From 20,000 Years Ago to Near Present Climate Classification of North America

Abstract

Climate classification allows an efficient encapsulation of climate data into climate units. For North America and most of Central America during 20, 14, 13, 11, 10, 7, 5, and 1 thousand years ago (ka) and recent years, I applied a Köppen-Trewartha classification system, but with dry classes subsumed under primary thermal classes to preserve information. The boreal and polar classes decreased from a combined 70% of area during 20 ka until reaching 42% of area at 7 ka, after which the area remained relatively stable. Conversely, the subtropical and temperate classes increased from 25% of area until reaching 53% of area at 7 ka, with slight increase of the tropical class. The combined dry subclasses increased from 7.5% to 15% of area, primarily in the subtropical and temperate classes, displaying unique trends over time. Based on ordination, the classes since 5 ka are similar; the 1950 interval is most similar to 1 and 5 ka and the intervals of 1600 and 1800 are most similar. The climate classes and transitions generally corresponded with major vegetation distributions. Visually, political boundaries appeared to parallel climate classes, which might indicate the influence of long-standing ecological differences on human land use and settlement. A future research need is identifying the influence of climate on directing settlement and political boundary establishment.

Keywords

• biomes
• ecosystems
• forest
• historical
• köppen-trewartha
• landscape memory
• last glacial maximum