1. Many organisms live in environments in which temperatures differ substantially from those measured by standard weather stations. The last decade has witnessed a paradigm shift in efforts to quantify these differences and to understand their ecological, functional and evolutionary implications. This renewed interest in microclimate ecology has been accompanied by the development of various compact temperature sensors and radiation shields. However, it is clear that there are many pitfalls when measuring temperature using these devices.
2. Here we address the problem of measuring temperatures in these microenvironments accurately. We first discuss the theory of measuring surface, ground and air temperatures with reference to energy fluxes and how these are modified by material, reflective properties and size of the device. We highlight the particular difficulties associated with measuring air temperature. We then report on the results of a series of experiments in which air temperatures recorded by various commonly used microclimate temperature loggers are compared to those obtained using research-grade instruments and synoptic weather stations.
3. While accurate measurements of surface and ground temperatures and air temperatures at night and in shaded environments can be relatively easily obtained, we show substantial errors are to be expected when measuring air temperatures in environments exposed to sunlight. Most standard sensors yield large errors, which can reach 25°C due to radiative fluxes operating on the thermometer. This problem cannot be wholly overcome by shielding the thermometer from sunlight, as the shield itself will influence both the temperatures being measured and the accuracy of measurement.
4. We demonstrate that reasonably accurate estimates of air temperature can be obtained with low-cost and unshielded ultrafine-wire thermocouples that possess low thermal emissivity and a highly reflective surface. As the processes that create microclimatic temperature variation are the same as those that cause errors, other logger types should be used with care, and generally avoided in environments exposed to sunlight and close to the ground where wind speeds are lower. We urge researchers interested in microclimates and their effects to pay greater heed to the physics of heat exchange when attempting to measure microclimate temperatures and to understand the trade-offs that exist in doing so.

中文翻译：

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关于小气候的测量

1. 许多生物生活在温度与标准气象站测量的温度相差很大的环境中。过去十年见证了量化这些差异并了解其生态、功能和进化意义的努力的范式转变。对小气候生态学的这种新兴趣伴随着各种紧凑型温度传感器和辐射屏蔽的发展。但是，很明显，使用这些设备测量温度时存在许多缺陷。
2. 在这里，我们解决了在这些微环境中准确测量温度的问题。我们首先讨论关于能量通量的测量表面、地面和空气温度的理论，以及这些理论如何通过材料、反射特性和设备尺寸进行修改。我们强调了与测量空气温度相关的特殊困难。然后，我们报告了一系列实验的结果，其中将各种常用小气候温度记录仪记录的气温与使用研究级仪器和天气站获得的气温进行了比较。
3. 虽然可以相对容易地获得夜间和阴凉环境中地表和地面温度以及气温的准确测量值，但我们表明，在暴露于阳光下的环境中测量气温时，预计会有很大的误差。大多数标准传感器会产生很大的误差，由于温度计上的辐射通量，误差可能达到 25°C。这个问题不能通过将温度计从阳光下屏蔽来完全解决，因为屏蔽本身会影响被测量的温度和测量的准确性。
4. 我们证明，使用具有低热发射率和高反射表面的低成本和非屏蔽超细线热电偶可以获得相当准确的空气温度估计值。由于产生小气候温度变化的过程与引起错误的过程相同，因此应谨慎使用其他类型的记录仪，并且通常避免在暴露于阳光和靠近地面的风速较低的环境中使用。我们敦促对小气候及其影响感兴趣的研究人员在尝试测量小气候温度时更加注意热交换的物理学，并了解这样做的权衡。