Data from: Downscaled and debiased climate simulations for North America from 21,000 years ago to 2100AD

Increasingly, ecological modellers are integrating paleodata with future
projections to understand climate-driven biodiversity dynamics from the
past through the current century. Climate simulations from earth system
models are necessary to this effort, but must be debiased and downscaled
before they can be used by ecological models. Downscaling methods and
observational baselines vary among researchers, which produces confounding
biases among downscaled climate simulations. We present unified datasets
of debiased and downscaled climate simulations for North America from
21 ka BP to 2100AD, at 0.5° spatial resolution. Temporal resolution is
decadal averages of monthly data until 1950AD, average climates for
1950–2005 AD, and monthly data from 2010 to 2100AD, with decadal averages
also provided. This downscaling includes two transient paleoclimatic
simulations and 12 climate models for the IPCC AR5 (CMIP5) historical
(1850–2005), RCP4.5, and RCP8.5 21st-century scenarios. Climate variables
include primary variables and derived bioclimatic variables. These
datasets provide a common set of climate simulations suitable for
seamlessly modelling the effects of past and future climate change on
species distributions and diversity.

越来越多的生态建模者正将古数据（paleodata）与未来气候预估相结合，以解析从过去直至本世纪由气候驱动的生物多样性动态变化。地球系统模型（earth system models）产出的气候模拟数据是此类研究的必要基础，但在被生态模型使用前，必须经过偏差校正（debiased）与降尺度（downscaled）处理。不同研究者采用的降尺度方法与观测基准线存在差异，这会导致经降尺度处理的气候模拟数据之间出现难以区分的混杂偏差。本研究提供了一套统一的经偏差校正与降尺度处理的北美区域气候模拟数据集，时间跨度为21千年前（21 ka BP）至2100年，空间分辨率为0.5°。时间分辨率设置如下：1950年以前采用逐月数据的十年平均值；1950年至2005年采用气候态年均数据；2010年至2100年则提供逐月数据与十年平均值两种形式。本次降尺度处理涵盖两套瞬变古气候模拟数据，以及用于政府间气候变化专门委员会第五次评估报告（IPCC AR5，即CMIP5）的12个气候模式的历史情景（1850–2005年）、典型浓度路径4.5（RCP4.5）与典型浓度路径8.5（RCP8.5）情景下的21世纪模拟数据。气候变量包含基础气象变量与衍生生物气候变量。本数据集提供了一套标准化的气候模拟数据，可用于无缝模拟过去与未来气候变化对物种分布及生物多样性的影响。