Nature Communications - Species’ traits and environmental conditions determine the abundance of tree species across the globe. Here, the authors find that dominant tree species are taller and...

Species richness of native and non-native vascular plants modulates the species richness of non-native beetles through relationships with opposite signs. The interplay with management regimes and for...

Soil inoculations can help forests grow faster on former farmland by fixing problems such as poor soil health and a lack of helpful microbes. Adding beneficial microbes to the soil can restore its bi...

The expansion of oil palm plantations and cattle grazing lands has a detrimental impact on freshwater ecosystems, causing ecological degradation and biodiversity loss in the tropics, although litt...

Balancing increasing demand for wood products while also maintaining forest biodiversity is a paramount challenge. Europe’s Biodiversity and Forest Strategies for 2030 attempt to address this challeng...

Patchy global data on belowground litter decomposition dynamics limit our capacity to discern the drivers of carbon preservation and storage across inland and coastal wetlands. We performed a global, multiyear study in over 180 wetlands across 28 countries and 8 macroclimates using standardized litter as measures of “recalcitrant” (rooibos tea) and “labile” (green tea) organic matter (OM) decomposition. Freshwater wetlands and tidal marshes had the highest tea mass remaining, indicating a greater potential for carbon preservation in these ecosystems. Recalcitrant OM decomposition increased with elevated temperatures throughout the decay period, e.g., increase from 10 to 20 °C corresponded to a 1.46-fold increase in the recalcitrant OM decay rate constant. The effect of elevated temperature on labile OM breakdown was ecosystem-dependent, with tidally influenced wetlands showing limited effects of temperature compared with freshwater wetlands. Based on climatic projections, by 2050 wetland decay constants will increase by 1.8% for labile and 3.1% for recalcitrant OM. Our study highlights the potential for reduction in belowground OM in coastal and inland wetlands under increased warming, but the extent and direction of this effect at a large scale is dependent on ecosystem and OM characteristics. Understanding local versus global drivers is necessary to resolve ecosystem influences on carbon preservation in wetlands.

Soils from 30 grasslands across Europe were subjected to 4 contrasting extreme climatic events under drought, flood, freezing and heat conditions, with the results suggesting that soil microbiomes fro...