Marta Silvio, Zimmer Anaïs, Caccianiga Marco, Gobbi Mauro, Ambrosini Roberto, Azzoni Roberto Sergio, Gili Fabrizio, Pittino Francesca, Thuiller Wilfried, Provenzale Antonello, Ficetola Gentile Francesco
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, Via G. Celoria 10, 20133, Milan, Italy.
Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources, IGG-CNR, Italian National Research Council, 56124, Pisa, Italy.
Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 31;14(1):5306. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-41063-6.
Landscapes nearby glaciers are disproportionally affected by climate change, but we lack detailed information on microclimate variations that can modulate the impacts of global warming on proglacial ecosystems and their biodiversity. Here, we use near-subsurface soil temperatures in 175 stations from polar, equatorial and alpine glacier forelands to generate high-resolution temperature reconstructions, assess spatial variability in microclimate change from 2001 to 2020, and estimate whether microclimate heterogeneity might buffer the severity of warming trends. Temporal changes in microclimate are tightly linked to broad-scale conditions, but the rate of local warming shows great spatial heterogeneity, with faster warming nearby glaciers and during the warm season, and an extension of the snow-free season. Still, most of the fine-scale spatial variability of microclimate is one-to-ten times larger than the temporal change experienced during the past 20 years, indicating the potential for microclimate to buffer climate change, possibly allowing organisms to withstand, at least temporarily, the effects of warming.
冰川附近的景观受到气候变化的影响尤为严重，但我们缺乏关于微气候变化的详细信息，而这些微气候变化能够调节全球变暖对冰前生态系统及其生物多样性的影响。在此，我们利用来自极地、赤道和高山冰川前沿175个站点的近地表土壤温度，生成高分辨率的温度重建数据，评估2001年至2020年微气候变化的空间变异性，并估计微气候异质性是否可能缓冲变暖趋势的严重程度。微气候的时间变化与大范围条件紧密相关，但局部变暖速率显示出很大的空间异质性，在冰川附近和温暖季节变暖更快，无雪季节延长。尽管如此，微气候的大部分精细尺度空间变异性比过去20年经历的时间变化大1至10倍，这表明微气候有可能缓冲气候变化，可能使生物至少暂时能够抵御变暖的影响。
