Landscapes nearby glaciers are disproportionally affected by climate change, but we lack detailed information on microclimate variations that can modulate the impacts of global warming on proglacial ecosystems and their biodiversity. Here, we use near-subsurface soil temperatures in 175 stations from polar, equatorial and alpine glacier forelands to generate high-resolution temperature reconstructions, assess spatial variability in microclimate change from 2001 to 2020, and estimate whether microclimate heterogeneity might buffer the severity of warming trends. Temporal changes in microclimate are tightly linked to broad-scale conditions, but the rate of local warming shows great spatial heterogeneity, with faster warming nearby glaciers and during the warm season, and an extension of the snow-free season. Still, most of the fine-scale spatial variability of microclimate is one-to-ten times larger than the temporal change experienced during the past 20 years, indicating the potential for microclimate to buffer climate change, possibly allowing organisms to withstand, at least temporarily, the effects of warming.

Most of the world’s mountain glaciers have been retreating for more than a century in response to climate change. Glacier retreat is evident on all continents, and the rate of retreat has accelerated during recent decades. Accurate, spatially explicit information on the position of glacier margins over time is useful for analyzing patterns of glacier retreat and measuring reductions in glacier surface area. This information is also essential for evaluating how mountain ecosystems are evolving due to climate warming and the attendant glacier retreat. Here, we present a non-comprehensive spatially explicit dataset showing multiple positions of glacier fronts since the Little Ice Age (LIA) maxima, including many data from the pre-satellite era. The dataset is based on multiple historical archival records including topographical maps; repeated photographs, paintings, and aerial or satellite images with a supplement of geochronology; and own field data. We provide ESRI shapefiles showing 728 past positions of 94 glacier fronts from all continents, except Antarctica, covering the period between the Little Ice Age maxima and the present. On average, the time series span the past 190 years. From 2 to 46 past positions per glacier are depicted (on average: 7.8).

Springtails (Hexapoda: Collembola) are unique among Alpine arthropods for including cryophilic species, able to live in contact with glacial ice, the so‐called ‘glacier fleas’. Despite being historically recorded, their taxonomy and distribution are largely unknown. In this article, we present the first comprehensive study of ice‐dwelling springtails (family Isotomidae) of the European Alps and Apennines. Morphological and molecular analyses of two mitochondrial genes ( cox1 and 16S ) were performed after an extensive field sampling across 48 European sites. Five new species were identified and described on the Alps: Desoria orobica sp. nov., Vertagopus glacialis sp. nov., V. psychrophilus sp. nov., V. glacieinigrae sp. nov. and V. fradustaensis sp. nov., together with the already known D. saltans and V. alpinus . The evidence for two further new species was also reported, with the first occurrence of Gnathisotoma bicolor for the Alpine chain. Desoria calderonis occurs on the only glacier of the Apennines. Among the new species, V. glacialis and V. psychrophilus exhibit a wide range distribution, while the other species show a narrow endemic distribution. The study highlighted the unexplored diversity of Alpine ‘glacier fleas’ and their ecological and biogeographic interest, together with the conservation concern in the context of the present warming cycle.