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Northern ecosystems, encompassing boreal forests, tundra, and permafrost areas, are increasingly affected by the amplified impacts of climate change. These ecosystems play a crucial role in determining the global carbon budget. To improve our understanding of carbon uptake in these regions, we evaluate the effectiveness of employing the physically-based Plant Phenology Index (PPI) to estimate gros
Fog makes a significant contribution to the hydrology of a wide range of important terrestrial ecosystems. The amount and frequency of fog immersion are affected by rapid ongoing anthropogenic changes but the impacts of these changes remain relatively poorly understood compared with changes in rainfall. Here, we present the design and performance of a novel experiment to actively manipulate low ly
European forests are being shaped by active human use and management, and by harvesting of wood in particular. Yet, our understanding of how forests are harvested across Europe is limited, as the real harvest regimes are not well described by currently available data. Here, we analyse recent harvests, as observed in permanent plots of forest inventories in 11 European countries, totaling to 182,64
Rates of tree mortality are increasing globally, with implications for forests and climate. Yet, how and why these trends vary globally remain unknown. Developing a comprehensive assessment of global tree mortality will require systematically integrating data from ground-based long-term forest monitoring with large-scale remote sensing. We surveyed the metadata from 466 865 forest monitoring plots
Background: In the Sahel, one of the largest semi-arid areas in the world, pastoral livestock is the main source of protein for the local population. The quantification of herbaceous biomass in the Sahelian rangelands is of major importance since it provides food for the livestock. The main method used to monitor the biomass consists of cutting, drying, and weighting it. However, indirect methods
Drought is a multifaceted phenomenon driven by both natural climate fluctuations and human activities. Unlike traditional, slow-developing droughts, flash droughts (FDs) emerge suddenly and intensify rapidly, posing significant challenges for natural resource management. The lack of effective tools to quantify FDs exacerbates stakeholders' concerns, particularly due to the risks they pose to water
Increased global vegetation gross primary productivity (GPP) over the past decades has led to an enhanced terrestrial carbon sink, an important factor in mitigating global warming. However, the global spatiotemporal evolution of GPP trends is still under debate, largely limiting our understanding of the sustainability in terrestrial carbon sink. Here in this study, based on a dozen of long-term gl
Soil cadmium (Cd) contamination significantly threatens ecosystems and human health. Traditional geochemical investigation, although accurate, is impractical for wide-area and frequent monitoring applications. Multi-spectral satellite images combined with the homologous pollution information (HPI) and the spectral and content information of soil organic matter (SOMSCI) is an unconventional and pro
The color of lakes is an essential indicator of the local ecological state, and the corresponding changes can reflect the physical and biochemical processes of lakes. However, worldwide changes in lake color and their drivers remain largely unknown. Here, we analyze the long-term color distributions and changes of 67,579 lakes worldwide from 1984 to 2021 by utilizing 32 million consistent satellit
Drought is a complex natural hazard increasing in frequency, duration, and severity worldwide. Although droughts cause both market and non-market impacts, the latter suffers from a dearth of economic studies quantifying their magnitude. In this paper, we investigated how droughts affect selected ecosystem services expected to result in welfare losses in Spain. This study is aimed at quantifying an
Vegetation is the major source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere, which affect both air quality and climate. Long-term ecosystem-level data on biogenic VOC (BVOC) emissions, however, are limited. This is especially true regarding the impacts of landscape-scale disturbances like clear-cutting on the short-term and longer seasonal-scale emissions of boreal forests, particularly
Nutrients are the lifeblood of aquatic ecosystems, but not all nutrients are equally accessible to the organisms that depend on them. While traditional monitoring often tracks total or inorganic concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, these measures do not reflect what microbial communities can actually use. This thesis explores that disconnect by investigating the bioavailability of k
Management of drained forested peatlands has important implications for carbon budgets, but contrasting views exist on its effects on climate. This study utilised the dynamic ecosystem model ForSAFE-Peat to simulate biogeochemical dynamics over two complete forest rotations (1951–2088) in a nutrient-rich drained peatland afforested with Norway spruce (Picea abies) in southwestern Sweden. Model sim
Environmental changes and their effects are among the most pressing topics of today's ecological research. Shrublands, although widespread across the globe, remain understudied in this respect. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 81 shrubland sites subjected to experimental warming, shifts in precipitation (e.g. increased precipitation and drought), and nitrogen addition to quantify seven types
In recent decades, changes in vegetation phenology have exhibited a tight coupling with global warming. Mountain ecosystems are particularly susceptible to climate change, with high elevations warming faster than lower areas. The inconsistent rate of temperature change across elevations may lead to synchronization of phenological patterns, reducing the differences in phenology timing between high
Life on Earth is a mosaic distributed across biogeographical regions. Their regional species pools have experienced distinct historical and eco-evolutionary pressures, leading to an expected context-dependent organization of biodiversity. Here we identify a general spatial organization within biogeographical regions of terrestrial and marine vertebrates, invertebrates and plants (more than 30,000
At a time of increasing environmental changes and geopolitical tensions, the need for collaboration in the Arctic is greater than ever. Top-down initiatives such as the Arctic Council have contributed to important increased collaboration and science diplomacy. Similarly, bottom-up initiatives have also played a major role in establishing diplomacy among researchers with spin-offs at government lev
Resilience is a critical issue for water resource systems. Over the past few decades, these systems have been significantly disrupted by natural disasters and human activities, resulting in substantial economic losses. This study develops a resilience evaluation framework based on a comprehensive literature review and applies it to assess the resilience of the Yangtze River Basin (YRB). The result
Rewetting is widely promoted as a climate mitigation strategy to preserve soil carbon in drained wetlands, although rewetting may enhance methane production and corresponding emissions. The increase in methane emissions following rewetting might be underestimated without considering near-surface methane oxidation under a fluctuating water table. Here, we refined the methane module in Lund-Potsdam-
