What is microclimate?
Microclimate refers to the local climatic conditions that matter to all organisms from humans to other animals and plants. For instance, in heat waves and storms, animals seek for shade or shelter to accommodate their microclimate preferences. Even in less dramatic settings such as in an office space, the local temperature and moisture conditions really do affect how the office plants and humans live and survive. This is why microclimates are important to measure and there are many ways to do so.
What are the main results of the study?
This article is a review of the most useful ways to measure microclimates. The article explains why, what, how, when, and where to measure microclimates and it also summarises what to consider when analysing and publishing microclimate data. These matters are important to evaluate, because there is no one-solution-fits-all when it comes to measuring microclimates. Microclimates should be always measured considering the specific study object, the study area, and the study question. For instance, an elephant in the savanna and a tiny plant in the tundra are both dependent on the local temperature conditions around them. But the same measurement techniques and scales do not necessarily work on both study objects because the ecology of an elephant and a plant is very different and because the savanna and the tundra are such different ecosystems.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
Biodiversity refers to the diversity of all living things, including for instance genetic variability and the diversity of species and ecosystems. All this biodiversity on Earth is affected by climate change, and measuring microclimates is an important tool in research for understanding how exactly things are responding to climate change. Because after all, all living things are affected by their surrounding conditions, including their microclimates. So, as the overall climate changes, it also changes the microclimates in which all organisms live.
The study has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen