Topography‐driven microclimate gradients shape forest structure, diversity, and composition in a temperate refugial forest

Abstract

Macroclimate drives vegetation distributions, but fine‐scale topographic variation can generate microclimate refugia for plant persistence in unsuitable areas. However, we lack quantitative descriptions of topography‐driven microclimatic variation and how it shapes forest structure, diversity, and composition. We hypothesized that topographic variation and the presence of the forest overstory cause spatiotemporal microclimate variation affecting tree performance, causing forest structure, diversity, and composition to vary with topography and microclimate, and topography and the overstory to buffer microclimate. In a 20.2‐ha inventory plot in the North American Great Plains, we censused woody stems ≥1 cm in diameter and collected detailed topographic and microclimatic data. Across 59‐m of elevation, microclimate covaried with topography to create a sharp desiccation gradient, and topography and the overstory buffered understory microclimate. The magnitude of microclimatic variation mirrored that of regional‐scale variation: with increasing elevation, there was a decrease in soil moisture corresponding to the difference across ~2.1° of longitude along the east‐to‐west aridity gradient and an increase in air temperature corresponding to the difference across ~2.7° of latitude along the north‐to‐south gradient. More complex forest structure and higher diversity occurred in moister, less‐exposed habitats, and species occupied distinct topographic niches. Our study demonstrates how topographic and microclimatic gradients structure forests in putative climate‐change refugia, by revealing ecological processes enabling populations to be maintained during periods of unfavorable macroclimate.