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1/n Hi y’all! Who wants to do some VIRTUAL CONFERENCING? Let’s all pretend we are at @BritishEcolSoc #BES2020 and I am taking the stage to – enthusiastically – give a lightning talk on the @SoilTemp_proj! Take a seat, there’s room for all and the screen is comfortably large!
2/n Let’s break the ice with this bomb: we're all using the WRONG climate data in ecology, folks! #BES2020
3/n More precisely: when modelling the link between ecology and the environment (and isn't that what ecologists basically do all the time?), we are off by several °C if we use what climate data we readily have at hand. I know, I don’t like this news either! #BES2020
4/n But how come? 3 things. 1) most available data is based on weather-stations, measuring ‘free-air temperature’ at ~2 m above open ground. But what do most species feel? Temperatures close to the ground and other surfaces. Staggering differences there! #BES2020
5/n Issue 2) Most available climate data: averaged at large scales, brushing over the awesome variety in conditions within – say – 1 km², or a few m², for that matter. Check out this south-facing forest edge on a rare snow day in Limburg, Belgium, for example. #BES2020
6/n 3) Most of us are using long-term averages, representing the average climate from a few decades ago. With how fast things are changing, it is TIME SERIES we should be using! #BES2020
7/n Aah, good news again: there’s a solution on the horizon! That solution is - little drum roll - the SoilTemp database from @SoilTemp_proj, bringing together all microclimate time series from all over the world. A Herculean effort, but one ecology desperately needed. #BES2020
8/n What this database can do for us? Well, for one it can help us create global maps of soil bioclimatic variables (SBio) to use in your models
(Yes, we are as eager to get these out to you as you are to get your hands on them!) #BES2020
(Yes, we are as eager to get these out to you as you are to get your hands on them!) #BES2020
9/n Oh, but these maps are only the beginning. Questions and ideas galore! Luckily, all of this is a massive team effort!
No room to thank all involved, but special shout-out to @EkoLogIt for co-hatching this project egg, and to @Johandehoogen for the SBio-maps. #BES2020
No room to thank all involved, but special shout-out to @EkoLogIt for co-hatching this project egg, and to @Johandehoogen for the SBio-maps. #BES2020
10/10 To end this talk: here’s my head! Took my baby on stage with me as it’s 2020 and she wants to hold the laser pointer. Visit our lab's website for more info on http://www.the3dlab.org . Thanks for listening, let’s meet and mingle with cake and vegetarian sandwiches. #BES2020
