{
  "title": "Coffee microclimates: comparison of five research records",
  "compiled_by": "Online Coffee Guide",
  "reviewed_date": "2026-09-18",
  "research_type": "Original editorial classification of published research records; no new field measurements or tasting.",
  "method": {
    "selection": "Five papers already used to explain climate, shade and flavor in the coffee-microclimates guide. Purposive selection, not a systematic search or representative sample of the literature.",
    "unit": "One paper, not one independent field experiment or one growing plot.",
    "basis": "Public abstracts from publishers, PubMed and CIRAD, supplemented by the authors' public data description for Zignol et al. Full methods and underlying experimental datasets were not independently reanalyzed.",
    "coding": "Mark an outcome as reported only when the abstract explicitly describes that outcome. Unreported means absent from the abstract, not necessarily absent from the full paper. A shade-treatment comparison requires explicitly applied shade levels; an observational temperature association does not qualify.",
    "independence": "Joet 2010 and Bertrand 2012 each concern 16 Reunion Island plots. They are not counted as independent worldwide replications. Exact sample overlap was not independently established.",
    "reproduction": "Count records with beverage_quality_in_abstract == 'reported' (2); count records with both that value and applied_shade_comparison_in_abstract == 'reported' (1). Review the linked abstracts to audit these editorial classifications."
  },
  "records": [
    {
      "id": "vaast-2006",
      "citation": "Vaast et al. (2006), Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 86:197-204",
      "doi": "10.1002/jsfa.2338",
      "source_url": "https://publications.cirad.fr/une_notice.php?dk=530251",
      "access_basis": "Institutional abstract",
      "setting": "Central Valley, Costa Rica",
      "comparison": "Full sun and 45% shade; Costa Rica 95; two production cycles; quarter, half and full fruit loads imposed by manual thinning.",
      "beverage_quality_in_abstract": "reported",
      "applied_shade_comparison_in_abstract": "reported",
      "classification": "Shade-treatment experiment with beverage-quality outcome",
      "finding_summary": "Shade improved reported beverage quality while lowering tree productivity by 18% in this experiment.",
      "inference_limit": "Does not establish a universal shade target or the same outcome for every variety and farm."
    },
    {
      "id": "bertrand-2012",
      "citation": "Bertrand et al. (2012), Food Chemistry 135:2575-2583",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.06.060",
      "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22980845/",
      "access_basis": "PubMed abstract",
      "setting": "16 plots on Reunion Island",
      "comparison": "Climate during seed development, green-bean volatiles and sensory character across plots.",
      "beverage_quality_in_abstract": "reported",
      "applied_shade_comparison_in_abstract": "unreported",
      "classification": "Climate association with sensory outcome",
      "finding_summary": "Cooler conditions were associated with favorable acidity, fruitiness and flavor quality in the studied plots.",
      "inference_limit": "An across-plot association does not isolate an applied shade treatment or establish a global temperature prescription."
    },
    {
      "id": "joet-2010",
      "citation": "Joet et al. (2010), Food Chemistry 118:693-701",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.foodchem.2009.05.048",
      "source_url": "https://publications.cirad.fr/une_notice.php?dk=551309",
      "alternate_source_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0308814609007031",
      "access_basis": "Search-indexed institutional and publisher abstracts; direct institutional fetch timed out",
      "setting": "16 plots on Reunion Island",
      "comparison": "Environmental variation, wet processing and chemical composition of coffee seeds.",
      "beverage_quality_in_abstract": "unreported",
      "applied_shade_comparison_in_abstract": "unreported",
      "classification": "Seed-chemistry outcome",
      "finding_summary": "Some components varied with growing conditions; total soluble sugar content was not influenced by climate in this dataset.",
      "inference_limit": "A chemical measurement is not a sensory sweetness score."
    },
    {
      "id": "merle-2022",
      "citation": "Merle et al. (2022), European Journal of Agronomy 132, 126396",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.eja.2021.126396",
      "source_url": "https://publications.cirad.fr/une_notice.php?dk=599507",
      "access_basis": "Institutional abstract",
      "setting": "Coffee agroforestry systems in Central America",
      "comparison": "Weather-station data and shade-tree characteristics used to model daily air and leaf temperatures and leaf-wetness duration.",
      "beverage_quality_in_abstract": "unreported",
      "applied_shade_comparison_in_abstract": "unreported",
      "classification": "Local microclimate measurement and modeling",
      "finding_summary": "Shade buffered daily maximum and minimum temperatures.",
      "inference_limit": "Temperature moderation alone does not demonstrate a better cup."
    },
    {
      "id": "zignol-2023",
      "citation": "Zignol et al. (2023), Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 340, 109586",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.agrformet.2023.109586",
      "source_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168192323002770",
      "data_description_url": "https://bolin.su.se/data/zignol-2024-sw-ethiopia-microclimate",
      "access_basis": "Search-indexed publisher abstract and directly accessible university data description",
      "setting": "Southwestern Ethiopia",
      "comparison": "Field and GIS predictors of understory microclimate, followed by statistical downscaling of past and future conditions.",
      "beverage_quality_in_abstract": "unreported",
      "applied_shade_comparison_in_abstract": "unreported",
      "classification": "Local microclimate measurement and future projections",
      "finding_summary": "Vegetation may buffer changes at some elevations; warming and humidity shifts create different local adaptation challenges.",
      "inference_limit": "Projected climate conditions are not measurements of future coffee flavor."
    }
  ],
  "derived_counts": {
    "selected_papers": 5,
    "abstracts_explicitly_reporting_beverage_quality": 2,
    "abstracts_explicitly_reporting_both_applied_shade_comparison_and_beverage_quality": 1
  },
  "limitations": [
    "These counts characterize only the five selected records, not the entire research literature.",
    "Different outcomes and study designs cannot be pooled into a single flavor effect or a universal shade recommendation.",
    "No risk-of-bias grading, meta-analysis, experimental reanalysis or firsthand cupping was performed.",
    "Research findings belong to the cited authors; selection, classification and interpretation are our secondary analysis."
  ]
}