Description

It is well established that as urbanization increases, so does temperature due to a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect (UHI). However, there has been less examination of spatial and temporal variation in the degree of the UHI in the soil which many organisms utilize as habitat. This is partially due to constraints associated with the high cost of installing sensors that accurately record soil temperatures and the inability of satellites to capture variation at small spatial scales. To overcome those constraints, we installed small, low-cost temperature sensors (HOBO Pendant MX2201) in the ground at 27 sites along an urbanization gradient in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. At each site we buried two sensors at close proximity (< 10 m), with one in an open, sunny location (predominantly under mowed turfgrass) and the other in the shade (predominately in dirt or mulch) underneath a tree or shrub. In some sites, we buried sensors in more than two locations. Each sensor was buried just below the surface of the soil (~1 cm depth). The sensors logged temperatures every 15 minutes from December 2020 through October 2021. However, not all sensors continued logging that entire time. Most sensors logged data between March and August 2021. This dataset contains the temperature time series and location information for the sensors. Analysis of certain weeks and time periods of the dataset are presented in the article "Belowground sensors capture spatiotemporal variation in urban heat island effect" published in 2025 in the journal Urban Ecosystems (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-025-01677-8).

Details

Tabular

Files

Statistics

from
to
Export
Download Full History