macroBiome
A Tool for Mapping the Distribution of the Biomes and Bioclimate
Last update: 16 January 2024
Copyright license: GNU General Public License
Software version identifier: 0.2.0, 0.3.0, 0.1.0, 0.3.0, 0.4.0
Procedures for simulating biomes by equilibrium vegetation models, with a special focus on paleoenvironmental applications. Three widely used equilibrium biome models are currently implemented in the package: the Holdridge Life Zone (HLZ) system (Holdridge 1947, <doi:10.1126/science.105.2727.367>), the Köppen-Geiger classification (KGC) system (Köppen 1936, <https://koeppen-geiger.vu-wien.ac.at/pdf/Koppen_1936.pdf>) and the BIOME model (Prentice et al. 1992, <doi:10.2307/2845499>). Three climatic forest-steppe models are also implemented. An approach for estimating monthly time series of relative sunshine duration from temperature and precipitation data (Yin 1999, <doi:10.1007/s007040050111>) is also adapted, allowing process-based biome models to be combined with high-resolution paleoclimate simulation datasets (e.g., CHELSA-TraCE21k v1.0 dataset: <https://chelsa-climate.org/chelsa-trace21k/>).