Open Access

Jonas J. Lembrechts, Johan van den Hoogen, Juha Aalto, Michael B. Ashcroft, Pieter De Frenne, Julia Kemppinen, Martin Kopecký, Miska Luoto, Ilya M. D. Maclean, Thomas W. Crowther, Joseph J. Bailey, Stef Haesen, David H. Klinges, Pekka Niittynen, Brett R. Scheffers, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Peter Aartsma, Otar Abdalaze, Mehdi Abedi, Rien Aerts, Negar Ahmadian, Antje Ahrends, Juha M. Alatalo, Jake M. Alexander, Camille Nina Allonsius, Jan Altman, Christof Ammann, Christian Andres, Christopher Andrews, Jonas Ardö, Nicola Arriga, Alberto Arzac, Valeria Aschero, Rafael L. Assis, Jakob Johann Assmann, Maaike Y. Bader, Khadijeh Bahalkeh, Peter Barančok, Isabel C. Barrio, Agustina Barros, Matti Barthel, Edmund W. Basham, Marijn Bauters, Manuele Bazzichetto, Luca Belelli Marchesini, Michael C. Bell, Juan C. Benavides, José Luis Benito Alonso, Bernd J. Berauer, Jarle W. Bjerke, Robert G. Björk, Mats P. Björkman, Katrin Björnsdóttir, Benjamin Blonder, Pascal Boeckx, Julia Boike, Stef Bokhorst, Bárbara N. S. Brum, Josef Brůna, Nina Buchmann, Pauline Buysse, José Luís Camargo, Otávio C. Campoe, Onur Candan, Rafaella Canessa, Nicoletta Cannone, Michele Carbognani, Jofre Carnicer, Angélica Casanova-Katny, Simone Cesarz, Bogdan Chojnicki, Philippe Choler, Steven L. Chown, Edgar F. Cifuentes, Marek Čiliak, Tamara Contador, Peter Convey, Elisabeth J. Cooper, Edoardo Cremonese, Salvatore R. Curasi, Robin Curtis, Maurizio Cutini, C. Johan Dahlberg, Gergana N. Daskalova, Miguel Angel de Pablo, Stefano Della Chiesa, Jürgen Dengler, Bart Deronde, Patrice Descombes, Valter Di Cecco, Michele Di Musciano, Jan Dick, Romina D. Dimarco, Jiri Dolezal, Ellen Dorrepaal, Jiří Dušek, Nico Eisenhauer, Lars Eklundh, Todd E. Erickson, Brigitta Erschbamer, Werner Eugster, Robert M. Ewers, Dan A. Exton, Nicolas Fanin, Fatih Fazlioglu, Iris Feigenwinter, Giuseppe Fenu, Olga Ferlian, M. Rosa Fernández Calzado, Eduardo Fernández-Pascual, Manfred Finckh, Rebecca Finger Higgens, T'ai G. W. Forte, Erika C. Freeman, Esther R. Frei, Eduardo Fuentes-Lillo, Rafael A. García, María B. García, Charly Géron, Mana Gharun, Dany Ghosn, Khatuna Gigauri, Anne Gobin, Ignacio Goded, Mathias Goeckede, Felix Gottschall, Keith Goulding, Sanne Govaert, Bente Jessen Graae, Sarah Greenwood, Caroline Greiser, Achim Grelle, Benoit Guénard, Mauro Guglielmin, Joannès Guillemot, Peter Haase, Sylvia Haider, Aud H. Halbritter, Maroof Hamid, Albin Hammerle, Arndt Hampe, Siri V. Haugum, Lucia Hederová, Bernard Heinesch, Carole Helfter, Daniel Hepenstrick, Maximiliane Herberich, Mathias Herbst, Luise Hermanutz, David S. Hik, Raúl Hoffrén, Jürgen Homeier, Lukas Hörtnagl, Toke T. Høye, Filip Hrbacek, Kristoffer Hylander, Hiroki Iwata, Marcin Antoni Jackowicz-Korczynski, Hervé Jactel, Järvi Järveoja, Szymon Jastrzębowski, Anke Jentsch, Juan J. Jiménez, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir, Tommaso Jucker, Alistair S. Jump, Radoslaw Juszczak, Róbert Kanka, Vít Kašpar, George Kazakis, Julia Kelly, Anzar A. Khuroo, Leif Klemedtsson, Marcin Klisz, Natascha Kljun, Alexander Knohl, Johannes Kobler, Jozef Kollár, Martyna M. Kotowska, Bence Kovács, Juergen Kreyling, Andrea Lamprecht, Simone I. Lang, Christian Larson, Keith Larson, Kamil Laska, Guerric le Maire, Rachel I. Leihy, Luc Lens, Bengt Liljebladh, Annalea Lohila, Juan Lorite, Benjamin Loubet, Joshua Lynn, Martin Macek, Roy Mackenzie, Enzo Magliulo, Regine Maier, Francesco Malfasi, František Máliš, Matěj Man, Giovanni Manca, Antonio Manco, Tanguy Manise, Paraskevi Manolaki, Felipe Marciniak, Radim Matula, Ana Clara Mazzolari, Sergiy Medinets, Volodymyr Medinets, Camille Meeussen, Sonia Merinero, Rita de Cássia Guimarães Mesquita, Katrin Meusburger, Filip J. R. Meysman, Sean T. Michaletz, Ann Milbau, Dmitry Moiseev, Pavel Moiseev, Andrea Mondoni, Ruth Monfries, Leonardo Montagnani, Mikel Moriana-Armendariz, Umberto Morra di Cella, Martin Mörsdorf, Jonathan R. Mosedale, Lena Muffler, Miriam Muñoz-Rojas, Jonathan A. Myers, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Laszlo Nagy, Marianna Nardino, Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis, Emily Newling, Lena Nicklas, Georg Niedrist, Armin Niessner, Mats B. Nilsson, Signe Normand, Marcelo D. Nosetto, Yann Nouvellon, Martin A. Nuñez, Romà Ogaya, Jérôme Ogée, Joseph Okello, Janusz Olejnik, Jørgen Eivind Olesen, Øystein H. Opedal, Simone Orsenigo, Andrej Palaj, Timo Pampuch, Alexey V. Panov, Meelis Pärtel, Ada Pastor, Aníbal Pauchard, Harald Pauli, Marian Pavelka, William D. Pearse, Matthias Peichl, Loïc Pellissier, Rachel M. Penczykowski, Josep Penuelas, Matteo Petit Bon, Alessandro Petraglia, Shyam S. Phartyal, Gareth K. Phoenix, Casimiro Pio, Andrea Pitacco, Camille Pitteloud, Roman Plichta, Francesco Porro, Miguel Portillo-Estrada, Jérôme Poulenard, Rafael Poyatos, Anatoly S. Prokushkin, Radoslaw Puchalka, Mihai Pușcaș, Dajana Radujković, Krystal Randall, Amanda Ratier Backes, Sabine Remmele, Wolfram Remmers, David Renault, Anita C. Risch, Christian Rixen, Sharon A. Robinson, Bjorn J. M. Robroek, Adrian V. Rocha, Christian Rossi, Graziano Rossi, Olivier Roupsard, Alexey V. Rubtsov, Patrick Saccone, Clotilde Sagot, Jhonatan Sallo Bravo, Cinthya C. Santos, Judith M. Sarneel, Tobias Scharnweber, Jonas Schmeddes, Marius Schmidt, Thomas Scholten, Max Schuchardt, Naomi Schwartz, Tony Scott, Julia Seeber, Ana Cristina Segalin de Andrade, Tim Seipel, Philipp Semenchuk, Rebecca A. Senior, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Piotr Sewerniak, Ankit Shekhar, Nikita V. Sidenko, Lukas Siebicke, Laura Siegwart Collier, Elizabeth Simpson, David P. Siqueira, Zuzana Sitková, Johan Six, Marko Smiljanic, Stuart W. Smith, Sarah Smith-Tripp, Ben Somers, Mia Vedel Sørensen, José João L. L. Souza, Bartolomeu Israel Souza, Arildo Souza Dias, Marko J. Spasojevic, James D. M. Speed, Fabien Spicher, Angela Stanisci, Klaus Steinbauer, Rainer Steinbrecher, Michael Steinwandter, Michael Stemkovski, Jörg G. Stephan, Christian Stiegler, Stefan Stoll, Martin Svátek, Miroslav Svoboda, Torbern Tagesson, Andrew J. Tanentzap, Franziska Tanneberger, Jean-Paul Theurillat, Haydn J. D. Thomas, Andrew D. Thomas, Katja Tielbörger, Marcello Tomaselli, Urs Albert Treier, Mario Trouillier, Pavel Dan Turtureanu, Rosamond Tutton, Vilna A. Tyystjärvi, Masahito Ueyama, Karol Ujházy, Mariana Ujházyová, Domas Uogintas, Anastasiya V. Urban, Josef Urban, Marek Urbaniak, Tudor-Mihai Ursu, Francesco Primo Vaccari, Stijn Van de Vondel, Liesbeth van den Brink, Maarten Van Geel, Vigdis Vandvik, Pieter Vangansbeke, Andrej Varlagin, G. F. Veen, Elmar Veenendaal, Susanna E. Venn, Hans Verbeeck, Erik Verbrugggen, Frank G. A. Verheijen, Luis Villar, Luca Vitale, Pascal Vittoz, Maria Vives-Ingla, Jonathan von Oppen, Josefine Walz, Runxi Wang, Yifeng Wang, Robert G. Way, Ronja E. M. Wedegärtner, Robert Weigel, Jan Wild, Matthew Wilkinson, Martin Wilmking, Lisa Wingate, Manuela Winkler, Sonja Wipf, Georg Wohlfahrt, Georgios Xenakis, Yan Yang, Zicheng Yu, Kailiang Yu, Florian Zellweger, Jian Zhang, Zhaochen Zhang, Peng Zhao, Klaudia Ziemblińska, Reiner Zimmermann, Shengwei Zong, Viacheslav I. Zyryanov, Ivan Nijs, Jonathan Lenoir

• Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial 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 soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all 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 gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 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 emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface 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 forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications.