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Microclimate science has developed into a global discipline. Microclimate science is increasingly used to understand and mitigate climate and biodiversity shifts. Here, we provide an overview of the current status of microclimate ecology and biogeography, and where this field is heading next. We showcase the recent advances in data acquisition, such as novel field sensors and remote sensing methods. We discuss microclimate modelling, mapping, and data processing, including accessibility of modelling tools, advantages of mechanistic and statistical modelling, and solutions for computational challenges that have pushed the state-of-the-art of the field. We highlight the latest research on interactions between microclimate and organisms, including how microclimate influences individuals, and through them populations, communities, and entire ecosystems and their processes. We also briefly discuss recent research on how organisms shape microclimate from the tropics to the poles. Microclimates are also important in ecosystem management under climate change. We showcase new research in microclimate management with examples from biodiversity conservation, forestry, and urban ecology. We discuss the importance of microrefugia in conservation and how to promote microclimate heterogeneity. We identify major knowledge gaps that need to be filled for further advancing microclimate methods, investigations, and applications. These gaps include spatiotemporal scaling of microclimate data, mismatches between macroclimate and microclimate in predicting responses of organisms to climate change, and the need for more evidence on the outcomes of microclimate management. Biosketch The authors are participants of the Microclimate Ecology and Biogeography conference held in Antwerp, Belgium in 2022. Together they collaboratively wrote this perspective paper that brings together 97 experts and their views on the recent advancements and knowledge gaps in terrestrial microclimate. The paper was coordinated by Julia Kemppinen, Jonas Lembrechts, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, and Pieter De Frenne, and writing different sections was led by Jofre Carnicer, Nathalie Chardon, Paul Kardol, Jonathan Lenoir, Daijun Liu, Ilya Maclean, Jan Pergl, Patrick Saccone, Rebecca Senior, Ting Shen, Sandra Słowińska, Vigdis Vandvik, and Jonathan von Oppen. For more details on authors statistics and how the work was organised, please see Supplementary information Figures S1-3.

Aim: Assessing the performances of different sampling approaches for documenting community diversity may help to identify optimal sampling efforts and strategies, and to enhance conservation and monitoring planning. Here, we used two data sets based on probabilistic and preferential sampling schemes of Italian forest vegetation to analyze the multifaceted performances of the two approaches across three major forest types at a large scale. Location: Italy. Methods: We pooled 804 probabilistic and 16,259 preferential forest plotsassamplesofvascularplantdiversity across the country. We balanced the two data sets in terms of sizes, plot size, geographical position, and vegetation types. For each of the two data sets, 1000 subsets of 201 random plots were compared by calculating the shared and exclusive indicator species, their overlap in the multivariate space, and the areas encompassed by spatially-constrained rarefaction curves. We then calculated an index of performance using the ratio between the additional and total information collected by each sampling approach. The performances were tested and evaluated across the three major forest types. Results: The probabilistic approach performed better in estimating species richness and diversity of species assemblages, but did not detect other components of the regional diversity, such as azonal forests. The preferential approach outperformed the probabilistic approach in detecting forest-specialist species and plant diversity hotspots. Conclusions: Using a novel workflow based on vegetation-plot exclusivities and commonalities, our study suggests probabilistic and preferential sampling approaches are to be used in combination for better conservation and monitor planning purposes to detect multiple aspects of plant community diversity. Our findings can assist the implementation of national conservation planning and large-scale monitoring of biodiversity.

Global patterns of regional (gamma) plant diversity are relatively well known, but whether these patterns hold for local communities, and the dependence on spatial grain, remain controversial. Using data on 170,272 georeferenced local plant assemblages, we created global maps of alpha diversity (local species richness) for vascular plants at three different spatial grains, for forests and non-forests. We show that alpha diversity is consistently high across grains in some regions (for example, Andean-Amazonian foothills), but regional ‘scaling anomalies’ (deviations from the positive correlation) exist elsewhere, particularly in Eurasian temperate forests with disproportionally higher fine-grained richness and many African tropical forests with disproportionally higher coarse-grained richness. The influence of different climatic, topographic and biogeographical variables on alpha diversity also varies across grains. Our multi-grain maps return a nuanced understanding of vascular plant biodiversity patterns that complements classic maps of biodiversity hotspots and will improve predictions of global change effects on biodiversity.

Producción Científica, La Cordillera Cantábrica presenta una serie de singularidades que le convierten en un excelente enclave para el seguimiento de los efectos del cambio global. Este estudio analiza la necesidad de generar un observatorio inter-autonómico del cambio global, que permitiría integrar el conocimiento actual sobre estas montañas y determinar las prioridades en la generación de nuevo conocimiento. Para cumplir este objetivo, se presentan dos aproximaciones complementarias. La primera consiste en la revisión de la literatura científica publicada sobre la Cordillera Cantábrica y su comparación con otros enclaves geográficos de la Península Ibérica. La segunda consiste en la síntesis de información de un seminario titulado “La Cordillera Cantábrica como Centinela de los Efectos del Cambio Global”, celebrado en Santander en agosto de 2015. El análisis bibliográfico muestra que el número de publicaciones científicas sobre la Cordillera Cantábrica es similar al de otros enclaves geográficos de la Península Ibérica, pero con menor riqueza de disciplinas. La producción científica está dominada por los centros de investigación más próximos y tiene una alta participación internacional. Las conclusiones del seminario evidencian que este sistema es un candidato ideal para el seguimiento de los efectos del cambio global sobre multitud de elementos biofísicos. Se considera que la generación de un seminario permanente, junto con la consolidación de las redes de seguimiento actuales, la coordinación de nuevos trabajos, y la mejora de la comunicación entre administraciones y comunidad científico-técnica son elementos esenciales en la futura generación de un observatorio del cambio global en la Cordillera Cantábrica.

The Cordillera Cantábrica (CC) presents a series of singularities that make this area an excellent place for monitoring the effects of global change. This study analyses the need to generate an interregional observatory of global change, which would integrate current knowledge about these mountains and help setting priorities in the generation of new knowledge. To achieve this goal, two complementary approaches are presented. The first is the review of the scientific literature published about the CC and its comparison with other mountain systems in the Iberian Peninsula. The second is the synthesis of information from a seminar entitled >The CC as a Sentinel of the Effects of Global Change> held in Santander in August 2015. The literature shows that the number of scientific publications about the CC is similar to other mountain systems in the Iberian Peninsula, but with a lower diversity of disciplines. Scientific production is dominated by the nearest research centres and has a large international participation. The conclusions of the seminar show that this system is an ideal candidate for monitoring the effects of global change on a multitude of biophysical elements. We consider that the generation of a permanent seminar, along with the consolidation of the actual monitoring networks, and the coordination of new studies and the improvement of communication between administrations and the scientific and technical communities are essential elements for the future generation of an observatory of global change in the CC.

Broad-scale animal diversity patterns have been traditionally explained by hypotheses focused on climate-energy and habitat heterogeneity, without considering the direct influence of vegetation structure and composition. However, integrating these factors when considering plant-animal correlates still poses a major challenge because plant communities are controlled by abiotic factors that may, at the same time, influence animal distributions. By testing whether the number and variation of plant community types in Europe explain country-level diversity in six animal groups, we propose a conceptual framework in which vegetation diversity represents a bridge between abiotic factors and animal diversity. We show that vegetation diversity explains variation in animal richness not accounted for by altitudinal range or potential evapotranspiration, being the best predictor for butterflies, beetles, and amphibians. Moreover, the dissimilarity of plant community types explains the highest proportion of variation in animal assemblages across the studied regions, an effect that outperforms the effect of climate and their shared contribution with pure spatial variation. Our results at the country level suggest that vegetation diversity, as estimated from broad-scale classifications of plant communities, may contribute to our understanding of animal richness and may be disentangled, at least to a degree, from climate-energy and abiotic habitat heterogeneity.

AIMS: Classification of vegetation is an essential tool to describe, understand, predict and manage biodiversity. Given the multiplicity of approaches to classify vegetation, it is important to develop international consensus around a set of general guidelines and purpose‐specific standard protocols. Before these goals can be achieved, however, it is necessary to identify and understand the different choices that are made during the process of classifying vegetation. This paper presents a framework to facilitate comparisons between broad‐scale plot‐based classification approaches. RESULTS: Our framework is based on the distinction of four structural elements (plot record, vegetation type, consistent classification section and classification system) and two procedural elements (classification protocol and classification approach). For each element we describe essential properties that can be used for comparisons. We also review alternative choices regarding critical decisions of classification approaches; with a special focus on the procedures used to define vegetation types from plot records. We illustrate our comparative framework by applying it to different broad‐scale classification approaches. CONCLUSIONS: Our framework will be useful for understanding and comparing plot‐based vegetation classification approaches, as well as for integrating classification systems and their sections.

The raw data set has been deposited in the Digital CSIC repository (https://doi.org/ 10.20350/digitalCSIC/10529), The tendency for species to retain their ancestral biological properties has been widely demonstrated, but the effect of phylogenetic constraints when progressing from species to ensemble-level properties requires further assessment. Here we test whether community-level patterns (environmental shifts in local species richness and turnover) are phylogenetically conserved, assessing whether their similarity across different families of lichens, insects, and birds is dictated by the relatedness of these families. We show a significant phylogenetic signal in the shape of the species richness-elevation curve and the decay of community similarity with elevation: closely related families share community patterns within the three major taxa. Phylogenetic influences are partly explained by similarities among families in conserved traits defining body plan and interactions, implying a scaling of phylogenetic effects from the organismal to the community level. Consequently, the phylogenetic signal in community-level patterns informs about how the historical legacy of a taxon and shared responses among related taxa to similar environments contribute to community assembly and diversity patterns., This work was funded by grants CGL2014-53899-P/AEI/FEDER.UE and CGL2017-85191-P/AEI/FEDER.UE of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and grant IDI/2018/000151 of Principado de Asturias

This is a dataset of Ellenberg-type indicator values for European vascular plant species described in this article: Tichý L., Axmanová I., Dengler J., Guarino R., Jansen F., Midolo G., Nobis M.P., Van Meerbeek K., Aćić S., Attorre F., Bergmeier E., Biurrun I., Bonari G., Bruelheide H., Campos J.A., Čarni A., Chiarucci A., Ćuk M., Ćušterevska M., Didukh Y., Dítě D., Dítě Z., Dziuba T., Fanelli G., Fernández-Pascual E., Garbolino E., Gavilán R.G., Gégout J.-C., Graf U., Güler B., Hájek M., Hennekens S.M., Jandt U., Jašková A., Jiménez-Alfaro B., Julve P., Kambach S., Karger D.N., Karrer G., Kavgacı A., Knollová I., Kuzemko A., Küzmič F., Landucci F., Lengyel A., Lenoir J., Marcenò C., Moeslund J.E., Novák P., Pérez-Haase A., Peterka T., Pielech R., Pignatti A., Rašomavičius V., Rūsiņa S., Saatkamp A., Šilc U., Škvorc Ž., Theurillat J.-P., Wohlgemuth T. & Chytrý M. (2023) Ellenberg-type indicator values for European vascular plant species. Journal of Vegetation Science, 34, e13168. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13168 The dataset contains: 1) Harmonized Ellenberg-type indicator values for light, temperature, moisture, reaction, nutrients, and salinity for European vascular plants. 2) Original indicator values from 13 datasets of Ellenberg-type indicator values: - Germany (Ellenberg & Leuschner 2010) - Austria (Karrer 1992) - Cantabrian Range (Jiménez-Alfaro et al. 2021) - Czech Republic (Chytrý et al. 2018) - European mires (Hájek et al. 2020) - France (Julve 2015) - Great Britain (Hill et al. 2000) - Greece (South Aegean) (Böhling et al. 2002) - Hungary (Borhidi 1995) - Italy (Guarino & La Rosa 2019, modified) - Saline habitats (Dítě et al. 2023) - Switzerland and the Alps (Landolt et al. 2010) - Ukraine (Didukh 2011) 3) Species nomenclature is standardized according to the Euro+Med PlantBase (http://europlusmed.org)., The final version of the paper (accepted 8th Dec 2022; published 22nd Dec 2022). Difference from version 1.0: Minor changes in newly added species values calculated from co-occurrence with other species in the EVA database. They were corrected using straight-line calibration.

Despite the strong environmental control of seed dormancy and longevity, their changes along latitudes are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to assess seed dormancy and longevity in different populations across the distribution of the arctic–alpine plant Silene suecica. Seeds of seven populations collected from alpine (Spain, Italy, Scotland) and subarctic (Sweden, Norway) populations were incubated at four temperature regimes and five cold stratification intervals for germination and dormancy testing. Seed longevity was studied by exposing seeds to controlled ageing (45 °C, 60% RH) and regularly sampled for germination. Fresh seeds of S. suecica germinated at warm temperature (20/15 °C) and more in subarctic (80–100%) compared to alpine (20–50%) populations showed a negative correlation with autumn temperature (i.e., post-dispersal period). Seed germination increased after cold stratification in all populations, with different percentages (30–100%). Similarly, there was a large variation of seed longevity (p50 = 12–32 days), with seeds from the wettest locations showing faster deterioration rate. Subarctic populations of S. suecica were less dormant, showing a warmer suitable temperature range for germination, and a higher germinability than alpine populations. Germination and dormancy were driven by an interplay of geographical and climatic factors, with alpine and warm versus subarctic and cool autumn conditions, eliciting a decrease and an increase of emergence, respectively. Germination and dormancy patterns typically found in alpine habitats may not be found in the arctic.