The image below shows CLAMP vegetation sites in 2D physiognomic space. The sites are arranged relative to one another based entirely on the foliar characteristics exhibited by at least 20 species of woody dicots. Climate data have not been used. Each site is colour coded, in this instance, based on the observed mean annual temperature at that site: red sites are warm and blue sites cold. It is easy to see that there is a trend, or vector, going from warm to cold across the plot. This is the MAT vector which in CANOCO is positioned as part of the analysis. The MAT vector is here shown in red and the growing season precipitation vector in blue.
To see how these relate to physiognomic space in 3D download the movie.
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Click here to see the corresponding leaf character distribution in relation to the climate parameter vectors.