Microclimate and Landscape Resilience in Northern Patagonia

Characteristic Nothofagus pumilio forests of the Patagonian Andes © Jonas Fierke

Background: The activities in northern Patagonia originated from the project KLIMNEM (2021–2025). The project aimed to compare temperate beech forests of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, particularly Fagus sylvatica in Central Europe and Nothofagus forests in Patagonia, in order to investigate their responses to climate change, extreme events, and disturbances, and to derive approaches for sustainable forest management. Building on this work, current research in northern Patagonia focuses on microclimatic processes in the context of landscape resilience.

The project has also resulted in the book published in March 2026, Ecology, Structure and Dynamics of North Patagonian Forests and Derivations for Ecosystem Management, which brings together comparative perspectives on European beech and Patagonian southern beech forests and synthesizes key insights on climate change, disturbances, and sustainable forest management.

In the El Manso Valley, we investigate how microclimatic conditions vary along pronounced environmental gradients and how they influence ecosystem stability. Along a strong west–east precipitation gradient, we collect high-resolution temperature and soil moisture data across different vegetation types, ranging from closed southern beech forests to open shrublands. A particular focus lies on how vegetation influences microclimatic extremes such as heat and drought, and on the implications for fire dynamics and regeneration processes.

Vegetation and disturbance dynamics: The transition between southern beech forest and shrubland, as well as recent fire events in the El Manso Valley, highlight the dynamic nature of this landscape. Along pronounced environmental gradients, we measure microclimatic conditions using a network of high-resolution sensors and quantify differences between vegetation types. These measurements are combined with remote sensing data to scale local patterns to the landscape level. This approach allows us to analyze relationships between vegetation structure, microclimatic conditions, and the occurrence and impacts of disturbances. The work contributes to a better understanding of landscape resilience under changing climatic conditions.


Smoke plumes from a wildfire in the El Manso Valley (2025) as an expression of increasing disturbance dynamics © Jonas Fierke


Transition from southern beech forest to shrubland shaped by the interaction of microclimate and fire dynamics © Jonas Fierke