Global maps of soil temperature

Summary, in English

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km² resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (−0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications.

• Author: Jonas J. Lembrechts; Johan van den Hoogen; Juha Aalto; Michael B. Ashcroft; Pieter De Frenne; Julia Kemppinen; Martin Kopecký; Miska Luoto; Ilya M.D. Maclean; Thomas W. Crowther; Joseph J. Bailey; Stef Haesen; David H. Klinges; Pekka Niittynen; Brett R. Scheffers; Koenraad Van Meerbeek; Peter Aartsma; Otar Abdalaze; Mehdi Abedi; Rien Aerts; Negar Ahmadian; Antje Ahrends; Juha M. Alatalo; Jake M. Alexander; Camille Nina Allonsius; Jan Altman; Christof Ammann; Christian Andres; Christopher Andrews; Jonas Ardö; Nicola Arriga; Alberto Arzac; Valeria Aschero; Rafael L. Assis; Jakob Johann Assmann; Maaike Y. Bader; Khadijeh Bahalkeh; Peter Barančok; Isabel C. Barrio; Nina Buchmann; Lars Eklundh; Marcin Antoni Jackowicz-Korczynski; Julia Kelly; Natascha Kljun; Keith Larson; Mats B. Nilsson; Øystein H. Opedal; David P. Siqueira; Christian Stiegler; Torbern Tagesson; Jonathan Lenoir
• Department/s: Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science; BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate; MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system; Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC); Speciation, Adaptation and Coevolution; Biodiversity
• Publishing year: 2022
• Language: English
• Pages: 3110-3144
• Publication/Series: Global Change Biology
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 9
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16060
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Topic: Physical Geography; Climate Research
• Keywords: bioclimatic variables; global maps; microclimate; near-surface temperatures; soil temperature; soil-dwelling organisms; temperature offset; weather stations
• Status: Published
• Research group: Speciation, Adaptation and Coevolution
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1354-1013