microclimOz: hourly estimates of historical above and below ground microclimates for Australia

Many problems in pure and applied ecology require the quantification of above and below ground microclimates. Here I describe a dataset of hourly microclimates for the Australian continent, simulated from the years 1990 to 2017 across a grid of 1893 locations. The data were generated with the NicheMapR microclimate model, driven by 0.05° gridded daily meteorological forcing data (AWAP), 0.025° elevation and 0.008° soil texture data. The above ground variables include horizontal plane solar radiation, solar zenith angle, sky temperature (from which down-welling longwave radiation can be computed) and 1 cm and 120 cm height air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed. The below ground variables include soil temperature, pore humidity, soil moisture and soil water potential for 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 100 and 200 cm below ground. The computations are for four shade levels (0, 50, 70 and 90%). The data set can be used for a wide variety of applications, including the computation of heat and water budgets of organisms, the potential for vegetation growth, and the development of biologically-inspired indices.

理论生态学与应用生态学领域的诸多研究问题，均需对地表与地下微气候开展定量表征工作。本数据集提供了澳大利亚大陆1990年至2017年间的逐小时微气候数据，模拟范围覆盖1893个网格点位。本数据集采用NicheMapR微气候模型生成，驱动数据包括分辨率0.05°的格点日尺度气象强迫数据（AWAP）、分辨率0.025°的高程数据以及分辨率0.008°的土壤质地数据。地表变量包含水平面太阳辐射、太阳天顶角、天空温度（可由此计算下行长波辐射），以及1厘米与120厘米高度处的气温、相对湿度与风速。地下变量则涵盖地下0、2.5、5、10、15、20、30、50、100及200厘米深度处的土壤温度、孔隙湿度、土壤含水量与土壤水势。该模拟计算设置了4种遮阴水平（0%、50%、70%与90%）。本数据集可应用于诸多场景，包括生物体热量与水量平衡的计算、植被生长潜力评估，以及生物启发式指数的构建。