Current and Projected Vegetation

The current vegetation layer is derived from the vegetation map developed as part of the California Gap Analysis project. The derivation takes the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships (CWHR) habitat classification provided in the California Gap Analysis layer, generalizes the classes to a set of broader habitat types, and rasterizes it at 800 meter resolution. The future vegetation layers for both the GFDL and CCSM GCM models are derived using a random forest model of the vegetation classification. The original CWHR classification has been generalized to 12 classes for ease in modeling. Inputs to the model include eight bioclimatic variables (changes in these under the different climate projections drive the new classification), three soils variables, and two topographic variables. More details on the classification and modeling process are available in Stralberg et al. 2009.