Clustering analysis on climate data of red-crowned crane breeding distribution area in Northeast China.

Based on the five climatic factors such as monthly mean temperature, monthly mean maximum temperature, monthly average lowest temperature, the average monthly net radiation and the monthly mean precipitation in the breeding distribution area of the typical migratory species such as red-crowned crane in Northeast China from 1981 to 1990, this paper studied the characteristics analysis on the related climate data by using the theory and methods of interval statistics, hierarchical clustering based on normalization distance and clustering fusion technology. The results show that the most appropriate time in breeding habitat was May to September. The conclusion coincided with the biological characteristics and ecological characteristics of red-crowned crane in Northeast China. Extracting climatic factors from climate data was critical to the predictive distribution of species. The used climatic factors in the past mostly depended on the biological and ecological characteristics of species and the correlation analysis for climatic factors in the distribution area of species. Instead, this method only depended on climate data in the distribution area of the predictive species entirely, and it obtained data mining and data processing. This set of research methods possess generality and will provide basis for the research about the impact of future climate change on the predictive distribution of the migratory species in Northeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]