m_90mir85_snd: 9-second gridded continental Australia composite ecological change for Mammals 1990:2050 MIROC5 RCP 8.5 (CMIP5) (GDM: MAM_R2)

Composite ecological change as a function of three metrics (the potential degree of ecological change and of disappearing and novel ecological environments) shows where change might be greatest and different types of vulnerability using 30-year climate averages between the present (1990:1976- 2005) and projected future (2050:2036-2065) under the MIROC5 global climate model (RCP 8.5), based on a Generalised Dissimilarity Modelling (GDM) of compositional turnover for mammals (MAM_R2).

Wherever the Potential degree of ecological change is scored low, ecological environments can neither be novel nor disappearing and minimal change is expected. But when the Potential degree of ecological change is scored high, a variety of possible types of change can occur depending on whether scores for Novel and/or Disappearing ecological environments are also high.

To create a composite view, we assigned each of the three component measures to a colour band in a composite-band raster: local similarity as shades of green (inverted, 1-0 rescaled 0-255); novel as shades of blue (0-1 rescaled 0-255); and disappearing as shades of red (0-1 rescaled 0-255). The three layers can then be mapped simultaneously (red: band 3; green: band 1; blue: band 2) each scaled 0-255 to show the varying degrees of similar, novel and disappearing ecological environments and their combinations.

This metric was developed along with others for use in an assessment of the efficacy of the protected area system for biodiversity under climate change at continental and global scales, presented at the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014. It is described in the AdaptNRM Guide “Implications of Climate Change for Biodiversity: a community-level modelling approach”, available online at: www.adaptnrm.org.

Data are provided as zipped ESRI tiff grids containing: raster image (*.tif) with associated header (*.tfw) and projection (*.xml) files. After extracting from the zip archive, these files can be imported into most GIS software packages. A readme file describes how to correctly reproduce the colour legend. In ArcGIS, the symbology statistics file can be used: "SND_display.stat.XML".

Reproducing RGB composite colours for 3-band raster in ArcGIS:
1. In file properties in ARCGIS, Symbology tab, Load XML "SND_display.stat.XML"
2. RED = BAND_3 (Disappearing)
3. GREEN = BAND_1 (Similarity )
4. BLUE = BAND_2 (Novel)
5. Always use min-max legend
6. Set each band in the custom range 0-255, mean = 126, std = 0

Layers in this 9s series use a consistent naming convention:
BIOLOGICAL GROUP _ FROM BASE TO SCENARIO _ ANALYSIS
e.g. A_90CAN85_SND or R_90MIR85_SND
where BIOLOGICAL GROUP is A: amphibians, M: mammals, R: reptiles and V: vascular plants
and scenario is CAN: CanESM2; MIR: MIROC5
analysis, SND refers to – similarity, novel, disappearing