Managing climate-change refugia to prevent extinctions.

Earth is facing simultaneous biodiversity and climate crises. Climate-change refugia - areas that are relatively buffered from climate change - can help address both of these problems by maintaining biodiversity components when the surrounding landscape no longer can. However, this capacity to support biodiversity is often vulnerable to severe climate change and other stressors.

Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential.

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced and satellite-derived approaches to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands.

The global biogeography of tree leaf form and habit.

Understanding what controls global leaf type variation in trees is crucial for comprehending their role in terrestrial ecosystems, including carbon, water and nutrient dynamics. Yet our understanding of the factors influencing forest leaf types remains incomplete, leaving us uncertain about the global proportions of needle-leaved, broadleaved, evergreen and deciduous trees. To address these gaps, we conducted a global, ground-sourced assessment of forest leaf-type variation by integrating forest inventory data with comprehensive leaf form (broadleaf vs needle-leaf) and habit (evergreen vs deciduous) records.

Native diversity buffers against severity of non-native tree invasions.

Determining the drivers of non-native plant invasions is critical for managing native ecosystems and limiting the spread of invasive species. Tree invasions in particular have been relatively overlooked, even though they have the potential to transform ecosystems and economies. Here, leveraging global tree databases, we explore how the phylogenetic and functional diversity of native tree communities, human pressure and the environment influence the establishment of non-native tree species and the subsequent invasion severity.

Research Progress of Polymer Biomaterials as Scaffolds for Corneal Endothelium Tissue Engineering.

Nowadays, treating corneal diseases arising from injury to the corneal endothelium necessitates donor tissue, but these corneas are extremely scarce. As a result, researchers are dedicating significant efforts to exploring alternative approaches that do not rely on donor tissues. Among these, creating a tissue-engineered scaffold on which corneal endothelial cells can be transplanted holds particular fascination.

Population decline in a Pleistocene refugium: Stepwise, drought-related dieback of a South Australian eucalypt.

Refugia can facilitate the persistence of species under long-term environmental change, but it is not clear if Pleistocene refugia will remain functional as anthropogenic climate change progresses. Dieback in populations restricted to refugia therefore raises concerns about their long-term persistence. Using repeat field surveys, we investigate dieback in an isolated population of Eucalyptus macrorhyncha during two droughts and discuss prospects for its continued persistence in a Pleistocene refugium.

Altered cyclone-fire interactions are changing ecosystems.

Global change is altering interactions between ecological disturbances. We review interactions between tropical cyclones and fires that affect woody biomes in many islands and coastal areas. Cyclone-induced damage to trees can increase fuel loads on the ground and dryness in the understory, which increases the likelihood, intensity, and area of subsequent fires.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation on In-Plane Thermal Conductivity of Graphene/Hexagonal Boron Nitride van der Waals Heterostructures.

Graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and their heterostructures are promising thermal interface materials due to the outstanding thermal properties of graphene and h-BN. For the heterostructures, extensive work has mainly focused on the thermal transport of two-dimensional (2D) graphene/h-BN (GBN) in-plane heterostructures in which graphene and h-BN are bonded at the interface. In this study, we investigate the thermal conductivity of three-dimensional (3D) GBN van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures by means of nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations.

Failure mechanism of graphene kirigami under nanoindentation.

Though graphene is the strongest material in nature, its intrinsic brittleness hinders its applications where flexibility is the key figure of merits. In this work, we report the enhanced flexibility of graphene under nanoindentation by using kirigami technique. Based on molecular dynamics simulations, we find that graphene kirigami designed at the optimal cut parameter can sustain more than 45% larger out-of-plane deformation than its pristine counterpart while the maximum impact load is reduced by 20% due to the flexible cut edges.

The number of tree species on Earth.

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels.

Global tropical dry forest extent and cover: A comparative study of bioclimatic definitions using two climatic data sets.

There is a debate concerning the definition and extent of tropical dry forest biome and vegetation type at a global spatial scale. We identify the potential extent of the tropical dry forest biome based on bioclimatic definitions and climatic data sets to improve global estimates of distribution, cover, and change. We compared four bioclimatic definitions of the tropical dry forest biome-Murphy and Lugo, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), DryFlor, aridity index-using two climatic data sets: WorldClim and Climatologies at High-resolution for the Earth's Land Surface Areas (CHELSA).

Recent progress in the development of thermal interface materials: a review.

Modern electronic devices are characterized by high-power and high-frequency with excessive heat accumulation. Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are of crucial importance for efficient heat dissipation to maintain proper functions and lifetime for these devices. The most promising TIMs are those polymer-based nanocomposites consisting of polymers and low-dimensional materials with high thermal conductivity (TC).

Hydrogen Bonding-Reinforced Hydrogel Electrolyte for Flexible, Robust, and All-in-One Supercapacitor with Excellent Low-Temperature Tolerance.

Flexible supercapacitors are promising energy storage devices for emerging wearable electronics. However, due to the poor mechanical strength, complicated device manufacturing process, and unsatisfactory low-temperature tolerance, their overall performance for practical applications is hindered. Herein, we report a hydrogen bonding-reinforced, dual-crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol), acrylic acid, and HSO (PVA-AA-S) hydrogel electrolyte for all-in-one flexible supercapacitors.