Microclimate instead of macroclimate (2020-2022)

Species distribution modelling (SDM) is a well-established approach addressing broad spectra of ecological questions including effects of climate change. Climatic grids derived from standard meteorological measurement are usually used as a key predictor in SDM. However such measurements do not represent the condition experienced by organisms in their habitat.
Microclimatic measurements provide more ecologically relevant description of condition in which organisms live and their changes in space and time. However they are still hardly accessible especially at larger spatial scales and in the form of spatially continuous microclimatic grids needed for SDM. Therefore, in this project we will use our network of microclimatic station covering the whole country (Czechia) and broad range of environmental conditions and forest vegetation types to: i) develop spatially continuous grids of ecologically relevant microclimatic conditions from in-situ measurements and ii) evaluate the performance of these microclimatic grids in SDM in comparison to traditional macroclimatic grids.

Goals:
1) Identify microclimatic variables, which best predict plant species distribution in temperate
forests
2) Model ecologically relevant microclimatic variables in space at very fine-resolution
3) Compare standard species distribution models with those using microclimate as a key
predictor

Contact:
Jan Wild, Ph.D.
Tel. +420 271015278
e-mail: jan.wild@ibot.cas.cz

Other team members: Martin Kopecký, Martin Macek, Lucia Hederová, Matěj Man, Vítězslav Moudrý

GACR: 20-28119S