Rodent Bioturbation Significantly Enhances Annual Methane Uptake by Tibetan Alpine Grasslands.

Tibetan alpine grasslands (AG) serve as critical methane (CH) sinks, yet face degradation from anthropogenic and climatic disturbances that promote subterranean rodents (e.g., Plateau zokor [Myospalax baileyi] and pika [Ochotona curzoniae]) activities.

Natural Regeneration Enhances Long-Term Soil Carbon Storage in Various Fractions More Effectively Than Active Restoration: Meta-Analysis.

Restoration of terrestrial ecosystems, through both natural and active approaches, is critical for enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) storage. However, the long-term effects of these restoration approaches on soil aggregate organic carbon remain poorly understood. In this study, we conducted a global meta-analysis to assess the temporal effects of natural and active restoration on SOC and aggregate organic carbon, including macroaggregate (MAC), microaggregate (MIC), and silt-clay fraction (SCC) organic carbon.

Soil Bacterial β-Diversity as a Key Determinant of Belowground Productivity in Warming Alpine Ecosystems.

Climate warming has profound effects on terrestrial ecosystems, with biodiversity playing a crucial role in modulating ecosystem productivity responses. While extensive studies have investigated how plant species richness (α-diversity) influences aboveground productivity under warming conditions, the contributions of plant and soil microbial β-diversity to belowground net primary productivity (BNPP) remain poorly understood. In this study, we conducted a 6-year warming experiment in an alpine meadow to investigate the response patterns and drivers of BNPP, as well as the α- and β-diversity of plant and soil microbial communities.

Nonlinear microbial thermal response and its implications for abrupt soil organic carbon responses to warming.

Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a key microbial trait affecting soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. However, we lack a unified and predictive understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the temperature response of microbial CUE, and, thus, its impacts on SOC storage in a warming world. Here, we leverage three independent soil datasets (n = 618 for microbial CUE; n = 591 and 660 for heterotrophic respiration) at broad spatial scales to investigate the microbial thermal response and its implications for SOC responses to warming.

Plant nitrogen uptake preference and drivers in natural ecosystems at the global scale.

Elucidating plant nitrogen (N) acquisition is crucial for understanding plant N strategies and ecosystem productivity. However, the variation in plant N uptake preference and its controlling factors on a global scale remain unclear. We conducted a global synthesis to explore plant N preference patterns and driving factors.

Gender, FT4 levels, T stage, and BMI as predictors of TSH levels in thyroid cancer patients.

Background: After initial treatment, levothyroxine (LT4) administration is necessary for thyroid cancer patients to achieve target thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. However, the clinical efficacy of weight-based LT4 dosing has been suboptimal, highlighting the need to identify factors influencing the attainment of desired TSH levels and guide personalized treatment.

Methods: We constructed a retrospective cohort comprising 215 patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Soil Moisture Threshold of Methane Uptake in Alpine Grassland Ecosystems.

Methane (CH) uptake in alpine ecosystems is an important component of the global CH sink. However, large uncertainties remain regarding the magnitude and spatial patterns of CH uptake, owing to its extensive spatial variability, diverse controlling factors, and limited regional-scale observations. Here, we investigated field ecosystem CH uptake along a 3200-km transect across various alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP).

Short-term warming supports mineral-associated carbon accrual in abandoned croplands.

Effective soil organic carbon (SOC) management can mitigate the impact of climate warming. However, the response of different SOC fractions to warming in abandoned croplands remains unclear. Here, categorizing SOC into particulate and mineral-associated organic carbon (POC and MAOC) with physical fractionation, we investigate the responses of POC and MAOC content and temperature sensitivity (Q) to warming through a 3-year in situ warming experiment (+1.

Evidence for the acclimation of ecosystem photosynthesis to soil moisture.

Ecosystem gross primary productivity (GPP) is the largest carbon flux between the atmosphere and biosphere and is strongly influenced by soil moisture. However, the response and acclimation of GPP to soil moisture remain poorly understood, leading to large uncertainties in characterizing the impact of soil moisture on GPP in Earth system models. Here we analyze the GPP-soil moisture response curves at 143 sites from the global FLUXNET.

Ecological restoration enhances dryland carbon stock by reducing surface soil carbon loss due to wind erosion.

Enhancing terrestrial carbon (C) stock through ecological restoration, one of the prominent approaches for natural climate solutions, is conventionally considered to be achieved through an ecological pathway, i.e., increased plant C uptake.

Divergent Assembly Processes of Phyllosphere and Rhizosphere Microbial Communities Along Environmental Gradient.

The underlying assembly processes of surface microbial communities are crucial for host plants and ecosystem functions. However, the relative importance of stochastic and deterministic processes in shaping epiphytic microbes remains poorly understood in both the phyllosphere and rhizosphere. Here, we compared the spatial variations in epiphytic microbial communities of two dominant grasses along a 1400 km transect on the Tibetan Plateau and assessed the assembly processes between the phyllosphere and rhizosphere.

Advanced precipitation peak offsets middle growing-season drought in impacting grassland C sink.

Redistribution of precipitation across seasons is a widespread phenomenon affecting dryland ecosystems globally. However, the impacts of shifting seasonal precipitation patterns on carbon (C) cycling and sequestration in dryland ecosystems remain poorly understood. In this study, we conducted a 10-yr (2013-2022) field manipulative experiment that altered the timing of growing-season precipitation peaks in a semi-arid grassland.

Elevating water table reduces net ecosystem carbon losses from global drained wetlands.

Drained wetlands are thought to be carbon (C) source hotspots, and rewetting is advocated to restore C storage in drained wetlands for climate change mitigation. However, current assessments of wetland C balance mainly focus on vertical fluxes between the land and atmosphere, frequently neglecting lateral carbon fluxes and land-use effects. Here, we conduct a global synthesis of 893 annual net ecosystem C balance (NECB) measures that include net ecosystem exchange of CO, along with C input via manure fertilization, and C removal through biomass harvest or hydrological exports of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon, across wetlands of different status and land uses.

Nitrogen deposition differentially regulates the sensitivity of gross primary productivity to extreme drought versus wetness.

Global hydroclimatic variability is increasing with more frequent extreme dry and wet years, severely destabilizing terrestrial ecosystem productivity. However, what regulates the consequence of precipitation extremes on productivity remains unclear. Based on a 9-year field manipulation experiment on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, we found that the responses of gross primary productivity (GPP) to extreme drought and wetness were differentially regulated by nitrogen (N) deposition.

Dominant role of the non-forest woody vegetation in the post 2015/16 El Niño tropical carbon recovery.

The extreme dry and hot 2015/16 El Niño episode caused large losses in tropical live aboveground carbon (AGC) stocks. Followed by climatic conditions conducive to high vegetation productivity since 2016, tropical AGC are expected to recover from large losses during the El Niño episode; however, the recovery rate and its spatial distribution remain unknown. Here, we used low-frequency microwave satellite data to track AGC changes, and showed that tropical AGC stocks returned to pre-El Niño levels by the end of 2020, resulting in an AGC sink of Pg C year during 2014-2020.

Aridity threshold for alpine soil nitrogen isotope signature and ecosystem nitrogen cycling.

Determination of tipping points in nitrogen (N) isotope (δN) natural abundance, especially soil δN, with increasing aridity, is critical for estimating N-cycling dynamics and N limitation in terrestrial ecosystems. However, whether there are linear or nonlinear responses of soil δN to increases in aridity and if these responses correspond well with soil N cycling remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated soil δN and soil N-cycling characteristics in both topsoil and subsoil layers along a drought gradient across a 3000-km transect of drylands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Plant height as an indicator for alpine carbon sequestration and ecosystem response to warming.

Growing evidence indicates that plant community structure and traits have changed under climate warming, especially in cold or high-elevation regions. However, the impact of these warming-induced changes on ecosystem carbon sequestration remains unclear. Using a warming experiment on the high-elevation Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, we found that warming not only increased plant species height but also altered species composition, collectively resulting in a taller plant community associated with increased net ecosystem productivity (NEP).

Size, distribution, and vulnerability of the global soil inorganic carbon.

Global estimates of the size, distribution, and vulnerability of soil inorganic carbon (SIC) remain largely unquantified. By compiling 223,593 field-based measurements and developing machine-learning models, we report that global soils store 2305 ± 636 (±1 SD) billion tonnes of carbon as SIC over the top 2-meter depth. Under future scenarios, soil acidification associated with nitrogen additions to terrestrial ecosystems will reduce global SIC (0.

Disentangling the variability of symbiotic nitrogen fixation rate and the controlling factors.

Symbiotic nitrogen (N) fixation (SNF), replenishing bioavailable N for terrestrial ecosystems, exerts decisive roles in N cycling and gross primary production. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what determines the variability of SNF rate, which retards the accurate prediction for global N fixation in earth system models. This study synthesized 1230 isotopic observations to elucidate the governing factors underlying the variability of SNF rate.

Relative importance between nitrification and denitrification to N O from a global perspective.

Nitrous oxide (N O) is a potent greenhouse gas, and its mitigation is a pressing task in the coming decade. However, it remains unclear which specific process between concurrent nitrification and denitrification dominates worldwide N O emission. We snagged an opportunity to ascertain whence the N O came and which were the controlling factors on the basis of 1315 soil N O observations from 74 peer-reviewed articles.

Nitrogen enrichment delays the drought threshold responses of leaf photosynthesis in alpine grassland plants.

Extreme drought is found to cause a threshold response in photosynthesis in ecosystem level. However, the mechanisms behind this phenomenon are not well understood, highlighting the importance of revealing the drought thresholds for multiple leaf-level photosynthetic processes. Thus, we conducted a long-term experiment involving precipitation reduction and nitrogen (N) addition.

Extreme precipitation causes divergent responses of root respiration to nitrogen enrichment in an alpine meadow.

Grassland roots are fundamental to obtain the most limiting soil water and nitrogen (N) resources. However, this natural pattern could be significantly changed by recent co-occurrence of N deposition and extreme precipitations, likely with complex interactions on grassland root production and respiration. Despite this nonlinearity, we still know little about how extreme precipitation change nonlinearly regulates the responses of root respiration to N enrichment.