{
  "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.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Physical Geography and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.",
    "Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden.",
    "CNRS, Chrono-Environnement (UMR 6249), Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, Besançon, France.",
    "Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, UK.",
    "Centre for Ecology and Evolution, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, UK.",
    "German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.",
    "Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.",
    "CNRS, EPHE, IRD, CEFE, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier Cedex 5, France.",
    "Ecology and Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.",
    "Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.",
    "Botany and Mycology Unit, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.",
    "Department of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.",
    "Climate Impacts and Adaptation, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland.",
    "Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.",
    "Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, Denmark.",
    "Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen K, Denmark.",
    "Forest & Nature Lab, Gontrode, Belgium.",
    "Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.",
    "KU Leuven Plant Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.",
    "School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.",
    "Department of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.",
    "Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Průhonice, Czech Republic.",
    "Department of Forest Ecology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Praha-Suchdol, Czech Republic.",
    "UMR CNRS 7058 \"Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés\" (EDYSAN), Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France.",
    "Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.",
    "UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK.",
    "Rossby Centre, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Norrköping, Sweden.",
    "Department of Thematic Studies-Environmental Change, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.",
    "Department of Ecosystem Management, Climate and Biodiversity, Institute of Botany, BOKU University, Vienna, Austria.",
    "Plants and Ecosystems (PLECO), Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium."
  ],
  "article_type": "review article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 21,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "C Greiser",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4023-4402"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "E Gril",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7340-8264"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "I M D Maclean",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8030-9136"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6,
        7,
        8
      ],
      "name": "R Beugnon",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2457-5688"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9
      ],
      "name": "P le Roux",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7941-7444"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        10,
        11
      ],
      "name": "J Kemppinen",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7521-7229"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "M W Rhodes",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7971-828X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        12,
        13
      ],
      "name": "J Aalto",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6819-4911"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        14,
        15
      ],
      "name": "D M Christiansen",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7020-5082"
    },
    {
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        16
      ],
      "name": "P De Frenne",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8613-0943"
    },
    {
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        17,
        18
      ],
      "name": "S Haesen",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4491-4213"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        19,
        20
      ],
      "name": "D Klinges",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7900-9379"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        21,
        22
      ],
      "name": "M Kopecký",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1018-9316"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        23
      ],
      "name": "J Lenoir",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0638-9582"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        13
      ],
      "name": "M Luoto",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6203-5143"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        24,
        25
      ],
      "name": "L M Mercado",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4069-0838"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        12
      ],
      "name": "M Rantanen",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4279-0322"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        26,
        27
      ],
      "name": "G Strandberg",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2689-9360"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        28
      ],
      "name": "L van den Brink",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0313-8147"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8,
        29
      ],
      "name": "J Lembrechts",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1933-0750"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        17,
        18
      ],
      "name": "K Van Meerbeek",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9260-3815"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dk0bpjjzew9jv.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1111/gcb.71140",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13685058",
  "id": "dk0bpjjzew9jv",
  "issns": [
    "1354-1013",
    "1365-2486"
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  "landing_url": "https://u-picardie.hal.science/hal-05845317v1",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "hal",
      "0.sde"
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    [
      "openalex",
      "2306|Climate variability and models"
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  "openalex": "W7155556070",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13685058?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13685058",
  "pmid": "42904480",
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": "Wiley",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dk0bpjjzew9jv.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:03Z",
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      "source": "hal",
      "url": "https://u-picardie.hal.science/hal-05845317v1"
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    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:57Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42904480",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42904480"
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  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "hal:0.sde",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Climate Change Experienced by Life on Earth—Drivers and Mechanisms of Future Trends in Microclimates",
  "title_text": "Climate Change Experienced by Life on Earth—Drivers and Mechanisms of Future Trends in Microclimates",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:20:45Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dk0bpjjzew9jv",
  "venue": "Global Change Biology",
  "versions": []
}