Institute of Science and Environment, University of Cumbria, Ambleside, Cumbria, LA22 9BB, UK.
School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK; School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa.
J Therm Biol. 2024 Jul;123:103909. doi: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2024.103909. Epub 2024 Jul 26.
Fine-scale variation in microclimates between habitats may impact energy consumption for the organisms that inhabit them. This may be particularly important for sedentary species or those unable to change habitats for long periods, such as hibernators. Low ambient temperatures were traditionally thought key to microclimatic selection for hibernation locations, but recent research suggests that other factors may contribute or exceed ambient temperature in importance. We aimed to characterise microclimates at hibernacula of wild hibernating hazel dormice Muscardinus avellanarius, and test how these microclimates differ to those at locations without hibernacula using a microclimatic modelling approach. Dormice hibernated in areas with warmer soil temperatures and lower variability in humidity and relative shortwave radiation. These results add to the growing body of evidence that low ambient temperatures may not be the primary driver of hibernation microclimate selection, although temperature is still likely to play an important role. We also found that ambient temperatures measured at the microclimatic level were substantially buffered compared to point samples taken at the nearest weather station (∼1.6 km away), highlighting the importance of considering microclimates in wildlife conservation in the face of future environmental change.
栖息地之间的微气候精细变化可能会影响栖息其中的生物体的能量消耗。对于久坐不动的物种或那些不能长时间改变栖息地的物种（如冬眠动物）来说，这可能尤为重要。传统上认为，环境温度低是冬眠动物选择冬眠地点的关键因素，但最近的研究表明，其他因素可能同样重要，甚至比环境温度更为重要。我们的目标是描述野生榛睡鼠冬眠洞穴的微气候，并使用微气候建模方法测试这些微气候与没有冬眠洞穴的地方有何不同。榛睡鼠在土壤温度较高、湿度和相对短波辐射变化较小的区域冬眠。这些结果增加了越来越多的证据，即环境温度低可能不是冬眠微气候选择的主要驱动因素，尽管温度仍可能发挥重要作用。我们还发现，与最近的气象站（约 1.6 公里远）的点样本相比，微气候水平测量的环境温度有很大的缓冲，这突出了在未来环境变化的情况下，考虑野生动物保护中的微气候的重要性。
