The microclimate within terrestrial ecosystems is highly heterogeneous as it responds to a multitude of local and landscape-scale factors such as foliage density, micro-topography, distance to a forest edge or a water body. This diversity of microclimates, and the potential buffering of climate extremes in the landscape, are key to understand terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (notably carbon, water and nutrient cycling), but also ecosystem resilience and feedback onto regional climate. Despite our good understanding of the biophysical processes driving microclimate, it is still very challenging to describe and predict how microclimate varies across the landscape, and anticipate the impact of changes in climate, land use or ecosystem management.
In this session, we welcome observational, experimental and modelling studies on terrestrial microclimate, its role on biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem resilience and its response to climate and land use change.