The ecologist’s guide to microclimate modelling and thermal biology in R

Ilya MacLean , Lydia G Soifer , David Klinges

Many ecological studies relate organismal responses to climate, but available datasets are often poor surrogates for the conditions experienced in nature. Microclimate models address this limitation by translating standard meteorological data into estimates of local temperature, humidity, and radiation at the scales relevant to organisms. Here, we provide a practical guide to mechanistic microclimate modelling and thermal biology in R. We describe how to implement models that estimate microclimatic conditions across habitats, including above, within, and below vegetation canopies and in soils, and how these can be linked to organismal energy balance models to quantify how environmental conditions shape organismal heat exchange and body temperature. The guide is supported by a tutorial, detailed supplementary material, and associated R packages (microclimlearn and micropoint), providing a practical route for integrating microclimate and thermal biology into ecological analyses and for developing process-based predictions of species’ responses to climate.