Fine-scale climate change: modelling spatial variation in biologically meaningful rates of warming

The existence of fine‐grain climate heterogeneity has prompted suggestions that species may be able to survive future climate change in pockets of suitable microclimate, termed ‘microrefugia’. However, evidence for microrefugia is hindered by lack of understanding of how rates of warming vary across a landscape. Here, we present a model that is applied to provide fine‐grained, multidecadal estimates of temperature change based on the underlying physical processes that influence microclimate. Weather station and remotely derived environmental data were used to construct physical variables that capture the effects of terrain, sea surface temperatures, altitude and surface albedo on local temperatures, which were then calibrated statistically to derive gridded estimates of temperature. We apply the model to the Lizard Peninsula, United Kingdom, to provide accurate (mean error = 1.21 °C; RMS error = 1.63 °C) hourly estimates of temperature at a resolution of 100 m for the period 1977–2014. We show that rates of warming vary across a landscape primarily due to long‐term trends in weather conditions. Total warming varied from 0.87 to 1.16 °C, with the slowest rates of warming evident on north‐east‐facing slopes. This variation contributed to substantial spatial heterogeneity in trends in bioclimatic variables: for example, the change in the length of the frost‐free season varied from +11 to −54 days and the increase in annual growing degree‐days from 51 to 267 °C days. Spatial variation in warming was caused primarily by a decrease in daytime cloud cover with a resulting increase in received solar radiation, and secondarily by a decrease in the strength of westerly winds, which has amplified the effects on temperature of solar radiation on west‐facing slopes. We emphasize the importance of multidecadal trends in weather conditions in determining spatial variation in rates of warming, suggesting that locations experiencing least warming may not remain consistent under future climate change

Opinions of citizen scientists on open access to UK butterfly and moth occurrence data

Citizen science plays an increasingly important role in biodiversity research and conservation, enabling large volumes of data to be gathered across extensive spatial scales in a cost-effective manner. Open access increases the utility of such data, informing land-use decisions that may affect species persistence, enhancing transparency and encouraging proliferation of research applications. However, open access provision of recent, fine-scale spatial information on the locations of species may also prompt legitimate concerns among contributors regarding possible unintended negative conservation impacts, violations of privacy and commercial exploitation of volunteer-gathered data. Here we canvas the attitudes towards open access of contributors (104 regional co-ordinators and 510 recorders) of species occurrence records to two of the largest citizen science biodiversity recording schemes, the UK’s Butterflies for the New Millennium project and National Moth Recording Scheme. We find that while the majority of participants expressed support for open access in principle, most were more cautious in practice, preferring to limit the spatial resolution of records, particularly of threatened species, and restrict commercial reuse of data. In addition, citizen scientists’ opinions differed between UK countries, taxonomic groups and the level of involvement volunteers had in the schemes. In order to maintain successful and democratic citizen science schemes, organisers, funders and data users must understand and respect participants’ expectations and aspirations regarding open data while seeking to optimise data use for scientific and societal benefits

Consistent imprints of elevation, soil temperature and moisture on plant and arthropod communities across two subarctic landscapes

1. Factors shaping arthropod and plant community structure at fine spatial scales are poorly understood. This includes microclimate, which likely plays a large role in shaping local community patterns, especially in heterogeneous landscapes characterised by high microclimatic variability in space and in time.2. We explored differences in local microclimatic conditions and regional species pools in two subarctic regions: Kilpisj & auml;rvi in north-west Finland and Varanger in north-east Norway. We then investigated the relationship between fine-scale climatic variation and local community characteristics (species richness and abundance) among plants and arthropods, differentiating the latter into two groups: flying and ground-dwelling arthropods collected by Malaise and pitfall traps, respectively. Arthropod taxa were identified through DNA metabarcoding. Finally, we examined if plant richness can be used to predict patterns in arthropod communities.3. Variation in soil temperature, moisture and snow depth proved similar between regions, despite differences in absolute elevation. For each group of organisms, we found that about half of the species were shared between Kilpisj & auml;rvi and Varanger, with a quarter unique to each region.4. Plants and arthropods responded largely to the same drivers. The richness and abun-dance of both groups decreased as elevation increased and were positively correlated with higher soil moisture and temperature values. Plant species richness was a poor predictor of local arthropod richness, in particular for ground-dwelling arthropods.5. Our results reveal how microclimatic variation within each region carves pro-nounced, yet consistent patterns in local community richness and abundance out of a joint species pool

Conducting robust ecological analyses with climate data

Although the number of studies discerning the impact of climate change on ecological systems continues to increase, there has been relatively little sharing of the lessons learnt when accumulating this evidence. At a recent workshop entitled ‘Using climate data in ecological research’ held at the UK Met Office, ecologists and climate scientists came together to discuss the robust analysis of climate data in ecology. The discussions identified three common pitfalls encountered by ecologists: 1) selection of inappropriate spatial resolutions for analysis; 2) improper use of publically available data or code; and 3) insufficient representation of the uncertainties behind the adopted approach. Here, we discuss how these pitfalls can be avoided, before suggesting ways that both ecology and climate science can move forward. Our main recommendation is that ecologists and climate scientists collaborate more closely, on grant proposals and scientific publications, and informally through online media and workshops. More sharing of data and code (e.g. via online repositories), lessons and guidance would help to reconcile differing approaches to the robust handling of data. We call on ecologists to think critically about which aspects of the climate are relevant to their study system, and to acknowledge and actively explore uncertainty in all types of climate data. And we call on climate scientists to make simple estimates of uncertainty available to the wider research community. Through steps such as these, we will improve our ability to robustly attribute observed ecological changes to climate or other factors, while providing the sort of influential, comprehensive analyses that efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change so urgently require

Resolving issues with environmental impact assessment of marine renewable energy installations

Growing concerns about climate change and energy security have fueled a rapid increase in the development of marine renewable energy installations (MREIs). The potential ecological consequences of increased use of these devices emphasizes the need for high quality environmental impact assessment (EIA). We demonstrate that these processes are hampered severely, primarily because ambiguities in the legislation and lack of clear implementation guidance are such that they do not ensure robust assessment of the significance of impacts and cumulative effects. We highlight why the regulatory framework leads to conceptual ambiguities and propose changes which, for the most part, do not require major adjustments to standard practice. We emphasize the importance of determining the degree of confidence in impacts to permit the likelihood as well as magnitude of impacts to be quantified and propose ways in which assessment of population-level impacts could be incorporated into the EIA process. Overall, however, we argue that, instead of trying to ascertain which particular developments are responsible for tipping an already heavily degraded marine environment into an undesirable state, emphasis should be placed on better strategic assessment.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

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-km(2) 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-km(2) pixels (summarized from 8519 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 degrees C (mean = 3.0 +/- 2.1 degrees 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 degrees C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 +/- 2.3 degrees 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.Peer reviewe

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

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