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Nutrient-induced soil carbon gains in grasslands can persist for decades after fertilization stops as long as the soil remains untilled, according to a multidecadal field experiment on retired agricultural fields with sandy soils.

A common but untested expectation is that nutrient enrichment causes biotic homogenization. However, a globally standardized nutrient addition experiment in grasslands shows proportionally similar species loss across scales and no biotic homogenization after up to 14 years of treatment.

Terrestrial ecosystem productivity is widely accepted to be nutrient limited. A series of standardized nutrient addition experiments, carried out on grasslands on five continents, suggests aboveground grassland productivity is commonly limited by multiple nutrients, including potassium and micronutrients.

By combining modelling and simulated data with empirical data from 76 grassland sites across 6 continents, the authors show that the relative abundance of dominant species predicts species richness, while their absolute abundance predicts community biomass.

Permafrost soils contain almost twice as much carbon as the current atmospheric carbon pool. Climate model simulations suggest that the feedback generated by future permafrost carbon release could lead to a further warming of 0.13–1.69 °C by 2300.

Isolating the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in natural ecosystems is challenging. Here, the authors apply a causal inference approach to observational data from grasslands and find a negative effect of biodiversity on productivity driven by non-native and rare species.

Whole-genome sequencing analysis of individuals with primary immunodeficiency identifies new candidate disease-associated genes and shows how the interplay between genetic variants can explain the variable penetrance and complexity of the disease.

A NutNet global grassland study finds that leaf N, P and K consistently respond to soil nutrient additions, but leaf morphological traits, such as specific leaf area, are inconsistent indicators of anthropogenic perturbations.

Remotely sensed NDVI data and contemporary field data from 84 grasslands on 6 continents show increasing divergence in aboveground plant biomass between sites in different bioclimatic regions.

Anthropogenic eutrophication is a driver of plant community shifts in many grassland ecosystems. Here, the authors use data from a globally distributed experiment to assess how nutrient addition affects multiple facets of grassland ecological stability and their correlations.

Drivers responsible for plant microbiome variation between sites remain elusive. Here, the authors test how soil nutrient addition and herbivore exclusion affect plant microbiota in grasslands worldwide, showing that microbiota diversity responded to environmental variation similarly across sites.

The insurance hypothesis posits that more diverse communities are more stable through time. Here, the authors show that plant biodiversity reduces the spatial variability of productivity in grassland communities, demonstrating that the insurance hypothesis applies also across space.

The sources contributing to the deglacial rise in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations are unclear. Climate model simulations suggest thawing permafrost soils were the initial source, highlighting the vulnerability of modern permafrost carbon stores.

A NutNet experiment in 57 grasslands across six continents shows that when herbivores are excluded from grasslands with a long coevolutionary history of grazing plant diversity is reduced, while in grasslands without a long grazing history the evolutionary history of the plant species regulates the response of plant diversity.

Eutrophication has been shown to weaken diversity-stability relationships in grasslands, but it is unclear whether the effect depends on scale. Analysing a globally distributed network of grassland sites, the authors show a positive role of beta diversity and spatial asynchrony as drivers of stability but find that nitrogen enrichment weakens the diversity-stability relationships at different spatial scales.

The Nutrient Network is a globally distributed, coordinated grassland ecology experiment. Here, the first decade of this network is reviewed, including insights into ecosystem productivity, stability and the effects of herbivores and invasive species.

The giant planet 8 Ursae Minoris b seems to have avoided engulfment by its giant host star through a stellar merger that either affected the evolution of the host star or produced 8 Ursae Minoris b as a second-generation planet.

It remains unclear whether exotic and native species are functionally different. Using a global grassland experiment, Seabloomet al. show that native and exotic species respond differently to two globally pervasive environmental changes, addition of mineral nutrients and alteration of herbivore density.

Species richness patterns are driven by biotic and abiotic factors, the relative strengths of which are unclear. Here, the authors test how species interactions or environmental traits influence fish richness across over 700 Canadian lakes, showing a surprisingly small role of negative interactions.

Analysis of 65 grasslands worldwide from the Nutrient Network experiment reveals that plant communities with higher α- and β-diversity have higher levels of ecosystem multifunctionality, and that this effect is amplified across scales.

In a global grassland dataset, large mammalian herbivores rescued forb cover and diversity from the negative effects of eutrophication.

Experimental data collected from 40 grasslands on 6 continents show that nutrients and herbivores can serve as counteracting forces to control local plant diversity; nutrient addition reduces local diversity through light limitation, and herbivory rescues diversity at sites where it alleviates light limitation.

Experimental eutrophication weakens the stabilizing effects of plant diversity on the productivity of natural grasslands.

Uncertainties and subjective choices affecting remaining carbon budgets should be fully considered when applying them to international and national climate policies.

Analysis of multi-year nutrient enrichment experiments carried out on 45 global grassland sites show that an addition of an increasing number of nutrients leads to a reduction in plant species diversity, and competition for multiple belowground resources promotes plant species diversity.

Data from grasslands across five continents show clear signals of numerous underlying mechanisms linking ecosystem productivity and species richness.

A global grassland study reveals soil moisture, not local treatments, drives microbial and detritivore activity, highlighting the potential influence of climate change and human interventions on grassland ecosystems.

Climate change is spatially asymmetrical and so will alter the behaviour of generalist consumer species, affecting food webs in two ways. Movement into novel ecosystems will affect the topology of food webs, while changes within an ecosystem will affect interaction strengths.

Integrating uncertainties using insights from both observations and models narrows the range on the remaining carbon budget for 1.5 °C, as well as the transient climate response to cumulative CO₂ emissions.

UniProt continues to support the ongoing process of making scientific data FAIR. Here we contribute to this process with a FAIRness assessment of our UniProtKB dataset followed by a critical reflection on the challenges and future directions of the adoption and validation of the FAIR principles and metrics.