Bioclimatic Classification of Northeast Asia for climate change response

As climate change has been getting worse, we should monitor the change of biodiversity, and distribution of species to handle the crisis and take advantage of climate change. The development of bioclimatic map which classifies land into homogenous zones by similar environment properties is the first step to establish a strategy. Statistically derived classifications of land provide useful spatial frameworks to support ecosystem research, monitoring and policy decisions. Many countries are trying to make this kind of map and actively utilize it to ecosystem conservation and management. However, the Northeast Asia including North Korea doesn't have detailed environmental information, and has not built environmental classification map. Therefore, this study presents a bioclimatic map of Northeast Asia based on statistical clustering of bioclimate data. Bioclim data ver1.4 which provided by WorldClim were considered for inclusion in a model. Eight of the most relevant climate variables were selected by correlation analysis, based on previous studies. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was used to explain 86% of the variation into three independent dimensions, which were subsequently clustered using an ISODATA clustering. The bioclimatic zone of Northeast Asia could consist of 29, 35, and 50 zones. This bioclimatic map has a 30' resolution. To assess the accuracy, the correlation coefficient was calculated between the first principal component values of the classification variables and the vegetation index, Gross Primary Production (GPP). It shows about 0.5 Pearson correlation coefficient. This study constructed Northeast Asia bioclimatic map by statistical method with high resolution, but in order to better reflect the realities, the variety of climate variables should be considered. Also, further studies should do more quantitative and qualitative validation in various ways. Then, this could be used more effectively to support decision making on climate change adaptation.