Every biome exists within a temperature-precipitation envelope; push conditions outside that envelope for long enough and the ecosystem itself changes.
biome_state = f(temperature, precipitation)
shift occurs when state crosses zone boundary
- Grid resolution — landscape cells whose biome classification is tracked.
- Precipitation change — how much rainfall in each cell departs from its historical baseline.
- Warming level — local temperature rise driving biome-boundary shift.
- Ecosystem adaptive capacity — how much buffering (soil depth, species range) delays a visible biome shift.
Treelines and biome boundaries are already migrating poleward and upslope worldwide — this is the same climate-envelope mechanism ecologists track with satellite data.