Interactions between leaf phenological type and functional traits drive variation in isoprene emissions in central Amazon forest trees.

The Amazon forest is the largest source of isoprene emissions, and the seasonal pattern of leaf-out phenology in this forest has been indicated as an important driver of seasonal variation in emissions. Still, it is unclear how emissions vary between different leaf phenological types in this forest. To evaluate the influence of leaf phenological type over isoprene emissions, we measured leaf-level isoprene emission capacity and leaf functional traits for 175 trees from 124 species of angiosperms distributed among brevideciduous and evergreen trees in a central Amazon forest.

Patterns and Driving Factors of Litter Decomposition Rates in Global Dryland Ecosystems.

Litter decomposition is essential in linking aboveground and belowground carbon, nutrient cycles, and energy flows within ecosystems. This process has been profoundly impacted by global change, particularly in drylands, which are highly susceptible to both anthropogenic and natural disturbances. However, a significant knowledge gap remains concerning the extent and drivers of litter decomposition across different dryland ecosystems, limiting our understanding of its role in ecosystem metabolism.

Plant Species Richness and the Root Economics Space Drive Soil Fungal Communities.

Trait-based approaches have been increasingly used to relate plants to soil microbial communities. Using the recently described root economics space as an approach to explain the structure of soil-borne fungal communities, our study in a grassland diversity experiment reveals distinct root trait strategies at the plant community level. In addition to significant effects of plant species richness, we show that the collaboration and conservation gradient are strong drivers of the composition of the different guilds of soil fungi.

Recovery Following Recurrent Fires Across Mediterranean Ecosystems.

In fire-prone regions such as the Mediterranean biome, fire seasons are becoming longer, and fires are becoming more frequent and severe. Post-fire recovery dynamics is a key component of ecosystem resilience and stability. Even though Mediterranean ecosystems can tolerate high exposure to extreme temperatures and recover from fire, changes in climate conditions and fire intensity or frequency might contribute to loss of ecosystem resilience and increase the potential for irreversible changes in vegetation communities.

Old but not ancient: Rock-leached organic carbon drives groundwater microbiomes.

More than 90% of earth's microbial biomass resides in the continental subsurface, where sedimentary rocks provide the largest source of organic carbon (C). While many studies indicate microbial utilization of fossil C sources, the extent to which rock-organic C is driving microbial activities in aquifers remains largely unknown. Here we incubated oxic and anoxic groundwater with crushed carbonate rocks from the host aquifer and an outcrop rock of the unsaturated zone characterized by higher organic C content, and compared the natural abundance of radiocarbon (C) of available C pools and microbial biomarkers.

Feels Like Home: A Biobased and Biodegradable Plastic Offers a Novel Habitat for Diverse Plant Pathogenic Fungi in Temperate Forest Ecosystems.

Poly(butylene succinate-co-adipate) (PBSA), a biodegradable plastic, is significantly colonized and degraded by soil microbes under natural field conditions, especially by fungal plant pathogens, raising concerns about potential economic losses. This study hypothesizes that the degradation of biodegradable plastics may increase the presence and abundance of plant pathogens by serving as an additional carbon source, ultimately posing a risk to forest ecosystems. We investigated (i) fungal plant pathogens during the exposure of PBSA in European broadleaved and coniferous forests (two forest types), with a specific focus on potential risk to tree health, and (ii) the response of such fungi to environmental factors, including tree species, soil pH, nutrient availability, moisture content, and the physicochemical properties of leaf litter layer.

Low latency carbon budget analysis reveals a large decline of the land carbon sink in 2023.

In 2023, the CO growth rate was 3.37 ± 0.11 ppm at Mauna Loa, which was 86% above that of the previous year and hit a record high since observations began in 1958, while global fossil fuel CO emissions only increased by 0.

Thermodynamically inconsistent extreme precipitation sensitivities across continents driven by cloud-radiative effects.

Extreme precipitation events are projected to intensify with global warming, threatening ecosystems and amplifying flood risks. However, observation-based estimates of extreme precipitation-temperature (EP-T) sensitivities show systematic spatio-temporal variability, with predominantly negative sensitivities across warmer regions. Here, we attribute this variability to confounding cloud radiative effects, which cool surfaces during rainfall, introducing covariation between rainfall and temperature beyond temperature's effect on atmospheric moisture-holding capacity.

Land use effects on soil microbiome composition and traits with consequences for soil carbon cycling.

The soil microbiome determines the fate of plant-fixed carbon. The shifts in soil properties caused by land use change leads to modifications in microbiome function, resulting in either loss or gain of soil organic carbon (SOC). Soil pH is the primary factor regulating microbiome characteristics leading to distinct pathways of microbial carbon cycling, but the underlying mechanisms remain understudied.

The second law of thermodynamics, life and Earth's planetary machinery revisited.

Life is a planetary feature that depends on its environment, but it has also strongly shaped the physical conditions on Earth, having created conditions highly suitable for a productive biosphere. Clearly, the second law of thermodynamics must apply to these dynamics as well, but how? What insights can we gain by placing life and its effects on planetary functioning in the context of the second law? In Kleidon (2010), I described a thermodynamic Earth system perspective by placing the functioning of the Earth system in terms of the second law. The Earth system is represented by a planetary hierarchy of energy transformations that are driven predominantly by incoming solar radiation, these transformations are constrained by the second law, but they are also modified by the feedbacks from various dissipative activities.

Unlocking nitrogen management potential via large-scale farming for air quality and substantial co-benefits.

China's sustained air quality improvement is hindered by unregulated ammonia (NH) emissions from inefficient nitrogen management in smallholder farming. Although the Chinese government is promoting a policy shift to large-scale farming, the benefits of this, when integrated with nitrogen management, remain unclear. Here we fill this gap using an integrated assessment, by combining geostatistical analysis, high-resolution emission inventories, farm surveys and air quality modeling.

Rapid shift in methane carbon isotopes suggests microbial emissions drove record high atmospheric methane growth in 2020-2022.

The growth rate of the atmospheric abundance of methane (CH) reached a record high of 15.4 ppb yr between 2020 and 2022, but the mechanisms driving the accelerated CH growth have so far been unclear. In this work, we use measurements of the C:C ratio of CH (expressed as C) from NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network and a box model to investigate potential drivers for the rapid CH growth.

Deep learning to capture leaf shape in plant images: Validation by geometric morphometrics.

Plant leaves play a pivotal role in automated species identification using deep learning (DL). However, achieving reproducible capture of leaf variation remains challenging due to the inherent "black box" problem of DL models. To evaluate the effectiveness of DL in capturing leaf shape, we used geometric morphometrics (GM), an emerging component of eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) toolkits.

Comparative plastome assembly of the yellow ironweed () using Nanopore and Illumina reads.

Chloroplast genomes (plastomes) represent a very important source of valuable information for phylogenetic and biogeographic reconstructions. The use of short reads (as those produced from Illumina sequencing), along with read assembly, has been considered the "gold standard" for plastome reconstruction. However, short reads often cannot reconstruct long repetitive regions in chloroplast genomes.

Enhanced global carbon cycle sensitivity to tropical temperature linked to internal climate variability.

The sensitivity of atmospheric CO growth rate to tropical temperature (γ) has almost doubled between 1959 and 2011, a trend that has been linked to increasing drought in the tropics. However, γ has declined since then. Understanding whether these variations in γ reflect forced changes or internal climate variability in the carbon cycle is crucial for future climate projections.

Opportunistic plant observations reveal spatial and temporal gradients in phenology.

Opportunistic plant records provide a rapidly growing source of spatiotemporal plant observation data. Here, we used such data to explore the question whether they can be used to detect changes in species phenologies. Examining 19 herbaceous and one woody plant species in two consecutive years across Europe, we observed significant shifts in their flowering phenology, being more pronounced for spring-flowering species (6-17 days) compared to summer-flowering species (1-6 days).

Nitrogen nutrition effects on δC of plant respired CO are mostly caused by concurrent changes in organic acid utilisation and remobilisation.

Nitrogen (N) nutrition impacts on primary carbon metabolism and can lead to changes in δC of respired CO. However, uncertainty remains as to whether (1) the effect of N nutrition is observed in all species, (2) N source also impacts on respired CO in roots and (3) a metabolic model can be constructed to predict δC of respired CO under different N sources. Here, we carried out isotopic measurements of respired CO and various metabolites using two species (spinach, French bean) grown under different NH :NO ratios.

Plant diversity enhances ecosystem multifunctionality via multitrophic diversity.

Ecosystem functioning depends on biodiversity at multiple trophic levels, yet relationships between multitrophic diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality have been poorly explored, with studies often focusing on individual trophic levels and functions and on specific ecosystem types. Here, we show that plant diversity can affect ecosystem functioning both directly and by affecting other trophic levels. Using data on 13 trophic groups and 13 ecosystem functions from two large biodiversity experiments-one representing temperate grasslands and the other subtropical forests-we found that plant diversity increases multifunctionality through elevated multitrophic diversity.

How can event attribution science underpin financial decisions on Loss and Damage?

With climate extremes hitting nations across the globe, disproportionately burdening vulnerable developing countries, the prompt operation of the Loss and Damage fund is of paramount importance. As decisions on resource disbursement at the international level, and investment strategies at the national level, loom, the climate science community's role in providing fair and effective evidence is crucial. Attribution science can provide useful information for decision makers, but both ethical implications and deep uncertainty cannot be ignored.