On Earth, interactions between the five parts of the climate system that produce daily weather and long-term averages of weather are called “climate”. Some of the meteorological variables that are commonly measured are temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, and precipitation. The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, terrain, and altitude, as well as nearby water bodies and their currents.
Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables, most commonly temperature and precipitation. The Thornthwaite system, in use since 1948, incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it.The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region.
Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century, paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores, and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral.
For example, “a 3C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300400 km in latitude or 500 m in elevation.Therefore, species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones”.
