Varying effects of tree composition and diversity on the microclimate of European forests

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Radim Matula, Forest Ecology, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, Martin Svátek and Roman Plichta, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

Background/Question/Methods
Due to climate change, European forests face rising temperatures and increasing severity and frequency of droughts. However, forests themselves may potentially buffer a significant part of the adverse climate-change effects, but the knowledge on how main European tree species and their mixtures affect near-surface temperature and soil moisture is lacking. Therefore, on a network of 189 plots spanning from boreal to Mediterranean forests, we measured soil moisture, soil temperature and air temperature in monocultures and mixed forest for three years.
Results/Conclusions
The most pronounced difference in microclimate was found between coniferous and broadleaved trees species. In comparison with conifers, the broadleaved trees had greater summer maximum and winter minimum air and soil temperatures but conserved better soil moisture, especially in late summer and the autumn. Mixed stands had an intermediate microclimate. Increasing tree density reduced temperature extremes but decreased soil moisture. These results suggest that by varying tree species composition and structure, foresters may influence forest microclimate. However, the species that best mediate temperature extremes may differ from species the best conserve soil moisture. The great microclimate variation observed in our study also indicates that the typical use of one climate dataset from the nearest climatic station (usually located outside the forest) for several study sites may be inaccurate.