| 1. |
- De Pauw, Karen, et al.
(författare)
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Urban forest microclimates across temperate Europe are shaped by deep edge effects and forest structure
- 2023
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Ingår i: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. - 0168-1923 .- 1873-2240. ; 341
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The urban heat island (UHI) causes strong warming of cities and their urban forests worldwide. Especially urban forest edges are strongly exposed to the UHI effect, which could impact urban forest biodiversity and functioning. However, it is not known to what extent the UHI effect alters edge-to-interior microclimatic gradients within urban forests and whether this depends on the forests' structure.Here we quantified gradients of air temperature, relative air humidity and vapour pressure deficits (VPD) along urban forest edge-to-interior transects with contrasting stand structures in six major cities across Europe. We performed continuous hourly microclimate measurements for two consecutive years and analysed the magnitude and depth of edge effects, as well as forest structural drivers of microclimatic variation.Compared to edge studies in rural temperate forests, we found that edge effects reached deeper into urban forests, at least up to 50 m. Throughout the year, urban forest edges were warmer and drier compared to forest interiors, with the largest differences occurring during summer and daytime. Not only maximum, but also mean and minimum temperatures were higher at the urban forest edge up to large edge distances (at least 85 m). Denser forests with a higher plant area index buffered high air temperatures and VPDs from spring to autumn.We conclude that urban forest edges are unique ecotones with specific microclimates shaped by the UHI effect. Both forest edges and interiors showed increased buffering capacities with higher forest canopy density. We advocate for the conservation and expansion of urban forests which can buffer increasingly frequent and intense climate extremes. To this end, urban forest managers are encouraged to aim for multi-layered dense forest canopies and consider edge buffer zones of at least 50 m wide.
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| 2. |
- Haesen, Stef, et al.
(författare)
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ForestClim : Bioclimatic variables for microclimate temperatures of European forests
- 2023
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 29:11, s. 2886-2892
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Microclimate research gained renewed interest over the last decade and its importance for many ecological processes is increasingly being recognized. Consequently, the call for high-resolution microclimatic temperature grids across broad spatial extents is becoming more pressing to improve ecological models. Here, we provide a new set of open-access bioclimatic variables for microclimate temperatures of European forests at 25 x 25 m2 resolution.
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| 3. |
- Sanczuk, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Microclimate and forest density drive plant population dynamics under climate change
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nature Climate Change. - 1758-678X .- 1758-6798. ; 13:8, s. 840-847
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Macroclimatic changes are impacting ecosystems worldwide. However, a large portion of terrestrial species live under conditions where impacts of macroclimate change are buffered, such as in the shade of trees, and how this buffering impacts future below-canopy biodiversity redistributions at the continental scale is unknown. Here we show that shady forest floors due to dense tree canopies mitigate severe warming impacts on forest biodiversity, while canopy opening amplifies macroclimate change impacts. A cross-continental transplant experiment in five contrasting biogeographical areas combined with experimental heating and irradiation treatments was used to parametize 25-m resolution mechanistic demographic distribution models and project the current and future distributions of 12 common understorey plant species, considering the effects of forest microclimate and forest cover density. These results highlight microclimates and forest density as powerful tools for forest managers and policymakers to shelter forest biodiversity from climate change.The impacts of microclimate on future plant population dynamics are poorly understood. The authors use large-scale transplant climate change experiments to show the contribution of forest microclimates to population dynamics and project the distributions of 12 common understorey plants.
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