This study explores how plant roots with different forms and functions rely on fungal partnerships for nutrient uptake. This relationship was integrated into a vegetation model and was tested in a tropical forest in Ecuador. The model accurately predicted root traits and showed that without fungi, biomass decreased by up to 80 %. The findings highlight the critical role of fungi in ecosystem processes and suggest that root–fungal interactions should be considered in vegetation models.

We studied how different organic and inorganic nutrient inputs affect soil organic carbon (SOC) down to 70 cm in Kenya. After 19 years, all organic treatments increased SOC stocks compared with the control, but mineral nitrogen had no significant effect. Manure was the organic treatment that significantly increased SOC at the deepest soil depths, as its effect could be observed down to 60 cm. Manure was the best strategy to limit SOC loss in croplands and maintain soil quality after deforestation.

Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is being assessed for its potential to absorb atmospheric CO₂ and store it for a long time. OAE still needs comprehensive assessment of its safety and effectiveness. We studied an idealised OAE application in a natural low-nutrient ecosystem over 1 month. Our results showed that biogeochemical functioning remained mostly stable but that the long-term capability for storing carbon may be limited at high alkalinity concentration.

This study simulates long-term future climate scenarios to assess the persistence of CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere. Results show that the land stores 4 %–13 % of emissions after 100 kyr and that the removal timescale of CO₂ for silicate weathering is shorter than previously expected. Our study highlights the importance of adding model complexity to the global carbon cycle in Earth system models for improved predictions of long-term atmospheric CO₂ concentration.

A mesocosm experiment was set up to investigate how maize responds to the application of basalt, concrete fines, and steel slag, using a dose–response approach. Biomass increased with basalt application but did not change with concrete fines or steel slag, except for increased tassel biomass. Mg, Ca, and Si generally increased in the crops, whereas toxic trace elements remained unaffected or even decreased in the plants. Overall, crops were positively affected by the application of silicate materials.

We studied the geochemistry of two bivalves: Crassostrea virginica and Arctica islandica. We examined the effects of three ocean acidification conditions (ambient, moderate, and high) on the geochemistry of C. virginica. We show that bivalves have high physiological control over the internal calcifying fluid, presenting a challenge in using elemental proxies for reconstructing seawater parameters.

Understanding the electromagnetic properties of plant roots is useful to quantify plant properties and monitor plant physiological responses to changing environmental factors. We investigated the electrical properties of the primary roots of Brachypodium and maize plants during the uptake of fresh and saline water using spectral induced polarization. Our results indicate that salinity tolerance varies with the species and that Maize is more tolerant to salinity than Brachypodium.

Climate warming causes permafrost to thaw, releasing greenhouse gases and affecting ecosystems. We studied sediments from Arctic coastal landscapes, including land, lakes, lagoons, and the ocean, finding that organic carbon storage and quality vary with landscape features and saltwater influence. Freshwater and land areas store more carbon, while saltwater reduces its quality. These findings improve predictions of Arctic responses to climate change and their impact on global carbon cycling.

This study focuses on measurements of CO₂ and CH₄ turbulent fluxes in tundra ecosystems in the Svalbard islands over a 2-year period. Our results reveal dynamic interactions between climatic conditions and ecosystem activities such as photosynthesis and microbial activity. In summer, photosynthesis and microbial activity increase, leading to net carbon uptake and methane consumption. Wind influences soil drying and CH₄ emissions. Thermal anomalies can reduce annual carbon uptake.

This paper reports an investigation of the influence of clouds on vegetation albedo using a coupled atmosphere–vegetation radiative transfer model. Both models are iteratively linked to simulate cloud–vegetation–radiation interactions over canopies more realistically. Solar, spectral, and broadband irradiances have been simulated under varying cloud conditions. The simulated irradiances were used to investigate the spectral and broadband effect of clouds on vegetation albedo.

Semi-arid ecosystems are crucial for Earth's carbon balance and are sensitive to changes in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) levels. Their carbon dynamics are complex and not fully understood. We studied how long-term nutrient changes affect carbon exchange. In summer, the addition of N+P changed plant composition and productivity. In transitional seasons, carbon exchange was less weather-dependent with N. The addition of N and N+P increases carbon-exchange variability, driven by grass greenness.

At treeline, plant species change abruptly from low-stature plants in tundra to trees in forests. Our study documents that from tundra towards forest, the litter layer becomes strongly enriched in nutrients. We show that these litter quality changes alter nutrient processing by soil microbes and increase nutrient release during decomposition in forests compared to tundra. The associated improvement in nutrient availability in forests potentially stimulates tree growth and treeline shifts.

The net uptake coefficient of anthropogenic CO₂ by the global ocean (net uptake flux divided by excess atmospheric CO₂ stock above preindustrial levels) calculated with a simple, transparent, three-compartment concentration-driven model with two independent parameters is determined to be 0.010 ± 0.002 yr^-1 (with a net uptake flux in the year 2022 of 2.84 ± 0.6 Pg yr^-1). This result compares well with observations and with much more complex carbon cycle models.

Tropical forest soils as a large terrestrial source of carbon dioxide (CO₂) contribute to the global greenhouse gas budget. Despite this, carbon flux data from forested wetlands are scarce in tropical Africa. The study presents 3 years of semi-continuous measurements of surface CO₂ fluxes within the Congo Basin. Although no seasonal patterns were evident, our results show a positive effect of soil temperature and moisture, while a quadratic relationship was observed with the water table.

The synthesis of Palaeogene deep-sea diatom-bearing sediment occurrences indicates that the deposition of diatom-bearing sediments is mainly controlled by nutrient availability and ocean circulation in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Comparison with shallow marine diatomites suggests that the peak in the number of diatom-bearing sites in the Atlantic is indirectly related to tectonic reorganizations that caused the cessation of shallow marine diatomite deposition between ~46 and ~44 Ma.

Vegetation can be used to infer the potential climate feedback of peatlands. New studies have shown the recent expansion of peatlands, but their plant community succession has not been studied. Although generally described as dry bog-type vegetation, our results show that peatland margins in a subarctic fen began as wet fen with high methane emissions and shifted to bog-type peatland area only after the Little Ice Age. Thus, they have acted as a carbon source for most of their history.

Belemnite rostrum geochemistry is used as a proxy in palaeoceanography. Evolutionary patterns in element ratios (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Mn/Ca, and Fe/Ca) from belemnite rostra based on a literature dataset are assessed. These proxy data reflect a complex interplay between evolutionary, ontogenetic, environmental, kinetic, and diagenetic effects. We coin the new term “phylogeochemistry” for this interdisciplinary research field.

The Bering Sea shelf is a highly productive marine ecosystem that is vulnerable to ocean acidification. We use a computational model to simulate the carbon cycle and acidification rates from 1970–2022. The results suggest that bottom water acidification rates are more than twice as great as surface rates. Bottom waters are also naturally more acidic. Thus these waters will pass key thresholds known to negatively impact marine organisms, such as red king crab, much sooner than surface waters.

Microbial production is a key parameter in estimation of organic matter cycling in environmental systems, and fungi play a major role as decomposers. In order to improve investigation of fungal production and turnover times in environmental studies, we determined the isotopic signals encoded into lipid biomarkers of fungal pure cultures growing on various carbon substrates in media with isotopically labeled water and bicarbonate.