Predicting the Effects of Ozone on Long-Term Growth of Aspen Trees Using Response Functions Developed From Seedlings Grown in Field Chambers.

Tropospheric ozone (O) is among the most pervasive and harmful air pollutants known to affect ecosystems. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies are tasked with protecting plants and ecosystems from harmful O exposures. Controlled exposure experiments conducted in field open-top chambers (OTCs) with small tree seedlings have been used to estimate empirical models of tree growth in response to O exposure for more than 16 species.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Report on Rising Aridity Trends Globally and Associated Biological and Agricultural Implications.

Aridity, characterized by low precipitation and high evaporative demand, affects ecosystems, agriculture, and societies, posing critical challenges in a changing climate.

Global Meta-Analysis of Individual and Combined Nitrogen Inhibitors: Enhancing Plant Productivity and Reducing Environmental Losses.

Nitrogen (N) transformation inhibitors have been widely recognized as a promising strategy to enhance crop productivity and mitigate N losses. However, the effectiveness of individual or combined inhibitors can vary significantly across different agroecosystems. Using meta-analysis and cost-benefit analysis (CBA), we synthesized findings from 41 peer-reviewed studies (285 observations) globally to evaluate the efficacy of urease inhibitors (UIs), nitrification inhibitors (NIs), and combined inhibitors (UINIs).

Mineral and Microbial Properties Drive the Formation of Mineral-Associated Organic Matter and Its Response to Increased Temperature.

A comprehensive understanding of the formation of mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) is a prerequisite for the sustainable management of soil carbon (C) and the development of effective long-term strategies for C sequestration in soils. Nevertheless, the precise manner by which microbial and mineral properties drive MAOM formation efficiency and its subsequent response to elevated temperature at the regional scale remains unclear. Here, we employed isotopically labelled laboratory incubations (at 15°C and 25°C) with soil samples from a ~3000 km transect across the Tibetan Plateau to elucidate the mechanisms underlying MAOM formation and its temperature response.

Winners and Losers From Climate Change: An Analysis of Climate Thresholds for Tree Growth and Survival for Roughly 150 Species Across the Contiguous United States.

Changes in temperature and precipitation are already influencing US forests and that will continue in the future even as we mitigate climate change. Using spatiotemporally matched data for mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP), we used simulated annealing to estimate critical thresholds for changes in the growth and survival of roughly 150 tree species (153 spp. for growth, 159 spp.

Artificial Light Increases Nighttime Prevalence of Predatory Fishes, Altering Community Composition on Coral Reefs.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is an anthropogenic pollutant that is intensifying and expanding in marine environments, but experimental studies of community-level effects are generally lacking. The inshore, shallow, and clear-water locations of coral reefs and their diverse photosensitive inhabitants make these ecosystems highly susceptible to biological disturbances; at the same time, their biodiversity and accessibility make them model systems for wider insight. Here, we experimentally manipulated ALAN using underwater LED lights on a Polynesian reef system to investigate the influence on localised nighttime fish communities compared to control sites without ALAN.

A Review of Theory: Comparing Invasion Ecology and Climate Change-Induced Range Shifting.

Human actions have led to large-scale shifts in the distributions of species, which have accelerated over recent decades. Two contributing factors include the introduction of non-native species to new regions, and more recently, the shift of species into new ranges to track a human-altered climate. While the context of these species redistributions is different, we argue here that scientists studying the effects of either invasion or range shifting are interested in the same underlying mechanistic questions: (1) What traits make a species likely to survive in a new location? and (2) Which recipient ecosystems are likely to support a newly arrived species? A survey of the theoretical literature surrounding these topics demonstrates the usefulness of this comparison and highlights key differences between range shifting and invasion in factors including genetic diversity, climatic tolerance, local adaptation, and coevolutionary history.

Connectivity Loss in Experimental Pond Networks Leads to Biodiversity Loss in Microbial Metacommunities.

Habitat fragmentation is among the most important global threats to biodiversity; however, the direct effects of its components including connectivity loss are largely unknown and still mostly inferred based on indirect evidence. Our understanding of these drivers is especially limited in microbial communities. Here, by conducting a 4-month outdoor experiment with artificial pond (mesocosm) metacommunities, we studied the effects of connectivity loss on planktonic microorganisms, primarily focusing on pro- and microeukaryotes.

Warm Temperature is Associated With Reduced Body Mass and Diversification Rates While Increasing Extinction Risks in Cold-Adapted Seabirds.

Anthropogenic rapid warming has caused decreases in richness and body mass of birds following the metabolic theory of ecology; yet, the pervasiveness of these shifts remains controversial among different taxa. Here, by combining phylogenetic methods and fossil data, we synthesized spatial patterns of richness and body mass for 328 seabird species belonging to two groups: Procellariimorphae (PM) and non-Procellariimorphae (NPM). We found that the relationship between body mass and richness, as well as diversification rate, exhibits distinct patterns in these two groups.

Marine Protected Areas That Preserve Trophic Cascades Promote Resilience of Kelp Forests to Marine Heatwaves.

Under accelerating threats from climate-change impacts, marine protected areas (MPAs) have been proposed as climate-adaptation tools to enhance the resilience of marine ecosystems. Yet, debate persists as to whether and how MPAs may promote resilience to climate shocks. Here, we use 38 years of satellite-derived kelp cover to empirically test whether a network of 58 temperate coastal MPAs in Central and Southern California enhances the resistance of kelp forest ecosystems to, and their recovery from, the unprecedented 2014-2016 marine heatwave regime that occurred in the region.

Dominant Edaphic Controls on Particulate Organic Carbon in Global Soils.

The current soil carbon paradigm puts particulate organic carbon (POC) as one of the major components of soil organic carbon worldwide, highlighting its pivotal role in carbon mitigation. In this study, we compiled a global dataset of 3418 data points of POC concentration in soils and applied empirical modeling and machine learning algorithms to investigate the spatial variation in POC concentration and its controls. The global POC concentration in topsoil (0-30 cm) is estimated as 3.

Soil Organic Carbon Increases With Decreasing Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency During Vegetation Restoration.

Microbial carbon (C) use efficiency (CUE) describes the proportion of organic C used by microorganisms for anabolic processes, which increases with soil organic C (SOC) content on a global scale. However, it is unclear whether a similar relationship exists during natural vegetation restoration in terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we investigated the patterns of CUE along a 160-year vegetation restoration chronosequence (from farmland to climax forest) estimated by stoichiometric modeling; additionally, we examined the relationship between CUE and SOC content and combined these results with a meta-analysis.

Biogeography of a Global Plant Invader: From the Evolutionary History to Future Distributions.

Biological invasions pose a global challenge, affecting ecosystems worldwide and human societies. Knowledge of the evolutionary history of invasive species is critical to understanding their current invasion success and projecting their future spread. However, to date, few studies have addressed the evolutionary history and potential future spread of invaders simultaneously.

Spatiotemporal Monitoring of Cropland Soil Organic Carbon Changes From Space.

Soil monitoring requires accurate and spatially explicit information on soil organic carbon (SOC) trends and changes over time. Spatiotemporal SOC models based on Earth Observation (EO) satellite data can support large-scale SOC monitoring but often lack sufficient temporal validation based on long-term soil data. In this study, we used repeated SOC samples from 1986 to 2022 and a time series of multispectral bare soil observations (Landsat and Sentinel-2) to model high-resolution cropland SOC trends for almost four decades.

Cumulative Heat Stress in Fluctuating Temperatures and Implications for the Distribution of Freshwater Fish.

Predicting how rising temperatures will impact different species and communities is imperative and increasingly urgent with ongoing global warming. Here, we describe how thermal-death time curves obtained in the laboratory can be combined with an envelope model to predict the mortality of freshwater fish under field conditions and their distribution limits. We analyze the heat tolerance and distribution of 22 fish species distributed across North America and demonstrate that high temperatures imposed a distribution boundary for 11 of them, employing a null model.

Drivers and Annual Totals of Methane Emissions From Dutch Peatlands.

Rewetting peatlands is required to limit carbon dioxide (CO) emissions, however, raising the groundwater level (GWL) will strongly increase the chance of methane (CH) emissions which has a higher radiative forcing than CO. Data sets of CH from different rewetting strategies and natural systems are scarce, and quantification and an understanding of the main drivers of CH emissions are needed to make effective peatland rewetting decisions. We present a large data set of CH fluxes (FCH) measured across 16 sites with eddy covariance on Dutch peatlands.

Exposure and Sensitivity of Terrestrial Vertebrates to Biological Invasions Worldwide.

While biological invasions continue to threaten biodiversity, most of current assessments focus on the sole exposure to invasive alien species (IAS), without considering native species' response to the threat. Here, we address this gap by assessing vertebrates' vulnerability to biological invasions, combining measures of both (i) exposure to 304 identified IAS and (ii) realized sensitivity of 1600 native vertebrates to this threat. We used the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to identify species threatened by IAS, their distribution, and the species' range characteristics of their associated IAS.