Component Loadings on the 10 Variables

The second component accounted for 31.9% of the variance in the data set and was strongly loaded on lizards and not loaded much at all on salamanders at all (see illustration above). Grid cells with high scores (see below) should be characterized by above average lizard species richness while gird cells with negative scores should have a below average lizard species richness. The climate associated with this lizard biodiversity pattern (blue colors) has the following attributes (see illustration above): high solar radiation load, just average annual precipitation, above average winter precipitation, many months of continental tropical air and many maritime tropical air, average elevation and warm to hot temperatures. Warm, sunny dry and moist tropical conditions. The blue area in the chart below has such attributes while the red areas to the north cannot be characterized as such. Lizard diversity declines with the loss of tropical conditions.

Pattern of Component Scores