With the BCCVL, you can investigate the distribution of a species under potential future climatic conditions. The Climate Change Experiment takes the results of your Species Distribution Modelling experiment, and projects that distribution for a certain year in the future with the climate information from one of several climate models. Select one of several greenhouse gas emissions scenarios to influence the climate models. Future climates are available from 2015 to 2085.




  • At the top of the experiment page click on the Experiments tab
  • Click on Climate Change Experiment

Step 1. Description tab

  • Enter the name for your experiment in the first box (e.g. Future Fox (Vulpes vulpes) Distribution)
  • (optional) You can also add a description of your experiment in the box below if you want to convey more information. Some researchers use this box to record their research question or hypotheses for later referral
  • Click Next.

Step 2. Source Model tab

  • Click Select SDM Experiment
  • Select the species distribution model with which you would like to do your climate change projection
  • Check the box for the algorithm/s with which you would like to use
  • Click Next.

Step 3. Projection tab

  • To search for and select future climate data click on Select Future Climate Data 
  • In the pop-up box you can filter options using the search functions in the left hand column, or simply by scrolling
  • Select chosen datasets - you can pick as many as you like. Click Add Layers
  • Click Next.

Note: The data associated with the future climate projections include:
  • 18 GCMs for each emission scenario;
  • 9 emission scenarios – 5 representing SRES scenarios and 4 representing RCP scenarios;
  • 8 time points into the future (10 year intervals from 2015 to 2085); and
  • 19 bioclimatic variables, including annual min, mean and max temperature, precipitation, sea surface temperatures, wet-day frequency, vapour pressure and cloud cover. Full list available at http://www.worldclim.org/bioclim.
  • With respect to the emission scenarios, Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) has been adopted by the IPCC to replace the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) used in the AR4 report (Solomon, Qin et al. 2007); RCPs are to be used in the AR5 IPCC report due in 2014.
For assistance in identifying the scenarios best suited for your species/experiment we recommend using the Climate Futures Tools.


Step 4. Run tab

  • Ensure you are happy with your experiment design
  • Click Start Experiment.