Microrefugia are often located within topographically complex regions where stable environmental conditions prevail. Most of the studies concerning the distributions of climate change-sensitive species have emphasized the dominance of cold air pooling over other environmental factors, such as resource availability. There is a shortage of information on the relationships among topography-related microsite diversity, microclimate, resource availability, and species composition in microrefugia. To fill this knowledge gap, we studied the effects of microclimatic conditions and soil resources on plant species occurrence within and adjacent to 30 large topographic depressions (i.e., dolines) in two distant karst regions. Our results showed that both microclimate and soil resource availability may play a key role in maintaining climate change-sensitive species and biodiversity in dolines; therefore, they may simultaneously act as climate and resource microrefugia. Establishing climate-smart conservation priorities and strategies is required to maintain or increase the refugial capacity of such safe havens.

Aggtelek National Park Directorate Tengerszem oldal 1 3758 Jósvafő Hungary

Department of Botany and Plant Physiology Eszterházy Károly Catholic University Leányka utca 6 3300 Eger Hungary

Department of Ecology University of Debrecen Egyetem tér 1 4032 Debrecen Hungary

Department of Ecology University of Szeged Közép fasor 52 6726 Szeged Hungary

Department of Geoinformatics Physical and Environmental Geography University of Szeged Egyetem utca 2 6 6722 Szeged Hungary

Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences University of Szeged Rerrich Béla tér 1 6720 Szeged Hungary

HUN REN UD Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group Egyetem tér 1 4032 Debrecen Hungary

Institute of Botany Czech Academy of Sciences Dukelská 135 379 82 Třeboň Czech Republic

Institute of Ecology and Botany Centre for Ecological Research Alkotmány utca 2 4 2163 Vácrátót Hungary

MTA SZTE 'Lendület' Applied Ecology Research Group Közép fasor 52 6726 Szeged Hungary

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