Imperial College London
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ProfessorRobertEwers

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Professor of Ecology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 2223r.ewers

 
 
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Location

 

1.4Centre for Population BiologySilwood Park

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Jucker:2018:10.1111/gcb.14415,
author = {Jucker, T and Hardwick, SR and Both, S and Elias, DMO and Ewers, RM and Milodowski, DT and Swinfield, T and Coomes, DA},
doi = {10.1111/gcb.14415},
journal = {Global Change Biology},
pages = {5243--5258},
title = {Canopy structure and topography jointly constrain the microclimate of human-modified tropical landscapes},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14415},
volume = {24},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Local-scale microclimatic conditions in forest understoreys play a key role in shaping the composition, diversity and function of these ecosystems. Consequently, understanding what drives variation in forest microclimate is critical to forecasting ecosystem responses to global change, particularly in the tropics where many species already operate close to their thermal limits and rapid land-use transformation is profoundly altering local environments. Yet our ability to characterize forest microclimate at ecologically meaningful scales remains limited, as understorey conditions cannot be directly measured from outside the canopy. To address this challenge, we established a network of microclimate sensors across a land-use intensity gradient spanning from old-growth forests to oil-palm plantations in Borneo. We then combined these observations with high-resolution airborne laser scanning data to characterize how topography and canopy structure shape variation in microclimate both locally and across the landscape. In the processes, we generated high-resolution microclimate surfaces spanning over 350 km2 , which we used to explore the potential impacts of habitat degradation on forest regeneration under both current and future climate scenarios. We found that topography and vegetation structure were strong predictors of local microclimate, with elevation and terrain curvature primarily constraining daily mean temperatures and vapour pressure deficit (VPD), whereas canopy height had a clear dampening effect on microclimate extremes. This buffering effect was particularly pronounced on wind-exposed slopes but tended to saturate once canopy height exceeded 20 m-suggesting that despite intensive logging, secondary forests remain largely thermally buffered. Nonetheless, at a landscape-scale microclimate was highly heterogeneous, with maximum daily temperatures ranging between 24.2 and 37.2°C and VPD spanning two orders of magnitude. Based on this, we estimate that
AU  - Jucker,T
AU  - Hardwick,SR
AU  - Both,S
AU  - Elias,DMO
AU  - Ewers,RM
AU  - Milodowski,DT
AU  - Swinfield,T
AU  - Coomes,DA
DO  - 10.1111/gcb.14415
EP  - 5258
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 1354-1013
SP  - 5243
TI  - Canopy structure and topography jointly constrain the microclimate of human-modified tropical landscapes
T2  - Global Change Biology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14415
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30246358
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/63016
VL  - 24
ER  -
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