0, coloured yellow in the atlas) and Roads (version 5.0.0, coloured red in the atlas).

For countries where the GlobalUsefulNativeTrees database included subnational levels, boundaries were added and depicted as dot-dash lines. These subnational levels correspond to level 3 boundaries in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions. These were obtained from https://github.com/tdwg/wgsrpd. Check Brummit 2001 for details such as the maps shown at the end of the document.

When using the TreeGOER Global Zones atlas in your work, cite this depository and the following:



Fick, S. E., & Hijmans, R. J. (2017). WorldClim 2: New 1‐km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology, 37(12), 4302–4315. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5086

Title, P. O., & Bemmels, J. B. (2018). ENVIREM: An expanded set of bioclimatic and topographic variables increases flexibility and improves performance of ecological niche modeling. Ecography, 41(2), 291–307. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.02880

Kindt, R. (2023). TreeGOER: A database with globally observed environmental ranges for 48,129 tree species. Global Change Biology, 00, 1–16. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16914.


 

The development of the TreeGOER Global Zones atlas was supported by the Darwin Initiative to project DAREX001 of Developing a Global Biodiversity Standard certification for tree-planting and restoration, by Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative through the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia to the Provision of Adequate Tree Seed Portfolio project in Ethiopia, and by the Green Climate Fund through the IUCN-led Transforming the Eastern Province of Rwanda through Adaptation project.