Look for complete geospatial metadata in this layer's associated xml document available from the download link

* Metric Name: Potential Climate Refugia – Baseline (Historical) Conditions  

* Tier: 3  

* Data Vintage: 1981 - 2010  

* Unit Of Measure: 0- 1. Low values indicate higher resilience to threats. High values indicate significant exposure to climate change. -1 represents ‘non analog’ areas, i.e. locations that are outside the historic climate envelope of a given vegetation type.  

* Represent element and pillar: No  

* Type and distribution of data: Asymmetric distribution representing index values. Raw data types range from 0.05 to 1.  

* Translation: Where is protection from disturbances lowest?  

* Translation method and outcome: Raw data values translated to range from +1 to -1 representing more favorable to less favorable conditions, respectively. **** The proposition of more favorable is based on the objective of low significant exposure to climate change (negative linear slope). More favorable (translated to +1) set at 0.05 probability, less favorable (translated to -1) set at the highest observed value of 1.00 probability.

Figure . Histogram and scoring of potential climate refugia (baseline
historical conditions) in Southern California

Figure . Histogram of translated potential climate refugia (baseline
historical conditions) in Southern California

Figure . Maps displaying raw metric and translated metric potential climate
refugia (baseline historical conditions) in Southern California

  

* Metric Definition and Relevance: This raster dataset represents habitat types (natural vegetation communities) and their distribution across the array of climate conditions that each separate habitat type is found in under the baseline climate conditions. A 2015 map of the state’s natural vegetation compiled from multiple sources was classified to the National Vegetation Classification Standard’s mid-level classification, called “Macrogroup”. Thirty one natural vegetation macrogroups are identified in the map, covering 99.87% of the state’s natural terrestrial vegetation, and occupying 353,271 km2.

This serves as the foundation from which habitat types will be exposed to
predicted changes in climate. Data are arrayed across 0 to 1 in terms of their
exposure to current climate conditions. This data layer provides a baseline of
vegetation adapted to “historic” conditions; i.e. climate conditions from the
recent past; 1981-2010.

  

* Credits: Information Center for the Environment, UC Davis \--Jim Thorne