ABSTRACT
In many instances, soil temperature is of greater ecological significance to plant life than air temperature. Beech, oak, and ash trees can withstand an air temperature of —25° C., but their finer roots succumb to cold from —13° C. to —16° C. (von Mohl, 1848). Soil temperature, more responsive to the local effects of insolation, topography, and the like, may differ greatly from air temperature. Many localities in polar areas and on high mountains would certainly be devoid of vegetation were it not for the considerably higher temperature of the soil than that of the air, especially during the period of the sun’s radiance. Soil temperature brings out, more closely than air temperature, the contrasting growing seasons between different mountain aspects and slopes.
