Bioclimatic Stations

The bioclimatic stations show the WorldWide Bioclimatic Classification System of S.Rivas-Martinez (1982-2008), a scientific research in Bioclimatology, Biogeography and Phytosociology, through 5 essential forms or screens: 

• Climatic Data
• Bioclimatic Index & Diagnosis
• Bioclimatic Graphic
• Hydric Data
• Hydric Graphic.

For the particular needs of those who currently use different bioclimatic indices we have also added the following forms or screens:  

• Precipitation Parameters
• Temperature Parameters
• Seasonal Parameters
• Bioclimatic Parameters
• Climate Diagram
• Temperature Diagram
• Ombrothermic Diagrams
• Other Bioclimatic Indices I
• Other Bioclimatic Indices II
• Summary of Classification

The way or schema to access the desired bioclimatic station is the following:

As soon as possible we will include the Computerized Bioclimatic Maps which also link with the bioclimatic stations.

• Go to the Bioclimatic Stations

Climate Diagrams

"The climate diagram world atlas compiled by Walter and Lieth (1957-1966) has been in use continually since its appearance by geographers, phytosociologists, agronomists, and foresters.Climate diagrams are brief summaries of average climatic variables and their time course. Originally aimed at visualizing those climatic variables and their dynamics that are particularly important for the vegetation (Walter 1957, Walter and Lieth 1961-1967), they have proven useful for a wide range of sciences, industry, and teaching. In bio- and geosciences, they have been used as an instrument to show the relationships between soil, vegetation, and climate. In agronomic sciences, they were used to indicate the range for certain crops." (Climate Diagram World Atlas, CD-Series I of Climate and Biosphere, 1st edit.: H.Lieth, J.Berlekamp, S.Fuest, S. Riediger).

• Go to the Climate Diagrams

Country name, station location and elevation, station name The length of the observation period for temperature and precipitation respectively Annual average of temperature and annual precipitation sum (red) Temperature curve (blue) Precipitation time series Indication of frost periods Mean daily max. temperature for the warmest month Mean daily min. temperature for the coldest month

Sensitive Maps

The Sensitive Maps option is an interactive search for station diagrams based on sensitive maps with HTML browser technology, well known from Internet. From a sensitive view of the world you can zoom to tiles of 20x20 degrees and find topographic maps with climate station locations. You can click any of these stations and get the climatic and bioclimatic diagrams and diagnosis. These maps as well as the climate diagrams where initially programmed for the Climate & Biosphere Cd-Series II Project

• Go to the Sensitive Maps

Collection of  Sensitive Maps with a scale of 1:20.000.000 and several tiles of 20x20.

• These maps cover the entire Earth from 180W/90N to 180E/90S
• This collection will only shows the tiles that have got at least one climatic station.

We also include the whole Map of the Earth (1:20.000.000 scale for a 800x600 screen resolution) with the published climatic stations. If you cannot load such a big picture (7879x3841 pixels) into your Web Browser, use instead a Graphic Editor.

• Map of the Earth with published climate stations

Collection of  Sensitive Maps with a scale of 1:5.000.000 and 8 tiles of 5x5.

• These maps only cover Spain

All the maps used by our two web sites belong to: 

• Topographic maps of the world provided by ESRI Data & Maps (Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. www.esri.com
• Topographic maps of the world provided by U.S. Geological Survey"s, EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD 57198 USA. edcwww.cr.usgs.gov

Both collection of maps have been first processed into bitmaps with ArcView® GIS 3.1. and finally built into tiles and HTML applications by our programs GbcAdmin & GbcGisCd. All the commented scales are computed for a screen resolution of 800x600 pixels.

Bioclimatic Report

The Bioclimatic Report has been the usual way to compare different stations with the same bioclimate as well as to understand or to research the Bioclimatic Indexes. You may start from a particular Country (linking first to the Country Index) or from a particular Bioclimate (linking to the Bioclimate Index).

• Country Index -> Bioclimate Report
• Bioclimate Index -> Bioclimate Report

The Bioclimate Report shows the most important bioclimatic indices that are actually used to compute the bioclimatic diagnosis:

• IT: Thermicity Index
• ITC: Compensated Thermicity Index
• xIT: Thermicity Index, compensated by altitude
• xITC: Compensated Thermicity Index, compensated by altitude
• IC: Continental Index
• IO: Ombrothermic Index (Positive Precipitation / Positive Temperature)
• IOV1: smalest IO-month of the summer (june/july/august or december/january/february)
• IOV2: IO of july/august (North) or january/february (South)
• IOV3: IO of june/july/august (North) or december/january/february (South)
• IOV4: IO of may/june/july/august (North) or november/december/january/february (South)
• IOS1: IO of the driest 1 month of the driest quarter
• IOS2: IO of the driest 2 months of the driest quarter
• IOS3: IO of the driest 3 months of the driest quarter
• IOS4: IO of the driest 4 months of the driest quarter
• IOC1: IO of the warmest 1 month of the warmest quarter
• IOC2: IO of the warmest 2 months of the warmest quarter
• IOC3: IO of the warmest 3 months of the warmest quarter
• IOC4: IO of the warmest 4 months of the warmest quarter
• TP: Positive temperature of the year
• xTP: Positive temperature of the year, compensated by altitude
• TMV3: sum temperatures of the summer * 10
• PP: Positive precipitation of the year
• TMAX: mountly mean normal-temperatures: maximum of the year
• TMMAX: mountly maximum normal-temperatures: maximum of the year
• xTMMAX: TMMAX, compensated by altitude
• TMMIN: mountly minimum normal-temperatures: minimum of the year
• PSS: rainfall of the hotest semester of the year
• PSW: rainfall of the coldest semester of the year
• PCM1: rainfall of the hotest quarter of the year
• PCM2: rainfall of the next quarter to PCM1
• PCM3: rainfall of the next quarter to PCM2
• T12: mean yearly temperature of the mountly mean normal-temperatures (Ti)
• xT12: T12 compensated by altitude

Map of the Web Site:

Folder Contents book: Publications available at this web site, main folder addenda: Addenda to the Syntaxonomical checklist of 2001 bioc: Global Bioclimatics Studie checklist: Checklist of vascular plant communities of Spain and Portugal mapa_series:   Mapa de Series, Geoseries y Geopermaseries de vegetación de España namerica1: Syntaxonomical Synopsis of the potential natural plant communities of N.A.   namerica2 North American boreal and western temperate forest vegetation css Cascading style sheet folder data Main indexes for the bioclimatic stations form Programming development and Bioclimatic Maps bg_map Biogeographic Maps bi_map Bioclimatic Maps gs_map Other cartographic resources tb_map Termoclimatic Maps geo Sensitive maps 1km java java programs of the bioclimate stations map Sensitive maps 5km plot Climate diagrams report Bioclimate report stat Statistics station Bioclimate stations

Versions of the Web Site:

Version of January 2005
HTML Version 3 Graphics (most of) PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Java Applets JavaTM Development Kit Version 1.1 W3C - DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC NO Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) NO Inline floating frames (iframes) NO
Version of October 2008
HTML Version 4 Graphics (most of) PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Java Applets JavaTM Development Kit Version 1.2 W3C - DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC HTML 4.01 Transitional Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) V. 2.1 (Msie & Opera) [1][2][3][4] Inline floating frames (iframes) Yes (Header & Footer)