About

This site is an information hub for researchers and end-users interested in microclimate. It contains a meta-database of microclimate data available in the UK. It also provides a repository of R functions for modelling microclimate for application in ecological or agricultural research and example of such models can be applied. Our online tool, Wineclim, models fine-scale microclimate conditions at a spatial resolution of 100 metres for application in viticulture.

There is a great need to determine the level of threat posed by climate change to natural and managed species, and the most effective means to adapt conservation and agriculture to this threat. Most attempts to model the impacts of climate rely on coarse-resolution associations between species and climate variables measured over tens to hundreds of kilometres. However, the conditions experienced by many organisms vary over scales from millimetres to tens of metres. Fine-resolution spatial differences in temperature can be as large as inter-continental differences measured at coarser resolutions, and predictions using fine-resolution data differ substantially from those that use coarse-resolution data.

This website provides tools data for microclimate modelling. Unlike traditional metrics of climate risks, based on growing season aggregate or mean values, and/or calculated at low spatial resolution, we demonstrate how climate can be modelled at resolutions down to

.Our tool, Wineclim, calculates more accurate seasonal metrics at a higher spatial resolution, and also permits the calculation of climate risks to key stages of vine growth. Spring frosts after budbreak, or unfavourable weather during grapevine flowering, for example, can greatly reduce harvest yields irrespective of weather conditions during the rest of the season.

Click here for a meta-database of microclimate data available in the UK

Click here for a repository for R functions to model microclimate

Click here for Wineclim: our online tool for mapping climate risks