Climate Change Experienced by Life on Earth—Drivers and Mechanisms of Future Trends in Microclimates
Year: 2026
Type: review
Abstract: Microclimate, the climate directly experienced by organisms, is crucial for understanding ecological responses to climate change, yet its long-term dynamics and the drivers of decadal microclimate changes remain underexplored in ecology and global change biology. Microclimate changes do not necessarily track macroclimate trends. Changes in meteorological conditions (e.g., cloud cover, wind patterns) and vegetation dynamics (e.g., canopy opening, desertification in drylands, shrub encroachment in the tundra) associated with climate change can lead to locally divergent microclimate trends, thereby altering spatial variability. Understanding and quantifying how macroclimate change translates to fine-scale microclimate change experienced by organisms, populations and communities is therefore essential for predicting ecological responses to global environmental change. This review examines how macroclimate change drives microclimate changes as experienced by life on Earth-and how these micro-scale changes may, in turn, feed back into the regional and global climate system. Our primary focus is on near-surface air and soil temperature-due to their relevance to most terrestrial organisms and ecosystem processes. The review is structured around three pathways of microclimate changes: (I) direct effects of changes in meteorological conditions, (II) indirect effects via vegetation changes, and (III) feedbacks between microclimate and climate change. Using three mechanistic model simulations in real-world landscapes, we illustrate and quantify the key mechanisms that lead to divergent warming trends. We show that microclimate change emerges from interacting atmospheric, land-surface, and biophysical processes, which can differ substantially across space and time. Predicting future microclimates therefore requires accounting for these processes and their temporal dynamics. By providing an accessible synthesis of these processes, this review aims to strengthen links between ecology and atmospheric science and improve our understanding of how climate change translates into microclimatic conditions relevant to life on Earth.
Source: Global Change Biology
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.71140
Institutions: Stockholm University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Chrono-Environnement, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, University of Exeter, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Utrecht University, Université de Montpellier, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, Leipzig University, University of Pretoria, University of Helsinki, Finnish Museum of Natural History, Finnish Meteorological Institute, University of Copenhagen, KU Leuven, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Yale University, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany, Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Linköping University, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, BOKU University, University of Antwerp
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,550
Funders: European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas, Academy of Finland, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Novo Nordisk, Akademie Věd České Republiky, Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, Novo Nordisk Fonden, Région Hauts-de-France, Natural Environment Research Council, HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council
Awards: G1061035602, An individual-level approach to understanding responses to climate in wild ectotherms, Predicting sudden and widespread biodiversity loss on a rapidly warming planet - when and where does biology change things?, G2968880292, G2977974405, G3167538810, G33836862, G3451148418, G3995755742, G457153545, G4617990, Smart ecological forest monitoring system, Impact of forest Management and Climate Change on understory Microclimate, FZT 118: Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung (iDiv), Novel light regimes and drought effects on temperate forest plant biodiversity, G7388851779, TerraFIRMA: Future Impacts Risks and Mitigation Actions, Securing the capacity of forests to buffer climate extremes - the interplay between canopy and soil water, G8569582858, Sensitivity of Tropical Forest to Heat Stress -Trop-Heat
OpenAlex ID: W7155556070