A Research Agenda for Microclimate Ecology in Human-Modified Tropical Forests

Frontiers in Forests and Global Change

Alexander Shenkin¹  Benjamin Blonder¹  Owen T. Lewis²  David Hemprich-Bennett²  Radim Matula³  Rebecca A. Senior⁴  Martin Svátek⁵  Eleanor M. Slade⁶  M. D. Farnon Ellwood⁷  Josie W. Phillips⁷  Paulo R. L. Bittencourt⁸  Michael J. W. Boyle⁹  Nichar Gregory⁹  Tom Swinfield^1,10  David A. Coomes^1,10  Tobias D. Jackson^1,10  Tommaso Jucker^1,11  Joseph Williamson^1,12  Florian Zellweger^1,14 

[1] 0Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom;1Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom;2Department of Forest Ecology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czechia;3Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States;4Department of Forest Botany, Dendrology and Geobiocoenology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czechia;Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang, Singapore;Centre for Research in Biosciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom;College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom;Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, United Kingdom;Forest Ecology and Conservation Group, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom;School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom;School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom;School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States;Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland;

关键词: ecosystem functioning;    habitat loss and fragmentation;    logging;    microrefugia;    remote sensing;    species distribution modeling;   

DOI  :  10.3389/ffgc.2019.00092

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Logging and habitat fragmentation impact tropical forest ecosystems in numerous ways, perhaps the most striking of which is by altering the temperature, humidity, and light environment of the forest—its microclimate. Because local-scale microclimatic conditions directly influence the physiology, demography and behavior of most species, many of the impacts of land-use intensification on the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of tropical forests have been attributed to changes in microclimate. However, the actual pathways through which altered microclimatic conditions reshape the ecology of these human-modified ecosystems remain largely unexplored. To bridge this knowledge gap, here we outline an agenda for future microclimate research in human-modified tropical ecosystems. We focus specifically on three main themes: the role of microclimate in shaping (i) species distributions, (ii) species interactions, and (iii) ecosystem functioning in tropical forests. In doing so we aim to highlight how a renewed focus on microclimate can help us not only better understand the ecology of human-modified tropical ecosystems, but also guide efforts to manage and protect them.

【 授权许可】

Unknown