Microclimate, an inseparable part of ecology and biogeography

Kemppinen, Julia; Lembrechts, Jonas; van Meerbeek, Koenraad; Carnicer, Jofre; Chardon, Nathalie Isabelle; Kardol, Paul; Lenoir, Jonathan; Liu, Daijun; Maclean, Ilya; Pergl, Jan; Saccone, Patrick; Senior, Rebecca; Shen, Ting; Słowińska, Sandra; Vandvik, Vigdis; von Oppen, Jonathan; Aalto, Juha; Ayalew, Biruk; Bates, Olivia; Bertelsmeier, Cleo; Bertrand, Romain; Beugnon, Rémy; Borderieux, Jeremy; Brůna, Josef; Buckley, Lauren; Bujan, Jelena; Casanova-Katny, Angelica; Christiansen, Ditte Marie; Collart, Flavien; de Lombaerde, Emiel; de Pauw, Karen; Depauw, Leen; Di Musciano, Michele; Díaz Borrego, Raquel; Díaz-Calafat, Joan; Ellis-Soto, Diego; Esteban, Raquel; Fälthammar de Jong, Geerte; Gallois, Elise; Garcia, Maria Begoña; Gillerot, Loïc; Greiser, Caroline; Gril, Eva; Haesen, Stef; Hampe, Arndt; Hedwall, Per-Ola; Hes, Gabriel; Hespanhol, Helena; Hoffrén, Raúl; Hylander, Kristoffer; Jiménez-Alfaro, Borja; Jucker, Tommaso; Klinges, David; Kolstela, Joonas; Kopecký, Martin; Kovács, Bence; Maeda, Eduardo Eiji; Máliš, František; Man, Matěj; Mathiak, Corrie; Meineri, Eric; Naujokaitis-Lewis, Ilona; Nijs, Ivan; Normand, Signe; Nuñez, Martin; Orczewska, Anna; Peña-Aguilera, Pablo; Pincebourde, Sylvain; Plichta, Roman; Quick, Susan; Renault, David; Ricci, Lorenzo; Rissanen, Tuuli; Segura-Hernández, Laura; Selvi, Federico; Serra-Diaz, Josep; Soifer, Lydia; Spicher, Fabien; Svenning, Jens-Christian; Tamian, Anouch; Thomaes, Arno; Thoonen, Marijke; Trew, Brittany; van de Vondel, Stijn; van den Brink, Liesbeth; Vangansbeke, Pieter; Verdonck, Sanne; Vitkova, Michaela; Vives-Ingla, Maria; von Schmalensee, Loke; Wang, Runxi; Wild, Jan; Williamson, Joseph; Zellweger, Florian; Zhou, Xiaqu; Zuza, Emmanuel Junior; de Frenne, Pieter; Research Group of Plant and Vegetation Ecology ; Department of Biology; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences [Leuven-Heverlee] ; Catholic University of Leuven = Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés - UMR CNRS 7058  ; Université de Picardie Jules Verne -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; University of Exeter; Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences  ; Czech Academy of Sciences [Prague]; Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology ; Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden; Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden ; Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing]; Université de Liège; University of Bergen; Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki; School of Biological and Chemical Sciences ; Queen Mary University of London; Université de Lausanne = University of Lausanne; Evolution et Diversité Biologique  ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement -Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier  ; Université de Toulouse -Université de Toulouse -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; Leipziger Institut für Meteorologie  ; Universität Leipzig; Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive  ; Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 -Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique -Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques -École Pratique des Hautes Études  ; Université Paris sciences et lettres -Université Paris sciences et lettres -Université de Montpellier -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique -Institut de Recherche pour le Développement -Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier; Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies ; Universität Zürich [Zürich] = University of Zurich; Département d'écologie et évolution [Lausanne]  ; Université de Lausanne = University of Lausanne; Forest & Nature Lab ; Universiteit Gent = Ghent University; Universiteit Gent = Ghent University; Research Institute for Nature and Forest; Institut de recherche sur la biologie de l'insecte UMR7261  ; Université de Tours -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Microclimate, an inseparable part of ecology and biogeography

2023

Abstract Microclimate science has developed into a global discipline. Microclimate science is increasingly used to understand and mitigate climate and biodiversity shifts. Here, we provide an overview of the current status of microclimate ecology and biogeography, and where this field is heading next. We showcase the recent advances in data acquisition, such as novel field sensors and remote sensing methods. We discuss microclimate modelling, mapping, and data processing, including accessibility of modelling tools, advantages of mechanistic and statistical modelling, and solutions for computational challenges that have pushed the state-of-the-art of the field. We highlight the latest research on interactions between microclimate and organisms, including how microclimate influences individuals, and through them populations, communities, and entire ecosystems and their processes. We also briefly discuss recent research on how organisms shape microclimate from the tropics to the poles. Microclimates are also important in ecosystem management under climate change. We showcase new research in microclimate management with examples from biodiversity conservation, forestry, and urban ecology. We discuss the importance of microrefugia in conservation and how to promote microclimate heterogeneity. We identify major knowledge gaps that need to be filled for further advancing microclimate methods, investigations, and applications. These gaps include spatiotemporal scaling of microclimate data, mismatches between macroclimate and microclimate in predicting responses of organisms to climate change, and the need for more evidence on the outcomes of microclimate management.   Biosketch The authors are participants of the Microclimate Ecology and Biogeography conference held in Antwerp, Belgium in 2022. Together they collaboratively wrote this perspective paper that brings together 97 experts and their views on the recent advancements and knowledge gaps in terrestrial microclimate. The paper was coordinated by Julia Kemppinen, Jonas Lembrechts, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, and Pieter De Frenne, and writing different sections was led by Jofre Carnicer, Nathalie Chardon, Paul Kardol, Jonathan Lenoir, Daijun Liu, Ilya Maclean, Jan Pergl, Patrick Saccone, Rebecca Senior, Ting Shen, Sandra Słowińska, Vigdis Vandvik, and Jonathan von Oppen. For more details on authors statistics and how the work was organised, please see Supplementary information Figures S1-3.

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