20thCCC.home

Temperature and precipitation regimes can be looked at as an array of climate variables that impact the survival and distribution of floral and faunal species. In British Columbia, average temperatures increased by 0.6°C on the coast, 1.1°C in the southern interior and 1.7°C in the northern part of the province during the 20^th century; however, these trends have not been uniform. Ecologists need to know the spatial and temporal signatures of climate variables over the course of the century, in order to seek past, and predict future, ecosystem responses to climate. The purpose of this project is to track the changes of three biologically relevant climate variables over the last hundred years by depicting them in a series of BC map coverages. Animation of the maps allows the viewer to quickly interpret huge quantities of information regarding how the climate variables (mean annual temperature, number of frost-free days and summer heat:moisture index) have fluctuated during the 20^th century.