Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline

Abstract Understanding processes controlling forest dynamics has become particularly important in the context of ongoing climate change, which is altering the ecological fitness and resilience of species worldwide. However, whether forest communities would be threatened by projected macroclimate cha...

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Autores principales:	Angelo Rita, Giuliano Bonanomi, Emilia Allevato, Marco Borghetti, Gaspare Cesarano, Valentina Mogavero, Sergio Rossi, Luigi Saulino, Maurizio Zotti, Antonio Saracino
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/00f60c1e3c9f472dbd70eb77be5e3fb2
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:00f60c1e3c9f472dbd70eb77be5e3fb22021-12-02T18:03:26ZTopography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline10.1038/s41598-021-87661-62045-2322https://doaj.org/article/00f60c1e3c9f472dbd70eb77be5e3fb22021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87661-6https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Understanding processes controlling forest dynamics has become particularly important in the context of ongoing climate change, which is altering the ecological fitness and resilience of species worldwide. However, whether forest communities would be threatened by projected macroclimate change or unaffected due to the controlling effect of local site conditions is still a matter for debate. After all, forest canopy buffer climate extremes and promote microclimatic conditions, which matters for functional plant response, and act as refugia for understory species in a changing climate. Yet precisely how microclimatic conditions change in response to climate warming will depend on the extent to which vegetation structure and local topography shape air and soil temperature. In this study, we posited that forest microclimatic buffering is sensitive to local topographic conditions and canopy cover, and using meteorological stations equipped with data-loggers we measured this effect during 1 year across a climate gradient (considering aspect as a surrogate of local topography) in a Mediterranean beech treeline growing in contrasting aspects in southern Italy. During the growing season, the below-canopy near-ground temperatures were, on average, 2.4 and 1.0 °C cooler than open-field temperatures for south and north-west aspects, respectively. Overall, the temperature offset became more negative (that is, lower under-canopy temperatures at the treeline) as the open-field temperature increased, and more positive (that is, higher under-canopy temperatures at the treeline) as the open-field temperature decreased. The buffering effect was particularly evident for the treeline on the south-facing slope, where cooling of near-ground temperature was as high as 8.6 °C for the maximum temperature (in August the offset peaked at 10 °C) and as high as 2.5 °C for the average temperature. In addition, compared to the south-facing slope, the northern site exhibited less decoupling from free-air environment conditions and low variability in microclimate trends that closely track the free-air biophysical environment. Although such a decoupling effect cannot wholly isolate forest climatic conditions from macroclimate regional variability in the south-facing treeline, it has the potential to partly offset the regional macroclimatic warming experienced in the forest understory due to anthropogenic climate change.Angelo RitaGiuliano BonanomiEmilia AllevatoMarco BorghettiGaspare CesaranoValentina MogaveroSergio RossiLuigi SaulinoMaurizio ZottiAntonio SaracinoNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Angelo Rita Giuliano Bonanomi Emilia Allevato Marco Borghetti Gaspare Cesarano Valentina Mogavero Sergio Rossi Luigi Saulino Maurizio Zotti Antonio Saracino Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline
description	Abstract Understanding processes controlling forest dynamics has become particularly important in the context of ongoing climate change, which is altering the ecological fitness and resilience of species worldwide. However, whether forest communities would be threatened by projected macroclimate change or unaffected due to the controlling effect of local site conditions is still a matter for debate. After all, forest canopy buffer climate extremes and promote microclimatic conditions, which matters for functional plant response, and act as refugia for understory species in a changing climate. Yet precisely how microclimatic conditions change in response to climate warming will depend on the extent to which vegetation structure and local topography shape air and soil temperature. In this study, we posited that forest microclimatic buffering is sensitive to local topographic conditions and canopy cover, and using meteorological stations equipped with data-loggers we measured this effect during 1 year across a climate gradient (considering aspect as a surrogate of local topography) in a Mediterranean beech treeline growing in contrasting aspects in southern Italy. During the growing season, the below-canopy near-ground temperatures were, on average, 2.4 and 1.0 °C cooler than open-field temperatures for south and north-west aspects, respectively. Overall, the temperature offset became more negative (that is, lower under-canopy temperatures at the treeline) as the open-field temperature increased, and more positive (that is, higher under-canopy temperatures at the treeline) as the open-field temperature decreased. The buffering effect was particularly evident for the treeline on the south-facing slope, where cooling of near-ground temperature was as high as 8.6 °C for the maximum temperature (in August the offset peaked at 10 °C) and as high as 2.5 °C for the average temperature. In addition, compared to the south-facing slope, the northern site exhibited less decoupling from free-air environment conditions and low variability in microclimate trends that closely track the free-air biophysical environment. Although such a decoupling effect cannot wholly isolate forest climatic conditions from macroclimate regional variability in the south-facing treeline, it has the potential to partly offset the regional macroclimatic warming experienced in the forest understory due to anthropogenic climate change.
format	article
author	Angelo Rita Giuliano Bonanomi Emilia Allevato Marco Borghetti Gaspare Cesarano Valentina Mogavero Sergio Rossi Luigi Saulino Maurizio Zotti Antonio Saracino
author_facet	Angelo Rita Giuliano Bonanomi Emilia Allevato Marco Borghetti Gaspare Cesarano Valentina Mogavero Sergio Rossi Luigi Saulino Maurizio Zotti Antonio Saracino
author_sort	Angelo Rita
title	Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline
title_short	Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline
title_full	Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline
title_fullStr	Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline
title_full_unstemmed	Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline
title_sort	topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the mediterranean fagus sylvatica treeline
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/00f60c1e3c9f472dbd70eb77be5e3fb2
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Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline

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