Educational content

Format

Face-to-face course, accommodation expenses covered, English language except in the absence of non-French speaking participants. Participants will be accommodated on site for the duration of the course.

Course overview

The course aims to develop and deepen the knowledge on the physical basis of microclimatic processes, mechanistic and statistical modeling of microclimatic conditions at different spatio-temporal resolutions, and the ecological consequences of taking microclimates into account. It will consist of a series of lectures to cover theory and concepts, followed by a series of practical classes to use modeling tools, conduct field measurement campaigns, and analyze data.

Target audience and prerequisites

The proposed training is at the doctoral level, ideally for doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows and young researchers, but also for engineers working on the AnaEE France platforms. Candidates will be interested in learning approaches and methods to study, measure and model microclimates, as well as how microclimates can be integrated into functional ecology research. This is not an introductory course in climatology. Therefore, students will be expected to master basic principles and concepts in this field, as well as in metrology, statistics and ecology. Most of the practical work requires the use of R software, for which familiarity is strongly recommended. Reference books and articles will be provided in advance of the course for interested participants. The validation of the training can be requested from your doctoral school if it accepts our written attestations.

General program

Microclimatology is a scientific discipline concerned with proximal climatic conditions, generally involving a small spatial resolution, ranging from millimeters to tens of meters, or involving a change of scale with respect to the ambient atmospheric conditions (or general climate) that requires consideration of its interaction with the physical and biological characteristics of the microhabitat (e.g., topography, vegetation, biological activity). In ecology, microclimatology provides a link between climate (at different scales) and the proximal habitat of living organisms, by determining the conditions (e.g., temperature) actually perceived by organisms within their microhabitat. In addition, the tools and concepts of biophysical ecology, a sub-discipline of ecology based on the laws of physics and chemistry, are used to understand how plants and animals interact with their environment in the microclimatic context. Microclimatology is based on a body of theoretical knowledge formalized in mechanistic models, on a range of empirical work to describe, understand and manipulate microclimates, and on methods of measurement and statistical analysis of microclimates adapted to different contexts. The study of microclimates is an important issue in the light of the need for knowledge on the ecological effects of climate change and more generally in functional ecology. It can also serve as a foundation and inspiration for various bioengineering solutions, including nature-based solutions to adapt and better resist the adverse effects of global warming.

The AnaEE France network has a large number of open-air or controlled experimental platforms dedicated to the manipulation of climatic conditions of temperature or humidity in the air but also in the soil or in the canopy. These devices deploy tools for in situ or remote measurement of meteorological conditions based on more or less standardized approaches of microclimatology or biophysical ecology. One of the objectives of the work conducted in these experimental platforms is to help understand ecological processes at larger spatial scales and in the future. The summer school will therefore address microclimate both through the prism of measurement techniques and modeling tools but also through case studies in animal and plant ecophysiology or in functional ecology of plant cover. For the sake of simplicity and logistics, we will focus mainly on the temperature parameter associated with microclimates of continental ecosystems with some extensions to the aquatic environment and to hydric microclimates. All these concepts and tools can however be applied to any system and variable. The presentation of open source tools and applications to the environments and species studied at the Lautaret site will be privileged to facilitate the illustration by example.

This training for students, researchers and engineers aims to introduce:

• The physical basis of microclimates in continental terrestrial ecosystems, including the modeling of turbulence, soil-plant-atmosphere exchanges and radiation balance;
• Mechanistic modeling of microclimates with practical work on turbulent fluxes in the boundary layer, modeling of canopy microclimates, modeling of leaf microclimates and modeling of body temperature of ectothermic organisms;
• Concepts and methods in microclimate metrology with the presentation of applications in thermal ecophysiology and community ecology;
• Practical work to measure the microclimate on the Lautaret site, taking into account the diversity of sensors, habitats and applications in animal and plant ecophysiology;
• Concepts and methods in statistical analysis and modeling of microclimates with applications to the prediction of spatial and temporal distribution, the study of the climatic niche of species and the prediction of the effects of climate change;
• Tutorials and practical work in statistics with R software using large climate and satellite databases.

Organization of the school

The training is organized in 3 modules of lectures (physical bases and mechanistic modeling of microclimates, metrology of microclimate, topoclimate and statistical modeling of microclimates) with applications in the classroom (in the form of computer assisted work). The course modules will be spread over 3 days and accompanied by some seminars and case study presentations. One full day and several evening sessions will be dedicated to practical group work allowing participants to choose a use case as close as possible to their personal interests. Each module will have an introductory lecture discussing and presenting the key concepts with examples and applications. The end of the training will be devoted to a restitution of the practical work done in sub-groups and a collective discussion of the results. Participants will have access to bibliographic resources, datasets and software or computer codes under free license but will have to come with their laptop. We encourage them to bring their own data to ask the teachers for advice on how to proceed with their analysis if necessary. A draft of a collective synthesis paper will be discussed at the end of the course.