Global maps of soil temperature

Lembrechts, J., Van den Hoogen, J., Aalto, J., Ashcroft, M. B., De Frenne, P., Jemppinen, J., Kopecky, M., Luoto, M., Maclean, I. M. D., Crowther, T., +395 more...Bailey, J. J., Haesen, S., Klinges, D. H., Niittynen, P., Scheffers, B., Van Meerbeek, K., Aartsma, P., Abdalaze, O., Abedi, M., Aerts, R., Ahmadian, N., Ahrends, A., Alatao, J. M., Alexander, J. M., Allonsius, C. N., Altman, J., Ammann, A., Andres, C., Andrews, C., Ardo, J., Arriga, N., Arzac, A., Aschero, V., Assis, R. L., Assmann, J, Bader, M. Y., Bahalkeh, K., Barancok, P., Barrio, I. C., Barros, A., Barthel, M., Basham, E. W., Bauters, M., Bazzichetto, M., Marchesini, L., Bell, M.C., Benavides, J. C., Benito Alonso, J. L., Berauer, B. J., Bjerke, J., Bjork, R. G., Bjorkman, M. P., Bjornsdottir, K., Blonder, B., Boeckx, P., Boike, J., Bokhorst, S., Brum, B. N. S., Bruna, J., Buchmann, N., Buysse, P., Camargo, J. L., Campoe, O. C., Candan, O., Canessa, R., Cannone, N., Carbognani, M., Carnicer, J., Casanova-Katny, A., Cesarz, S., Chojnicki, B., Choler, P., Chown, S. L., Cifuentes, E. F., Ciliak, M., Contador, T., Convey, P., Cooper, E., Cremonese, E., Curasi, S. R., Curtis, R., Cutini, M., Dahlberg, C. L., Daskalova, G., De Pablo, M. A., Della Chiesa, S., , Dengler,, Deronde, B., Descombes, P., Di Cecco, V., Di Musciano, M., Dick, J., Dimarco, D. R., Dolezal, J., Dorrepaal, E., Dusek, J., Eisenhauer, N., Ejtehadi, H., Eklundh, L., Erfanian, M., Erickson, T. E., E.Erschbamer, B., Eugster, W., Ewers, R. M., Exton, D. A., Fanin, N., Fazlioglu, F., Feigenwinter, I., Fenu, G., Ferlian, O., Fernandez Calzado, M. R., Fernandez-Pascual, E., Finckh, M., Finger Higgens, R, Forte, T. G. W., Freeman, E. C., Frei, E. R., Fuentes-Lillo, E., Garcia, R. A., Garcia, M. B., Geron, C., Gharun, M., Ghosn, D., Gigauri, K., Gobin, A., Goded, I., Goeckede, M., Gottschall, F., Goulding, Keith, Govaert, S., Graae, B. J., Greenwood, S., Greise, C., Grelle, A.., Guenard, B., Guglielmin, M., Guillemot, J., Haase, H., Haider, S., Halbritter, A. H., Hamid, M., Hammerle, A., Hampe, A., Haugum, S. V., Hederova, L., Heinesch, B., Helfter, C., Hepenstrick, D., Herberich, M., Herbst, M., Hermanutz, L., Hik, D. S., Hoffren, R.., Homeier, J.., Hortnagl, L., Hoye, T. T., Hrbacek, F., Hylander, K., Iwata, h., Jackowicz-Korczynski, M. A., Jactel, H., Jarveoja, J., Olejnik, J., Jastrzebowski, S., Jentsch, A., Jimenez, J. J., Jonsdottir, I. S., Souza, J., Jucker, T., Jump, A. S., Juszczak, R., Kanka, R., Kaspar, V., Kazakis, G., Kelly, J., Khuroo, A. A., Klemedtsson, L., Klisz, M., Kljun, N., Knohl, A., Kobler, J., Kollar, J., Kolle, O., Kotowska, M. M., Kovacs, B., Kreyling, J., Lamprecht, A., Lang, S. I., Larson, C., Larson, K., Laska, K., Le Maire, G., Leihy, R. I., Lens, L., Liljebladh, B., Lohila, A., Lorite, J., Loubet, B., Lynn, J., Macek, M., Mackenzie, R., Magliulo, E, Maier, R., Malfasi, f., Malis, F., Man, M., Manca, G., Manco, a., Manise, T., Manolaki, P., Marciniak, F., Nardino, M., Matula, R., Mazzolari, A. C., Medinets, S., Medinets, v., Meeussen, C., Merinero, S., De Cassia Guimaraes Mesquita, R., Meusburger, K., Meysman, F., Michaletz, S. T., Milbau, A., Moiseev, D., Moiseev, P., Mondoni, A., Montagnani, L., Moriana-Armendariz, M., Morra di Cella, U., Morsdorf, M., Mosedale, J. R.., Muffler, L., Munoz-Rojas, M., Myers, J. A., Myers-Smith, I., Nagy, L., Naujokaitis-Lewis, I., Newling, E., Nicklas, L., Niedrist, G.., Niessner, A., Nilsson, M. B., Normand, S., Nosetto, M. D., Nouvellon, Y., Nunez, M. A., Ogaya, R., Ogee, J., Okello, J., Olesen, J. E., Opedal, O., Orsenigo, S.., Palaj, A., Pampuch, T., Panov, A. V., Partel, M., Pastor, A., Pauchard, A., Pauli, H., Pavelka, M., Pearse, W. D., Peichl, M., Pellissier, L., Penczykowski, R. M., Penuelas, J., Bon, M., Petraglia, A., Phartyal, S. S., Phoenix, G. K., Pio, C., Pitacco, A.., Pitteloud, C., Plichta, R., Porro, F., Portillo-Estrada, M., Poulenard, J., Poyatos, R., Prokushkin, A. S., Puchalka, R., Puscas, M., Radujkovic, D., Randall, K., Ratier Backes, A., Remmele, S., Remmers, W., Renault, D., Risch, A. C., Rixen, C., Robroek, B., Rocha, A. V., Rossi, C., Rossi, G., Roupsard, O., Rubtsov, V. A., Sagot, C., Sallo Bravo, J., Santos, C. C., Sarneel, J. M., Scharnweber, T., Schmeddes, J., Schmidt, M., Scholten, T., Schwartz, N., Scott, Tony

, Seeber, J., Segalin de Andrade, A. C., Seipel, T., Semenchuk, P. R., Senior, R. A., Serra-Diaz, J. M., Sewerniak, P., Shekhar, A., Sidenko, N. V., Siebicke, L., Siegwart Collier, L., Simpson, E., Siqueira, D., Sitkova, Z., Six, J., Smiljanic, M., Smith, S. W., Smith-Tripp, S., Somers, B., Sorensen, M. V., Souza, B. I., Souza Dias, A., Spasojevic, M., Speed, J. D. M., Spicher, F., Stanisci, A., Steinbauer, K., Steinbrecher, R., Steinwandter, M., Stemkovski, M., Stephan, J. G., Stiegler, C., Stoll, C., Svatek, M., Svoboda, M., Tagesson, T., Tanentzap, A. J., Tanneberger, F.., Theurillat, J-P., Thomas, H., Thomas, A., Tielborger, K., Tomaselli, M., Treier, U. A., Trouillier, M., Turtureanu, P. D., Tutton, R., Tyystjarvi, V. A., Ueyama, M., Ujhazy, K., Ujhazyova, M., Uogintas, D., Urban, A. V., Urban, J., Urbaniak, M., Ursu, T-M., Vaccari, F. P., Van de Vondel, S., Van den Brink, L., Van Geel, M., Vandvik, V., Vangansbeke, P., Varlagin, A., Veen, G. F., Veenendaal, E., Venn, S. E., Verbeeck, H., Verbruggen, E., Verheijen, F. G. A., Villar, L., Vitale, L., Vittoz, P., Vives-Ingla, M., Von Oppen, J., Walz, J., Wang, R., Wang, Y., Way, R. G., Wedegartner, R. E. M., Weigel, R., Wild, J., Wilkinson, M., Wilmking, M., Wingate, L., Winkler, M., Wipf, S., Wohlfahrt, G.., Xenakis, G., Yang, Y., Yu, Z., Yu, K., Zellweger, F., Zhang, J., Zhang, Z., Zhao, P., Ziemblinska, K., Zimmermann, R., Zong, S., Zyryanov, V. I., Nijs, I. and Lenoir, J. (2021) Global maps of soil temperature. Global Change Biology, 28 (9). pp. 3110-3144. 10.1111/gcb.16060

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Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 meters above the ground. These climatic grids, however, fail to reflect conditions below vegetation canopies, where critical ecosystem functions are controlled and most 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 depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference between in-situ measured soil temperature based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8500 unique temperature sensors) across all of 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 2 m gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0°C ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Soils in cold and/or dry biomes are annually substantially warmer (3.6°C ± 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 underpin that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on 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 towards mitigating that issue for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining global gaps in in-situ measured microclimate data towards and further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications.

Item Type	Article
Open Access	Gold
Additional information	Pre print DOI 10.32942/osf.io/pksqw Rejected by Science trying GCB Paper has been restructured and renamed for submission to GCB. Information has been changed above to reflect this. Paper has been accepted by GCB with minor alterations Minor alteration made to manuscript - resubmitted to GCB Paper has been published online 29/12/2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16060
Keywords	Microclimate, Near-surface soil temperature, Soil temperature, Bioclimatic variables, Temperature offset, Weather stations, Soil-dwelling organism, Global maps
Project	The impact of land management practice on the global warming potential (GWP) of UK agriculture
Date Deposited	05 Dec 2025 10:28
Last Modified	19 Dec 2025 14:54

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Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Global Change Biology

10.1111/gcb.16060 (DOI)

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