MEB 2026

Welcome!

The third Microclimate Ecology and Biogeography conference will be held 1st – 5th of June 2026 in Montpellier, France.

This international event brings together a wide range of topics and experts on microclimate and its applications in ecology and biogeography.

For MEB2026, we will place a special emphasis on soil and water microclimates. But all microclimate-related research is very welcome!

Registration is now open (see instructions below)

Abstracts and registration

NEWS: we updated the excursion and list of workshops, check out the dedictaed sections below!

Registration for presentations is now closed, but you can still register as a participant.

To register to the conference, please fill in this registration form.

You can then pay the registration fee using the link provided at the end of the form. Please pay the fee as soon as you can.

The registration fees are the following: normal: 300€ / student: 150€ / online: 25€.

Participants working in low income countries (as defined by the World Bank for 2024) get a discount of -150€, or -100€ for students.

Adding the those registration fees, two extras are available: the excursion of the first day (50€) and the conference diner (50€). See below for more information.

The conference will be held hybrid (on-site and online), but presenting talks or posters requires on-site participation. Note that the online participation will not cover all talks, but only one of each parallel sessions.

Abstract submission & registration schedule

If you would like to present a talk or poster, please submit your abstract (2000 characters max including spaces) using the registration form above, before March 1st 2026
Otherwise, if you simply wish to attend without presenting, please register before May 15th 2026

Keynotes

We are seeking keynotes that explore freshwater, marine, soil, forest, tropical, and urban ecology through the lens of microclimate.

Keynotes speeches will be not just one person, but a senior researcher (30 min), followed by two early-career researchers from their lab (2 x 15 min).

Here are the wonderful scientists who already accepted our invitation, some will present along with members of their lab:

Belén Fadrique is a tropical forest ecologist working across diverse gradients and scales to understand forest dynamics. Her research focuses on how tropical forests are responding to climate change, with a special emphasis on the critical role of tropical mountains. Belén brings extensive expertise in analysing long-term datasets, elevation gradients, and integrating experimental and observational data to advance our understanding of these ecosystems.

Yajun Su specializes in multi-source remote sensing data fusion, vegetation structure reconstruction, and ecosystem modeling. His work investigates how vegetation structure interacts with microclimate, biodiversity, and disturbance to shape ecosystem dynamics, and emphasizes methodological innovation and real-world applications, providing scientific support for sustainable forest management and climate-resilient ecosystem planning.

Nico Eisenhauer is a soil ecologist who is broadly interested in the causes and consequences of biodiversity change in terrestrial systems. His work integrates multiple approaches including observational studies, experiments, and data syntheses. As speaker of the Jena Experiment and head of the MyDiv Experiment, he studies how plant diversity influences ecosystem functions via the modulation on the above- and belowground microclimate in grasslands and forests.

Simone Cesarz is an experimental soil ecologist working within a biodiversity–ecosystem functioning framework. Her research demonstrates that high plant diversity buffers microclimatic conditions. However, the mechanisms by which this buffering shapes soil functions across spatial and temporal scales remain poorly understood. Uncovering these mechanisms is a central focus of her research.

Pia Loeffke is a PhD student in Nico Eisenhauer’s Experimental Interaction Ecology Group who transitioned from soil engineering to ecological research. Her work explores how tree species richness and associations with different mycorrhizal types shape the functioning and stability of soil microbial processes under changing environmental conditions.

Program

Here is a general outline to the conference program:

June 1st: Excursion (optional) and Ice-breaker event
June 2nd – 4th: Conference
June 4th evening: Conference diner (optional)
June 5th: Conference & Workshops

More details in sections below!

Excursion

The optional excursion will happen on the first day of the conference (June 1st). We will leave at 9:00 from Montpellier, and return belfore 18:00. The lunch is included, it will be a full menu at the restaurant Chez Lucienne, with a breathtaking view!

We will take you to three main sites, a high-tech Ecotron, a typical Mediterranean forest and one of the largest European canyon:

For the morning, you will choose either of the two following sites:

The European Ecotron of Montpellier

The Ecotron is a support and research unit, open to national and international research teams in the fields of ecology, population and community biology and agronomy. The Ecotron allows the climatic conditioning of ecosystems of different sizes and the online measurement of the flow of matter and energy linked to different ecophysiological processes. This research infrastructure is interfaced between in situ and laboratory experiments. The Ecotron’s research topics include fundamental questions about biogeochemical cycles and the role of biodiversity in ecosystems.

Puechabon experimental site

The Puéchabon experimental site is a highly instrumented natural site dedicated to studying all aspects of the functional ecology of a Mediterranean forest ecosystem subjected to climate change. The main research themes addressed encompass the biogeochemical functioning of the ecosystem, tree ecophysiology, forest management, and biodiversity. The Puéchabon site is located in a holm oak forest (Quercus ilex), and is characteristic of evergreen Mediterranean coppices subject to recurrent droughts.

Note that choosing this site instead of the Ecotron above requires the ability to walk for about an hour in the Mediterranean heat.

Cirque de Navacelles

At lunch and in the afternoon, we will head to the Cirque de Navacelles, a geological marvel and an absolute must-see. Nestled in the heart of the Vis gorges, which cut through the limestone plateaus of Blandas (Gard) and the Larzac plateau (Hérault), this verdant meander reaches a depth of 300 meters. We will admire the magnificent panorama and how pastoralism has shaped the landscape, then descend into the Vis gorges, with its refreshing coolness. There, we will follow the Vis river and discuss aquatic and fish ecology.

If you want to swim in the river, take your swimsuit! But beware, the water is around 15°C…

Below, you will find a list of things to bring with you at the excursion ⬇️

Cirque de Navacelles, by European Roads, Olivier Genieys and Tim Proffitt-White

Things to bring with you for the excursion (this is the Mediterranean biome, June should already be quite warm and sunny!):

– water

– sun screen

– hat

– sunglasses

– protective clothing (long sleeves)

– hiking boots or equivalent

– swimsuit for those who wish jumping in the (cold) water

Talks & Posters

Poster instructions

Poster size is maximum (and preferably) A0 (84.1 cm x 118.8 cm), in portrait orientation
Don’t forget to bring your poster with you!

Talk instructions

Presentation length is 10 min (followed by 3 minutes of questions)
You can upload you presentation at the registration desk at the event
Please upload your presentation by the morning of your talk at the latest

Workshops

Workshops will be held on the last day, Friday 05/06/2026 in the afternoon (13:00-16:00).

We will have 3-4 options for workshops, including:

– theRmalUAV: Processing thermal UAV data in R (led by Christophe Metsu)

Thermal UAVs are increasingly being used in ecological research for their ability to capture fine-scale temperature variation and spatial patterns from a bird’s eye view. This technology opens new opportunities to study microclimates, and the analysis of ecological processes at high spatial resolution. However, effectively working with thermal imagery requires a solid understanding of both the underlying physics and the appropriate correction workflows.

In this hands-on workshop, participants will be guided through the complete thermal UAV data processing pipeline using the theRmalUAV R package. We will discuss key environmental and technical parameters that influence thermal measurements and demonstrate how to correct them. Starting from raw thermal imagery, we will produce processed land surface temperature (LST) orthomosaics. While the thermal corrections will be performed entirely in R, participants will need to use external photogrammetry software to generate aligned and georeferenced image mosaics.

Outline of the workshop:

. Introduction to thermal UAV remote sensing (theoretical background)
. Data acquisition: key considerations
. Package walkthrough using a provided dataset:
. Image-based workflow
. Orthomosaic-based workflow
. Hands-on session (participants’ own data or different dataset)
. Discussion and Q&A

– Microclimate modelling: NicheMapR in Julia (led by Rafael Schouten and Micheal Kearney)

Mechanistic microclimate modelling involves intensive computation and thus requires a performant language, like C or Fortran, to do the heavy lifting. This makes it hard to modularise microclimate modelling code. Julia is a relatively new language for scientific computing that is both easy to write and extremely performant. We have converted the NicheMapR microclimate model into Julia and in this workshop we will introduce both the Julia language and new formulation of the microclimate model, emphasising how it can be applied at scale, but simultaneously, easily modified and integrated with other tools.

– Untangling tropical microclimate ecology from colonial heritage (lead by Gabriel Hes)

Tropical ecology and biogeography were largely shaped by colonial power, resulting in specific relations to knowledge and fieldwork characterized by reproducing systemic inequalities between Global North researchers and local people. Today, research practices inherited from the colonial period continue to weigh on local inhabitants and researchers through practices such as data and knowledge extraction, power asymmetries and the lack of consideration of the diversity of knowledges. For these reasons, it is imperative that the Global North critically examine the ways in which they conduct fieldwork and how they relate to existing inequalities. While several publications have proposed pathways to decolonize tropical ecology in the last decade, there remains a lack of reflection on how to effectively apply them in the field of microclimate ecology. In particular, there are no spaces for the collective discussions required to implement transformative research together. Drawing from tools in popular education, this workshop proposes to open a safe space for discussion, sharing personal experiences and learning about decolonial practices. In particular, we will dedicate some time to read relevant texts and share how they resonate with our research experiences. Everyone, including people with no research experience in the Tropics, is welcome to join this workshop and help untangle ourselves from entrenched colonial epistemologies.

Conference dinner

On Thursday (June 4) evening, the conference dinner will take place at Les Tables Paysannes, in Halles du verger.

In this restaurant, you will taste a gourmet and responsible cuisine led by Chef Bertrand Dubois. To fully enjoy the early summer season -already quite warm in Montpellier- we will sit outside near the orchard (peach, apricot, cherry, apple and almond trees).

Expect local food delicacies & a surprise evening entertainment!

Cost: 50€

Venue & Travel

Venue

The conference will take place at the Faculty of Science, in Montpellier University: here!

This place is easy to reach by tramway (Line 1, the blue one with birds below, stop at “Université des Sciences et des Lettres”)

Montpellier is a Mediterranean city renowned for its ecological research, sun & tourism!

Note that in the city center, you may visit the oldest French botanical garden (Jardin des Plantes)… For more ideas on how to enjoy your stay, have a look at the city must-sees and this dedicated website.

Travel

Montpellier has an airport, and two train stations. “Montpellier Saint-Roch” train station is located in the city centre, while “Montpellier Sud de France” is further away (tramway to get to the centre). Find out more about travelling to and within Montpellier here.