Transitional Climate Zones and Biome Boundaries: A Case Study from China

Abstract

Boundary regions between continental-scale climatic zones are characterized by strong gradients in climate variables, such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and climate instability. This instability in climate may cause these boundary zones to be particularly sensitive to the natural and anthropogenic factors associated with global change (di Castri et al. 1988; Delcourt and Delcourt, Chapter 2, this volume).