Abstract
Microclimates and micrometeorology have long fascinated climatologists, and the discovery of microclimates is certainly not new. Scientists such as Kraus (1911) and Geiger (1927) published the first textbooks on this topic already in the first half of the 20th century. Climatic variation at small spatial scales is extremely relevant to many science disciplines and civil applications including agriculture, forestry, ecology, biodiversity conservation, urban planning and socio-economics. Indeed, the temperature near the ground experienced by humans, plants, animals and other organisms can substantially differ from the temperature above because of factors such as local shading, substrate characteristics and topography (Scheffers et al., 2013; Scherrer and Körner, 2010). Yet, most terrestrial weather stations aim to quantify macroclimates and follow the World Meteorological Organization’s guidelines that sensors ought to be installed with minimal microclimatic influences (e.g. far away from trees; see De Frenne and Verheyen, 2016). This is in sharp contrast to the notion that most species live, and key ecosystem processes take place in microclimates. Hence, a new up-to-date textbook drawing attention to microclimate and local climate is particularly welcome. The book reviewed here does exactly this and does not disappoint.
The book provides an excellent overview of microclimates (climatic conditions at the scale of centimetres to metres) and local climates or so-called topoclimates (at scales of 100 m to about 10 km). In the first two chapters, microclimates and local climates are defined, and their characteristics and typical elements described. The instrumentation needed to quantify microclimates is the basis of Chapter 3. This technical overview is very comprehensive, contains sufficient mathematical formulae and physical laws for the specialist, yet is still practical enough as a guide for starting up own monitoring and experiments. Next, Chapters 4 and 5 deal with radiation and the energy balance and how these vary with, for example, latitude, season, clouds and vegetation. In Chapter 6, the authors move their focus to remote sensing techniques such as those focused on quantifying vegetation structure and leaf area indices at a global scale. This chapter also includes a discussion of modelling techniques including empirical, physically based, downscaling and land surface models. Microtemperatures, windspeeds, gradients of moisture and energy balances of vegetated environments (e.g. tundra, grasslands, forests, farmland) and physical systems (e.g. lakes, streams, mountains, cities) form the basis for Chapters 7 and 8. Especially the forest section of Chapter 7 provides a detailed account of microclimatic variation because of factors related to forest structure, tree species identity, season, silvicultural treatments, edge effects, clearings and so on. Also, temperature profiles, radiation gradients and energy balances of lakes and mountains are treated in detail. How animals can deal with microclimates and respond to their environment, for example, via behavioural changes, is treated in detail in Chapter 9. Urban climates, and especially the causes and consequences of the urban heat island phenomenon, are discussed in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 then deals with the impact of topoclimatic factors on microclimate, for instance, slope and aspect, and coastal influences. Finally, the effects of the ongoing changes in the climate system on microclimates form the concluding chapter of the book. The book then ends with problems that can be used for teaching purposes and a useful glossary and overview of symbols and unit conversions.
As the authors state in the preface, it has been a decade or more since microclimates have been addressed in a textbook. This book indeed includes a great deal of references to recent studies and thus provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the state-of-the-art of the field. The book is very well written and will be valuable for use in undergraduate courses on climatology, meteorology and even ecophysiology. Also professionals, researchers and academics seeking to better quantify the microclimate surrounding their study system/species will find useful information in the book. One minor drawback is that neither the figures nor tables appear to be available electronically online, which would have been convenient for classroom use. In sum, Microclimate and Local Climate provides a rigorous overview of the topic and does certainly not disappoint.