Predicting habitat suitability for Ixodes ricinus and Ixodes persulcatus ticks in Finland

Background Ticks are responsible for transmitting several notable pathogens worldwide. Finland lies in a zone where two human-biting tick species co-occur: Ixodesricinus and Ixodespersulcatus. Tick densities have increased in boreal regions worldwide during past decades, and tick-borne pathogens have been identified as one of the major threats to public health in the face of climate change. Methods We used species distribution modelling techniques to predict the distributions of I.ricinus and I.persulcatus, using aggregated historical data from 2014 to 2020 and new tick occurrence data from 2021. By aiming to fill the gaps in tick occurrence data, we created a new sampling strategy across Finland. We also screened for tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and Borrelia from the newly collected ticks. Climate, land use and vegetation data, and population densities of the tick hosts were used in various combinations on four data sets to estimate tick species' distributions across mainland Finland with a 1-km resolution. Results In the 2021 survey, 89 new locations were sampled of which 25 new presences and 63 absences were found for I.ricinus and one new presence and 88 absences for I.persulcatus. A total of 502 ticks were collected and analysed; no ticks were positive for TBEV, while 56 (47%) of the 120 pools, including adult, nymph, and larva pools, were positive for Borrelia (minimum infection rate 11.2%, respectively). Our prediction results demonstrate that two combined predictor data sets based on ensemble mean models yielded the highest predictive accuracy for both I.ricinus (AUC = 0.91, 0.94) and I.persulcatus (AUC = 0.93, 0.96). The suitable habitats for I.ricinus were determined by higher relative humidity, air temperature, precipitation sum, and middle-infrared reflectance levels and higher densities of white-tailed deer, European hare, and red fox. For I.persulcatus, locations with greater precipitation and air temperature and higher white-tailed deer, roe deer, and mountain hare densities were associated with higher occurrence probabilities. Suitable habitats for I.ricinus ranged from southern Finland up to Central Ostrobothnia and North Karelia, excluding areas in Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa. For I.persulcatus, suitable areas were located along the western coast from Ostrobothnia to southern Lapland, in North Karelia, North Savo, Kainuu, and areas in Pirkanmaa and Paijat-Hame. Conclusions This is the first study conducted in Finland that estimates potential tick species distributions using environmental and host data. Our results can be utilized in vector control strategies, as supporting material in recommendations issued by public health authorities, and as predictor data for modelling the risk for tick-borne diseases.Peer reviewe

Evaluating atmospheric methane inversion model results for Pallas, northern Finland

A state-of-the-art inverse model, CarbonTracker Data Assimilation Shell (CTDAS), was used to optimize estimates of methane (CH4) surface fluxes using atmospheric observations of CH4 as a constraint. The model consists of the latest version of the TM5 atmospheric chemistry-transport model and an ensemble Kalman filter based data assimilation system. The model was constrained by atmospheric methane surface concentrations, obtained from the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG). Prior methane emissions were specified for five sources: biosphere, anthropogenic, fire, termites and ocean, of which bio-sphere and anthropogenic emissions were optimized. Atmospheric CH 4 mole fractions for 2007 from northern Finland calculated from prior and optimized emissions were compared with observations. It was found that the root mean squared errors of the posterior esti - mates were more than halved. Furthermore, inclusion of NOAA observations of CH 4 from weekly discrete air samples collected at Pallas improved agreement between posterior CH 4 mole fraction estimates and continuous observations, and resulted in reducing optimized biosphere emissions and their uncertainties in northern Finland

SoilTemp: a global database of near-surface temperature

Current analyses and predictions of spatially-explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long-term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate-forcing factors that operate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions are overlooked. This is particularly important in relation to effects of observation height (e.g. vegetation, snow and soil characteristics) and in habitats varying in their exposure to radiation, moisture and wind (e.g. topography, radiative forcing, or cold-air pooling). Since organisms living close to the ground relate more strongly to these microclimatic conditions than to free-air temperatures, microclimatic ground and near-surface data are needed to provide realistic forecasts of the fate of such organisms under anthropogenic climate change, as well as of the functioning of the ecosystems they live in. To fill this critical gap, we highlight a call for temperature time series submissions to SoilTemp, a geospatial database initiative compiling soil and near-surface temperature data from all over the world. Currently this database contains time series from 7538 temperature sensors from 51 countries across all key biomes. The database will pave the way towards an improved global understanding of microclimate and bridge the gap between the available climate data and the climate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions relevant to most organisms and ecosystem processes.Additional co-authors: Stuart W. Smith, Robert G. Björk, Lena Muffler, Simone Cesarz, Felix Gottschall, Amanda Ratier Backes, Joseph Okello, Josef Urban, Roman Plichta, Martin Svátek, Shyam S. Phartyal, Sonja Wipf, Nico Eisenhauer, Mihai Pușcaș, Pavel Dan Turtureanu, Andrej Varlagin, Romina D. Dimarco, Krystal Randall, Ellen Dorrepaal, Keith Larson, Josefine Walz, Luca Vitale, Miroslav Svoboda, Rebecca Finger Higgens, Aud H. Halbritter, Salvatore R. Curasi, Ian Klupar, Austin Koontz, William D. Pearse, Elizabeth Simpson, Michael Stemkovski, Bente Jessen Graae, Mia Vedel Sørensen, Toke T. Høye, M. Rosa Fernández Calzado, Juan Lorite, Michele Carbognani, Marcello Tomaselli, T'ai G.W. Forte, Alessandro Petraglia, Stef Haesen, Ben Somers, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Mats P. Björkman, Kristoffer Hylander, Sonia Merinero, Mana Gharun, Nina Buchmann, Jiri Dolezal, Radim Matula, Andrew D. Thomas, Joseph J. Bailey, Dany Ghosn, George Kazakis, Miguel Angel de Pablo, Julia Kemppinen, Pekka Niittynen, Lisa Rew, Tim Seipel, Christian Larson, James D.M. Speed, Jonas Ardö, Nicoletta Cannone, Mauro Guglielmin, Francesco Malfasi, Maaike Y. Bader, Rafaella Canessa, Angela Stanisci, Juergen Kreyling, Jonas Schmeddes, Laurenz Teuber, Valeria Aschero, Marek Čiliak, František Máliš, Pallieter De Smedt, Sanne Govaert, Camille Meeussen, Pieter Vangansbeke, Khatuna Gigauri, Andrea Lamprecht, Harald Pauli, Klaus Steinbauer, Manuela Winkler, Masahito Ueyama, Martin A. Nuñez, Tudor‐Mihai Ursu, Sylvia Haider, Ronja E.M. Wedegärtner, Marko Smiljanic, Mario Trouillier, Martin Wilmking, Jan Altman, Josef Brůna, Lucia Hederová, Martin Macek, Matěj Man, Jan Wild, Pascal Vittoz, Meelis Pärtel, Peter Barančok, Róbert Kanka, Jozef Kollár, Andrej Palaj, Agustina Barros, Ana Clara Mazzolari, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, José Luis Benito Alonso, Shengwei Zong, Valter Di Cecco, Zuzana Sitková, Katja Tielbörger, Liesbeth van den Brink, Robert Weigel, Jürgen Homeier, C. Johan Dahlberg, Sergiy Medinets, Volodymyr Medinets, Hans J. De Boeck, Miguel Portillo‐Estrada, Lore T. Verryckt, Ann Milbau, Gergana N. Daskalova, Haydn J.D. Thomas, Isla H. Myers‐Smith, Benjamin Blonder, Jörg G. Stephan, Patrice Descombes, Florian Zellweger, Esther R. Frei, Bernard Heinesch, Christopher Andrews, Jan Dick, Lukas Siebicke, Adrian Rocha, Rebecca A. Senior, Christian Rixen, Juan J. Jimenez, Julia Boike, Aníbal Pauchard, Thomas Scholten, Brett Scheffers, David Klinges, Edmund W. Basham, Jian Zhang, Zhaochen Zhang, Charly Géron, Fatih Fazlioglu, Onur Candan, Jhonatan Sallo Bravo, Filip Hrbacek, Kamil Laska, Edoardo Cremonese, Peter Haase, Fernando E. Moyano, Christian Rossi, and Ivan Nij

Forest microclimates and climate change: importance, drivers and future research agenda

Forest microclimates contrast strongly with the climate outside forests. To fully understand and better predict how forests' biodiversity and functions relate to climate and climate change, microclimates need to be integrated into ecological research. Despite the potentially broad impact of microclimates on the response of forest ecosystems to global change, our understanding of how microclimates within and below tree canopies modulate biotic responses to global change at the species, community and ecosystem level is still limited. Here, we review how spatial and temporal variation in forest microclimates result from an interplay of forest features, local water balance, topography and landscape composition. We first stress and exemplify the importance of considering forest microclimates to understand variation in biodiversity and ecosystem functions across forest landscapes. Next, we explain how macroclimate warming (of the free atmosphere) can affect microclimates, and vice versa, via interactions with land-use changes across different biomes. Finally, we perform a priority ranking of future research avenues at the interface of microclimate ecology and global change biology, with a specific focus on three key themes: (1) disentangling the abiotic and biotic drivers and feedbacks of forest microclimates; (2) global and regional mapping and predictions of forest microclimates; and (3) the impacts of microclimate on forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the face of climate change. The availability of microclimatic data will significantly increase in the coming decades, characterizing climate variability at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales relevant to biological processes in forests. This will revolutionize our understanding of the dynamics, drivers and implications of forest microclimates on biodiversity and ecological functions, and the impacts of global changes. In order to support the sustainable use of forests and to secure their biodiversity and ecosystem services for future generations, microclimates cannot be ignored.Peer reviewe

Predicting habitat suitability for Ixodesricinus and Ixodespersulcatus ticks in Finland

Background Ticks are responsible for transmitting several notable pathogens worldwide. Finland lies in a zone where two human-biting tick species co-occur: Ixodesricinus and Ixodespersulcatus. Tick densities have increased in boreal regions worldwide during past decades, and tick-borne pathogens have been identified as one of the major threats to public health in the face of climate change. Methods We used species distribution modelling techniques to predict the distributions of I.ricinus and I.persulcatus, using aggregated historical data from 2014 to 2020 and new tick occurrence data from 2021. By aiming to fill the gaps in tick occurrence data, we created a new sampling strategy across Finland. We also screened for tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and Borrelia from the newly collected ticks. Climate, land use and vegetation data, and population densities of the tick hosts were used in various combinations on four data sets to estimate tick species' distributions across mainland Finland with a 1-km resolution. Results In the 2021 survey, 89 new locations were sampled of which 25 new presences and 63 absences were found for I.ricinus and one new presence and 88 absences for I.persulcatus. A total of 502 ticks were collected and analysed; no ticks were positive for TBEV, while 56 (47%) of the 120 pools, including adult, nymph, and larva pools, were positive for Borrelia (minimum infection rate 11.2%, respectively). Our prediction results demonstrate that two combined predictor data sets based on ensemble mean models yielded the highest predictive accuracy for both I.ricinus (AUC = 0.91, 0.94) and I.persulcatus (AUC = 0.93, 0.96). The suitable habitats for I.ricinus were determined by higher relative humidity, air temperature, precipitation sum, and middle-infrared reflectance levels and higher densities of white-tailed deer, European hare, and red fox. For I.persulcatus, locations with greater precipitation and air temperature and higher white-tailed deer, roe deer, and mountain hare densities were associated with higher occurrence probabilities. Suitable habitats for I.ricinus ranged from southern Finland up to Central Ostrobothnia and North Karelia, excluding areas in Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa. For I.persulcatus, suitable areas were located along the western coast from Ostrobothnia to southern Lapland, in North Karelia, North Savo, Kainuu, and areas in Pirkanmaa and Paijat-Hame. Conclusions This is the first study conducted in Finland that estimates potential tick species distributions using environmental and host data. Our results can be utilized in vector control strategies, as supporting material in recommendations issued by public health authorities, and as predictor data for modelling the risk for tick-borne diseases.</p

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km² resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e., offset) between in-situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8500 unique temperature sensors) across all the world’s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in-situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications.Additional co-authors: Brett R. Scheffers, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Peter Aartsma, Otar Abdalaze, Mehdi Abedi, Rien Aerts, Negar Ahmadian, Antje Ahrends, Juha M. Alatalo, Jake M. Alexander, Camille Nina Allonsius, Jan Altman, Christof Ammann, Christian Andres, Christopher Andrews, Jonas Ardö, Nicola Arriga, Alberto Arzac, Valeria Aschero, Rafael L. Assis, Jakob Johann Assmann, Maaike Y. Bader, Khadijeh Bahalkeh, Peter Barančok, Isabel C. Barrio, Agustina Barros, Matti Barthel, Edmund W. Basham, Marijn Bauters, Manuele Bazzichetto, Luca Belelli Marchesini, Michael C. Bell, Juan C. Benavides, José Luis Benito Alonso, Bernd J. Berauer, Jarle W. Bjerke, Robert G. Björk, Mats P. Björkman, Katrin Björnsdóttir, Benjamin Blonder, Pascal Boeckx, Julia Boike, Stef Bokhorst, Bárbara N. S. Brum, Josef Brůna, Nina Buchmann, Pauline Buysse, José Luís Camargo, Otávio C. Campoe, Onur Candan, Rafaella Canessa, Nicoletta Cannone, Michele Carbognani, Jofre Carnicer, Angélica Casanova-Katny, Simone Cesarz, Bogdan Chojnicki, Philippe Choler, Steven L. Chown, Edgar F. Cifuentes, Marek Čiliak, Tamara Contador, Peter Convey, Elisabeth J. Cooper, Edoardo Cremonese, Salvatore R. Curasi, Robin Curtis, Maurizio Cutini, C. Johan Dahlberg, Gergana N. Daskalova, Miguel Angel de Pablo, Stefano Della Chiesa, Jürgen Dengler, Bart Deronde, Patrice Descombes, Valter Di Cecco, Michele Di Musciano, Jan Dick, Romina D. Dimarco, Jiri Dolezal, Ellen Dorrepaal, Jiří Dušek, Nico Eisenhauer, Lars Eklundh, Todd E. Erickson, Brigitta Erschbamer, Werner Eugster, Robert M. Ewers, Dan A. Exton, Nicolas Fanin, Fatih Fazlioglu, Iris Feigenwinter, Giuseppe Fenu, Olga Ferlian, M. Rosa Fernández Calzado, Eduardo Fernández-Pascual, Manfred Finckh, Rebecca Finger Higgens, T'ai G. W. Forte, Erika C. Freeman, Esther R. Frei, Eduardo Fuentes-Lillo, Rafael A. García, María B. García, Charly Géron, Mana Gharun, Dany Ghosn, Khatuna Gigauri, Anne Gobin, Ignacio Goded, Mathias Goeckede, Felix Gottschall, Keith Goulding, Sanne Govaert, Bente Jessen Graae, Sarah Greenwood, Caroline Greiser, Achim Grelle, Benoit Guénard, Mauro Guglielmin, Joannès Guillemot, Peter Haase, Sylvia Haider, Aud H. Halbritter, Maroof Hamid, Albin Hammerle, Arndt Hampe, Siri V. Haugum, Lucia Hederová, Bernard Heinesch, Carole Helfter, Daniel Hepenstrick, Maximiliane Herberich, Mathias Herbst, Luise Hermanutz, David S. Hik, Raúl Hoffrén, Jürgen Homeier, Lukas Hörtnagl, Toke T. Høye, Filip Hrbacek, Kristoffer Hylander, Hiroki Iwata, Marcin Antoni Jackowicz-Korczynski, Hervé Jactel, Järvi Järveoja, Szymon Jastrzębowski, Anke Jentsch, Juan J. Jiménez, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir, Tommaso Jucker, Radoslaw Juszczak, Róbert Kanka, Vít Kašpar, George Kazakis, Julia Kelly, Anzar A. Khuroo, Leif Klemedtsson, Marcin Klisz, Natascha Kljun, Alexander Knohl, Johannes Kobler, Jozef Kollár, Martyna M. Kotowska, Bence Kovács, Juergen Kreyling, Andrea Lamprecht, Simone I. Lang, Christian Larson, Keith Larson, Kamil Laska, Guerric le Maire, Rachel I. Leihy, Luc Lens, Bengt Liljebladh, Annalea Lohila, Juan Lorite, Benjamin Loubet, Joshua Lynn, Martin Macek, Roy Mackenzie, Enzo Magliulo, Regine Maier, Francesco Malfasi, František Máliš, Matěj Man, Giovanni Manca, Antonio Manco, Tanguy Manise, Paraskevi Manolaki, Felipe Marciniak, Radim Matula, Ana Clara Mazzolari, Sergiy Medinets, Volodymyr Medinets, Camille Meeussen, Sonia Merinero, Rita de Cássia Guimarães Mesquita, Katrin Meusburger, Filip J. R. Meysman, Sean T. Michaletz, Ann Milbau, Dmitry Moiseev, Pavel Moiseev, Andrea Mondoni, Ruth Monfries, Leonardo Montagnani, Mikel Moriana-Armendariz, Umberto Morra di Cella, Martin Mörsdorf, Jonathan R. Mosedale, Lena Muffler, Miriam Muñoz-Rojas, Jonathan A. Myers, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Laszlo Nagy, Marianna Nardino, Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis, Emily Newling, Lena Nicklas, Georg Niedrist, Armin Niessner, Mats B. Nilsson, Signe Normand, Marcelo D. Nosetto, Yann Nouvellon, Martin A. Nuñez, Romà Ogaya, Jérôme Ogée, Joseph Okello, Janusz Olejnik, Jørgen Eivind Olesen, Øystein Opedal, Simone Orsenigo, Andrej Palaj, Timo Pampuch, Alexey V. Panov, Meelis Pärtel, Ada Pastor, Aníbal Pauchard, Harald Pauli, Marian Pavelka, William D. Pearse, Matthias Peichl, Loïc Pellissier, Rachel M. Penczykowski, Josep Penuelas, Matteo Petit Bon, Alessandro Petraglia, Shyam S. Phartyal, Gareth K. Phoenix, Casimiro Pio, Andrea Pitacco, Camille Pitteloud, Roman Plichta, Francesco Porro, Miguel Portillo-Estrada, Jérôme Poulenard, Rafael Poyatos, Anatoly S. Prokushkin, Radoslaw Puchalka, Mihai Pușcaș, Dajana Radujković, Krystal Randall, Amanda Ratier Backes, Sabine Remmele, Wolfram Remmers, David Renault, Anita C. Risch, Christian Rixen, Sharon A. Robinson, Bjorn J.M. Robroek, Adrian V. Rocha, Christian Rossi, Graziano Rossi, Olivier Roupsard, Alexey V. Rubtsov, Patrick Saccone, Clotilde Sagot, Jhonatan Sallo Bravo, Cinthya C. Santos, Judith M. Sarneel, Tobias Scharnweber, Jonas Schmeddes, Marius Schmidt, Thomas Scholten, Max Schuchardt, Naomi Schwartz, Tony Scott, Julia Seeber, Ana Cristina Segalin de Andrade, Tim Seipel, Philipp Semenchuk, Rebecca A. Senior, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Piotr Sewerniak, Ankit Shekhar, Nikita V. Sidenko, Lukas Siebicke, Laura Siegwart Collier, Elizabeth Simpson, David P. Siqueira, Zuzana Sitková, Johan Six, Marko Smiljanic, Stuart W. Smith, Sarah Smith-Tripp, Ben Somers, Mia Vedel Sørensen, José João L. L. Souza, Bartolomeu Israel Souza, Arildo Souza Dias, Marko J. Spasojevic, James D. M. Speed, Fabien Spicher, Angela Stanisci, Klaus Steinbauer, Rainer Steinbrecher, Michael Steinwandter, Michael Stemkovski, Jörg G. Stephan, Christian Stiegler, Stefan Stoll, Martin Svátek, Miroslav Svoboda, Torbern Tagesson, Andrew J. Tanentzap, Franziska Tanneberger, Jean-Paul Theurillat, Haydn J. D. Thomas, Andrew D. Thomas, Katja Tielbörger, Marcello Tomaselli, Urs Albert Treier, Mario Trouillier, Pavel Dan Turtureanu, Rosamond Tutton, Vilna A. Tyystjärvi, Masahito Ueyama, Karol Ujházy, Mariana Ujházyová, Domas Uogintas, Anastasiya V. Urban, Josef Urban, Marek Urbaniak, Tudor-Mihai Ursu, Francesco Primo Vaccari, Stijn Van de Vondel, Liesbeth van den Brink, Maarten Van Geel, Vigdis Vandvik, Pieter Vangansbeke, Andrej Varlagin, G.F. Veen, Elmar Veenendaal, Susanna E. Venn, Hans Verbeeck, Erik Verbrugggen, Frank G.A. Verheijen, Luis Villar, Luca Vitale, Pascal Vittoz, Maria Vives-Ingla, Jonathan von Oppen, Josefine Walz, Runxi Wang, Yifeng Wang, Robert G. Way, Ronja E. M. Wedegärtner, Robert Weigel, Jan Wild, Matthew Wilkinson, Martin Wilmking, Lisa Wingate, Manuela Winkler, Sonja Wipf, Georg Wohlfahrt, Georgios Xenakis, Yan Yang, Zicheng Yu, Kailiang Yu, Florian Zellweger, Jian Zhang, Zhaochen Zhang, Peng Zhao, Klaudia Ziemblińska, Reiner Zimmermann, Shengwei Zong, Viacheslav I. Zyryanov, Ivan Nijs, Jonathan Leno

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km² resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e., offset) between in-situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8500 unique temperature sensors) across all the world’s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in-situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications.publishedVersio

Methane budget estimates in Finland from the CarbonTracker Europe-CH4 data assimilation system

We estimated the CH4 budget in Finland for 2004?2014 using the CTE-CH4 data assimilation system with an extended atmospheric CH4 observation network of seven sites from Finland to surrounding regions (Hyytiälä, Kj?lnes, Kumpula, Pallas, Puijo, Sodankylä, and Utö). The estimated average annual total emission for Finland is 0.6?±?0.5 Tg CH4 yr?1. Sensitivity experiments show that the posterior biospheric emission estimates for Finland are between 0.3 and 0.9 Tg CH4 yr?1, which lies between the LPX-Bern-DYPTOP (0.2 Tg CH4 yr?1) and LPJG-WHyMe (2.2 Tg CH4 yr?1) process-based model estimates. For anthropogenic emissions, we found that the EDGAR v4.2 FT2010 inventory (0.4 Tg CH4 yr?1) is likely to overestimate emissions in southernmost Finland, but the extent of overestimation and possible relocation of emissions are difficult to derive from the current observation network. The posterior emission estimates were especially reliant on prior information in central Finland. However, based on analysis of posterior atmospheric CH4, we found that the anthropogenic emission distribution based on a national inventory is more reliable than the one based on EDGAR v4.2 FT2010. The contribution of total emissions in Finland to global total emissions is only about 0.13%, and the derived total emissions in Finland showed no trend during 2004?2014. The model using optimized emissions was able to reproduce observed atmospheric CH4 at the sites in Finland and surrounding regions fairly well (correlation > 0.75, biasPeer reviewe