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Dryad

Datasets and analysis for: Microclimatic buffering in forest, agricultural and urban landscapes through the lens of a grass-feeding insect

Data files

May 12, 2023 version files 3.60 MB

Abstract

Using this dataset, we aimed to identify the microclimatic offsets that accurately represent the environment in which a small arthropod spends most of its life. As a case study, we selected grassy sites that corresponded to the microhabitat of grass-feeding insects in general, and larvae of the butterfly Pararge aegeria in particular, as this insect recently expanded its habitat use from forest (edges) to agricultural and urban environments. We tested to what extent local microclimates and microclimatic buffering capacity differed between tufts of grass in forest and in two anthropogenic (i.e. agricultural and urban) landscape settings by measuring microclimatic variables with sensors at the level of the grasses. We compared temperature, relative humidity and vapour pressure deficit (VPD) during an exceptionally warm and dry summer period with parallel data from weather stations and tested for differences between microclimatic profiles among the three landscape settings. Using this approach, our findings stress the functional implications of landscape-specific microclimatic profiles at the appropriate organism-centred scale.