Manqiang Liu, Lanzhou University, discusses their article: Elevated CO2 amplifies contrasting cultivar-specific plant‒soil feedbacks mediated by soil biota Elevated CO2 concentration (eCO2) can promote plant biomass production, with these effects cascading to soil biota and, in turn, feeding back to plant performance. However, crop cultivars can differ greatly in their responses to eCO2. This raises…
Sören Eliot Weber, West Virginia University, discusses his article: Fine-root responses to warming and elevated CO2 vary among plant functional types Roots link plants to soil, shaping the responses of carbon, nutrient, and water cycles to climate change in peatlands. Peatlands in northern Minnesota (USA) have shallow water tables and canopies of black spruce and…
Sarah Le Berre, Institute of Silviculture and Forest Protection (Technical University of Dresden), discusses her article: Identifying future climate refugia in central European mountain forests Mountain forests can seem timeless. Yet their tree communities are continuously changing in response to human pressures, natural disturbances, and shifts in climate. As temperatures rise and disturbance patterns become…
Micha Davidova, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, discusses their article: Direct and indirect effects of elevated CO2, warming and drought on plant-consumer interactions of Plantago lanceolata Setting the scene Interactions between plants and their consumers, such as herbivores and pathogens, are among the key factors shaping plant communities. At the same time,…
Lauren Jenkins, Duke University, discusses her article: Fecundity and terrain-climate interactions that shape tree niche differences across North America and Europe Terrain shapes tree reproduction When you think about climate change threatening forests, you may picture species migrating miles northward or upslope. But what if refuge is just around the hillside? In forests of the…
Inge Althuizen, Norwegian Research Center AS (NORCE), discusses her article: Climate-induced shifts in plant investment strategies regulate ecosystem carbon cycling across alpine grasslands Alpine ecosystems provide a diversity of ecosystem services, including carbon storage. These cold ecosystems and carbon stored in them are particularly sensitive to climate change. But what are the mechanisms underlying carbon…
Benjamin Roux, University of Bordeaux in France, discusses his article: Tree canopy shapes the survival of oak and beech saplings during the regeneration stage along an elevation-driven temperature gradient The challenges of heatwaves for forest ecosystems As western Europe experiences yet another heatwave, most of the public discussion focuses on how human societies can adapt…
Jonathan Ritson, who worked at the University of Manchester during this research, discusses his article: Cation responses to global changes alter ecological processes in ombrotrophic systems In bogs, we often focus on the hydrology of the system; there has also been a large body of work trying to understand the global implications of acid deposition…
Qingzhou Zhao, Umeå University in Sweden, discusses their article: Increasing precipitation reshapes alpine plant–microbial nutrient partitioning and enhances ecosystem carbon and nitrogen retention A rainy question in the alpine ecosystem Rainfall is changing as the climate warms. In many alpine regions, including the Tibetan Plateau, ecosystems are becoming not only warmer, but also wetter. At…
Miaojun Ma. Lanzhou University, discusses his article: Warming advanced leaf senescence in alpine plants through advancing leaf emergence and increasing soil drought Background Plant autumn leaf senescence, which marks the end of photosynthesis and the growing season, as well as the onset of dormancy, is particularly critical in the plant annual cycle. Early or late…
