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https://doi.org/10.53941/plantecophys.2025.100006
Alday Echechipia, E., Pérez López, U., Fernández Marín, B., Puértolas Simón, J., González Ródrigez, Águeda M., Martín Esquivel, J. L., & García Plazaola, J. I. Cold Air Pools (CAPs) as Natural Freezers for the Study of Plant Responses to Low Temperatures. Plant Ecophysiology. 2025. doi: https://doi.org/10.53941/plantecophys.2025.100006
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2025
Copyright (c) 2025 by the authors.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Review

Cold Air Pools (CAPs) as Natural Freezers for the Study of Plant Responses to Low Temperatures

Enara Alday 1,*, Usue Pérez-López 1, Beatriz Fernández-Marín 1,2, Jaime Puértolas 2, Águeda M. González-Rodríguez 2, José Luis Martin Esquivel 3 and José Ignacio García-Plazaola 1

1 Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Leioa 48940, Spain

2 Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology, Facultad de Farmacia, University of La Laguna, La Laguna 38200, Spain

3 Teide National Park, La Orotava, Tenerife, Islas Canarias 38300, Spain

* Correspondence: enara.alday@ehu.eus

Received: 18 October 2024; Revised: 26 March 2025; Accepted: 10 April 2025; Published: 16 April 2025

Abstract: The stratification of cold air is a phenomenon that typically occurs under certain topographic (closed ground depressions) and atmospheric conditions (stability and nocturnal radiative cooling). Under such conditions the drainage of the heavier cold air from the higher elevations causes its accumulation for days or weeks in the bottom of these depressions, leading temperatures to dramatically decrease and to decouple from regional climatic conditions. These particular locations which are frequent in karstic, volcanic and glacial landscapes, have been proposed to act as microrefugia of biodiversity in the context of climate warming. The existence of these cold air pools (CAPs) has been reported worldwide, and their biotic communities differ from equivalent sites out of these locations. However, there is an almost complete absence of ecophysiological studies concerning plant communities inhabiting CAPs. Thus, one of the objectives of this review is to hypothesize the effects of these specific conditions on the biology of the soil and the manner in which these plants should respond to such particular environmental conditions. Furthermore, given that temperature can decrease dramatically over short distances inside CAPs, in the present review we also propose their use as natural freezers for the study of plant responses to low temperatures. 

Keywords:

Cold Air Pool (CAP) microrefugia low temperature plant ecophysiology freezing-tolerance

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