Seasonal drivers of understorey temperature buffering in temperate deciduous forests across Europe

Aim: Forest understory microclimates are often buffered against extreme heat or cold, with important implications for the organisms living in these environments. We quantified seasonal effects of understory microclimate predictors describing canopy structure, canopy composition and topography (i.e. local factors), as well as forest patch size and distance to coast (i.e. landscape factors).

Location: Temperate forests in Europe

Time period: 2017-2018
Major taxa studied: Woody plants

Methods: We combined data from a microclimate sensor network with weather station records to calculate the difference – or offset – between temperatures measured inside and outside forests. We used regression analysis to study the effects of local and landscape factors on the seasonal offset of minimum, mean and maximum temperatures.

Results: Maximum temperature during summer was on average cooler by 2.1 °C and minimum temperature during winter and spring were 0.4 °C and 0.9 °C warmer inside than...