Transport is a critical factor in modern pork production and can seriously affect swine welfare. While previous research has explored thermal conditions during transport, the impact of extreme weather conditions on the trailer thermal environment under industry practices has not been well documented; and the critical factors impacting microclimate are not well understood. To assess the trailer ...

The Restionaceae species of the Fynbos biome is part of the Cape Floristic Kingdom is threatened by urbanization, agricultural expansion, groundwater extraction, and climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to assess and monitor the Restionaceae species under the impact of climate change. South Africa is a semi-arid environment, and hydrological factors are the main variables in the determina...

Thermal building simulation currently uses Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data to guide the design decision-making process or for compliance with energy standards. TMY data usually excludes extremes and in many cases are gathered from microclimatic contexts that are not sufficiently representative of the project sites (e.g., airports), adding uncertainty in the analyses. To enable a quantifi...

Subjective wear trials have been carried out to determine thermal comfort performance of knitted sports garments whose objective thermal comfort parameters are determined in a preceding study in fabric form. Physiological measurements (skin and microclimate temperature, microclimate relative humidity, heart rate and sweat amount) and psychological rating results (coolness, dampness and comfort)...

Nursery pigs are vulnerable to environmental risks associated with the microclimate and aerial contaminants. This study was carried out to assess the effect of microclimate (i.e., temperature, relative humidity, and air speed) on the quantity of particulate matter (PM), airborne bacteria, and odorants in nursery houses. Data were collected from 15 farms in different locations throughout South K...

We tested empirically whether microclimate and relative timing of oviposition affected prediapause larval survival and development rates in the federally threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas editha bayensis (Nymphalidae). Most mortality in Bay checkerspot butterflies occurs among prediapause larvae. Because phenology of the butterfly’s larval hostplant, Plantago erecta, has been tho...

Ecological responses to climate change may depend on complex patterns of variability in weather and local microclimate that overlay global increases in mean temperature. Here, we show that high-resolution temporal and spatial variability in temperature drives the dynamics of range expansion for an exemplar species, the butterfly Hesperia comma. Using fine-resolution (5 m) models of vegetation s...

The re-discovery of the urban environment as an important component of daily life induced an increased interest in methods for assessing the quality of open spaces with respect to their contribution to the quality of urban life. A wide range of studies ranging from field experiments up to the application of numerical models have been conducted in order to understand and predict the interactions...