Bioclimate-Vegetation Interrelations along the Pacific Rim of North America英文文献资料.docVIP

American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2012, 3, 1430-1450 /10.4236/ajps.2012.310173 Published Online October 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ajps) Bioclimate-Vegetation Interrelations along the Pacific Rim of North America Manuel Peinado , Gustavo Díaz , José Delgadillo , Francisco Manuel Oca?a-Peinado , 1* 1 2 3 4 1 1 Miguel ángel Macías , Juan Luis Aguirre , Alejandro Aparicio 1 Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Estudios Norteamericanos “Benjamin Franklin”, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Mexico; Departamento de Estadística e Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Guadalajara, Spain; 2 3 Investigación Operativa, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain; Guadalajara, Mexico. * Email: peinado.manuel@ 4 Received July 20 , 2012; revised August 20 , 2012; accepted August 31 , 2012 th th st ABSTRACT This study was designed to examine relationships between climate and vegetation of the Pacific rim of North America, from the Mediterranean deserts of California to Alaska’s boreal taiga. Relations were inferred from temperature and rainfall data recorded at 457 weather stations and by sampling the vegetation around these stations. Climate data were used to construct climatograms, calculate forty one variables and detect main latitudinal and longitudinal gradients. In order to identify the best functions able to relate our variables, polynomial and non-polynomial regressions were per- formed. The k-means algorithm was the clus