Climate Stability Index maps, a global high resolution cartography of climate stability from Pliocene to 2100

Climate changes are top biodiversity shapers, both during the past and future. Mapping the most climatic stable and unstable zones on Earth could improve our understanding of biodiversity distribution and evolution. Here, we present a set of maps based on a global scale, high resolution (ca. 5¿km) new Climate Stability Index (CSI). The CSI considers bioclimatic variables for two different time ranges: (1) from Pliocene (3.3¿Ma) to the present (CSI-past map set), using 12 time periods of PaleoClim representing warm and cold cycles; and (2) from present to the year 2100 (CSI-future), using nine general circulation models of climate change of four periods available from WorldClim. We calculated standard deviation of the variables and selected an uncorrelated set for summing, normalizing and obtaining the CSI maps. Our approach is useful for fields such as biogeography, earth sciences, agriculture, or sociology. However, CSI is an index that can be re-calculated according to particular criteria and objectives (e.g. temperature variables); maps are, therefore, customizable to every user.
Financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (projects CGL2015-66703-P MINECO/FEDER, PID2019-105583GB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and PID2020-119163GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033; and Ph.D. grant to S.H.M from project CGL2015-66703-P) and the Catalan government (“Ajuts a grups consolidats” 2017-SGR1116). This study has been performed under the Ph.D. program “Plant Biology and Biotechnology” of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). H.O. and T.M. were funded by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF20202002) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan.
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