A list of the various 'regional' (zone/subzone/variant/phase) ecological units of the current biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification. At this 'regional' level, vegetation, soils and topography are used to infer the climate and to identify geographic areas that have relatively uniform climate. These geographic areas are termed biogeoclimatic units. The basic biogeoclimatic unit is the Subzone. These units are grouped into Zones and may be further subdivided into variants based on further refinements of climate (e.g., wetter, drier, snowier). The map units of the Biogeoclimatic map are mapped to the highest possible thematic resolution - subzone or variant. In some cases, where further sampling is required to define the unit climatically, polygons are labelled as an undifferentiated unit (e.g. CWH un)

The current and most detailed version of the approved corporate provincial digital Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) Zone/Subzone/Variant/Phase map (version 12, September 2, 2021). Use this version when performing GIS analysis regardless of scale. This mapping is deliberately extended across the ocean, lakes, glaciers, etc to facilitate intersection with a terrestrial landcover layer of your choice

The Natural Disturbance Type map is based on the Provincial Biodiversity Guidebook (1995) and the current and most detailed version of the approved corporate provincial Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) Zone/Subzone/Variant/Phase map (version 12, September 2, 2021) (Data Catalog record: https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/bec-map). The natural disturbance type classification code is used to designate a period process or event such as insect outbreaks, fire, disease, flooding, windstorms and avalanches that cause ecosystem change and renewal. Natural disturbance type classification and mapping is used for a wide variety of applications in British Columbia. A few examples include: delineation of Natural Disturbance Types for Landscape Unit Planning; delineation of Seed Planning Zones; as an input for Predictive Ecosystem Mapping; reporting on the ecological representation of the Protected Areas Strategy; and as a level in the classification hierarchy for Broad Ecosystem Units. Note that this mapping is deliberately extended across the ocean, lakes, glaciers, etc to facilitate intersection with a terrestrial landcover layer of your choice

This spatial data product consists of projected climate conditions classified by biogeoclimatic (BGC) unit across Western North America. Projections can be accessed interactively through the spatial module of the CCISS tool, where users can view projections at both local and provincial scales. Users can download raster data (TIF files) for the entire province or for predefined subregions, for five 20-year periods of the 21st century: 2001-2020, 2021-2040, 2041-2060, 2061-2080, and 2081-2100. The data available are as follows: • Ensemble vote winner BGC subzone/variant from an ensemble of 60 global climate model projections (5 rasters – 1 per time period) • Ensemble vote winner BGC zone (5 rasters – 1 per time period) • BGC projections for 5 global climate model simulations that represent the variation in the 60-member ensemble (25 rasters – 5 simulations x 5 time periods) • BGC projections for observed climates of the 1961-1990 and 2001-2020 periods (2 rasters) • Estimated climatic novelty for all BGC projections (available for all 37 rasters) • Tree Species Environmental Suitability projections (225 rasters - 5 time periods x 3 edatopes x 15 species) • Tree Species Environmental Suitability change (225 rasters - 5 time periods x 3 edatopes x 15 species) ***For data access and downloads, see the CCISS Spatial tab of the CCISS tool and Documentation > Instructions > CCISS Spatial.***

Ecodomains are areas broad climatic uniformity, defined at the global level

These data tables describe biogeoclimatic units for Western North America. These data were assembled as inputs to the Climate Change Informed Species Selection (CCISS) framework. The CCISS framework is built on Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC). CCISS uses spatial climatic analogs (BEC subzone/variants) to make inferences about future tree species suitability, known as biogeoclimatic projections. Creating species suitability projections for the future climates of British Columbia requires finding climate analogs in Alberta and the Western US. For Alberta, we adapted the Ecological Classification of Alberta (e.g., Archibald et al. 1996), with 21 natural subregions (Natural Regions Committee 2006) as the biogeoclimatic map units and 167 ecological sites as the site series units. For Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, northern California, and northwestern Wyoming, we use a draft biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification for the Western US developed by Del Meidinger and Will MacKenzie. Biogeoclimatic units are detailed in the: Western North America Biogeoclimatic Units Attribute Table. The CCISS tool predicts climate change implications to tree species environmental suitability at a site series level. We have compiled sites series information for Western North America biogeoclimatic units, detailed in; Site Series Information Table and Edatopic Space Table.

Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) zone boundaries with percent protected, number of overlapping protected areas and other attributes added as a result of geoprocessing in the Protected Area System Overview (PASO) application. Protected area and park representation by BEC zone provides a zonal ecosystem context for natural resource planning processes such as; management plans, land use zoning, environmental risk assessment, landscape analysis, habitat supply, and management of high priority species. For important warnings about using this data for spatial analysis see the Data Quality section of the metadata

Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) subzone\variant\phase boundaries with percent protected, number of overlapping protected areas and other attributes added as a result of geoprocessing in the Protected Area System Overview (PASO) application. Protected area and park representation by BEC unit provides a small scale ecosystem classification context for natural resource planning processes such as; management plans, land use zoning, environmental risk assessment, landscape analysis, habitat supply, and management of high priority species. Biogeoclimatic subzones are the basic unit of the BEC system. Subzones are grouped into biogeoclimatic zones to create more generalized units, and subdivided into biogeoclimatic variants and phases to create more specific or climatically homogeneous units. For more information on the BEC system see: http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/becweb/. For important warnings about using this data for spatial analysis see the Data Quality section of the metadata

An ecoregion is an area with major physiographic and minor macroclimatic or oceanographic variation. There are 43 ecoregion in British Columbia of which 39 are terrestrial. Ecodivsions are meant to be mapped at 1:500,000 for regional strategic planning