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Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

A global research network monitoring the Amazon for 30 years reports in this study that tree size increased by 3% each decade.

Species’ traits and environmental conditions determine the abundance of tree species across the globe. Here, the authors find that dominant tree species are taller and have softer wood compared to rare species and that these trait differences are more strongly associated with temperature than water availability.

Analysis of soundscape data from 139 globally distributed sites reveals that sounds of biological origin exhibit predictable rhythms depending on location and season, whereas sounds of anthropogenic origin are less predictable. Comparisons between paired urban–rural sites show that urban green spaces are noisier and dominated by sounds of technological origin.

Reproductive barriers can evolve despite gene flow. A combination of genomics and behavioural assays shows two mitonuclear incompatibilities originated via ancient hybridization that underlie hybrid inviability in a pair of closely related swordtail fishes.

The work shows that volcanic-related elevated continental chemical weathering could have played a significant role in global environmental perturbations during the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction.

Dental development and replacement rates varied greatly among early terrestrial carnivorous and herbivorous amniotes, revealing a complexity that reflected a diversity of feeding behaviours soon after their initial appearance in the fossil record.

The expansion of land plants led to the development of new river and floodplain morphologies. Field studies suggest that the expansion of tree habitats in the Carboniferous period caused the development of river systems dominated by multiple channels and stable alluvial islands.

Mercury (Hg) concentrations and isotopes from a deep-ocean Triassic–Jurassic (~201 Ma) boundary section provide evidence of large inputs from terrestrial organic-rich sources through combustion by magmatic sills and wildfires.

Quantum interference influences charge transport in molecules that include an aromatic ring. Here, the authors develop a quantum circuit rule for understanding such effects in molecules with three aromatic rings and show that their electronic properties are dominated by interference in the central ring.

Wood density is a key control on tree biomass, and understanding its spatial variation improves estimates of forest carbon stock. Sullivan et al. measure >900 forest plots to quantify wood density and produce high resolution maps of its variation across South American tropical forests.

Wood density is an important plant trait. Data from 1.1 million forest inventory plots and 10,703 tree species show a latitudinal gradient in wood density, with temperature and soil moisture explaining variation at the global scale and disturbance also having a role at the local level.

Cavefish populations of the Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, carry a mutation in the insulin receptor gene that renders them insulin- and starvation-resistant relative to surface populations of the same species.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

A study demonstrates how a phylogenetic epidemiology approach can be used to improve rapid responses against emergent pests, which are mostly able to attack multiple host species and spread through heterogeneous landscapes.

Analysing >1,700 inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network, the authors show that the majority of Amazon tree species can occupy floodplains and that patterns of species turnover are closely linked to regional flood patterns.

Analysing camera-trap data of 163 mammal species before and after the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns, the authors show that responses to human activity are dependent on the degree to which the landscape is modified by humans, with carnivores being especially sensitive.

Amphibians have seen large population declines, but the key drivers are hard to establish. Here, Miller et al. investigate trends of occupancy for 81 species of amphibians across North America and find greater sensitivity to water availability during breeding and winter conditions than mean climate.

Inventory data from more than 1 million trees across African, Amazonian and Southeast Asian tropical forests suggests that, despite their high diversity, just 1,053 species, representing a consistent ~2.2% of tropical tree species in each region, constitute half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees.

Protection afforded by inorganic minerals is assumed to make mineral-associated organic carbon less susceptible to loss under climate change than particulate organic carbon. However, a global study of soil organic carbon from drylands suggests that this is not the case.

Five New World mammarenaviruses (NWMs) enter cells via binding to human transferrin receptor 1 (hTfR1). Here, Hickerson et al. show that hTfR1 targeting antibodies partially protect hTfR1-transgenic mice from lethal NWM challenge via competition of anti-hTfR1 antibody and viral glycoprotein for hTfR1.

Analysis of 20 chemical and morphological plant traits at diverse sites across 6 continents shows that the transition from semi-arid to arid zones is associated with an unexpected 88% increase in trait diversity.

The authors analyse tree responses to an extreme heat and drought event across South America to understand long-term climate resistance. While no more sensitive to this than previous lesser events, forests in drier climates showed the greatest impacts and thus vulnerability to climate extremes.

Alternative stable states in forests have implications for the biosphere. Here, the authors combine forest biodiversity observations and simulations revealing that leaf types across temperate regions of the NH follow a bimodal distribution suggesting signatures of alternative forest states.

Tree mortality has been shown to be the dominant control on carbon storage in Amazon forests, but little is known of how and why Amazon forest trees die. Here the authors analyse a large Amazon-wide dataset, finding that fast-growing species face greater mortality risk, but that slower-growing individuals within a species are more likely to die, regardless of size.

Ruggeri et al. find in a study of 61 countries that temporal discounting patterns are globally generalizable. Worse financial environments, greater inequality and high inflation are associated with extreme or inconsistent long-term decisions.

Establishment of antiviral immune responses depends on dendritic cells (DCs), but how transitional DCs compare with other DC subsets in this regard is unclear. Here the authors show the origins of these cells and their proinflammatory function during viral infection.

Seeking insight into dopamine's contribution to motivation and learning, the authors examined dopamine release in the rat nucleus accumbens during adaptive decision-making. Dopamine levels convey a running estimate of available future reward, which is used to decide whether it's worthwhile to engage in a behavioral task. Abrupt fluctuations serve as reward prediction errors, reinforcing behavioral choices.

Large-scale systematic sequencing has generally depended on the availability of an ordered library of large-insert bacterial or viral genomic clones for the organism under study. The generation of these large insert libraries, and the location of each clone on a genome map, is a laborious and time-consuming process. In an effort to overcome these problems, several groups have successfully demonstrated the viability of the whole-genome random ‘shotgun’ method in large-scale sequencing of both viruses and prokaryotes^1–5. Here we report the sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome IX, determined in part by a whole-chromosome ‘shotgun’, and describe the particular difficulties encountered in the random ‘shotgun’ sequencing of an entire eukaryotic chromosome. Analysis of this sequence shows that chromosome IX contains 221 open reading frames (ORFs), of which approximately 30% have been sequenced previously. This chromosome shows features typical of a small Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Following a wide-ranging review of studies, reports and policies about nature’s multiple values, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation of nature, address barriers to uptake in decision-making, and make transformative changes towards more just and sustainable futures.

Using high-resolution ex vivo MRI and serial histology, Ravikumar et al. characterise 3D tau spread across histologically defined medial temporal lobe subregions thus providing a postmortem reference for in vivo studies on early Alzheimer’s disease.

Combined analysis of new genomic data from 116 ancient hunter-gatherer individuals together with previously published data provides insights into the genetic structure and demographic shifts of west Eurasian forager populations over a period of 30,000 years.

Most Amazon tree species are rare but a small proportion are common across the region. The authors show that different species are hyperdominant in different size classes and that hyperdominance is more phylogenetically restricted for larger canopy trees than for smaller understory ones.

Despite the simplicity of the Carnot cycle, realizing it at the microscale is complicated by the difficulty in implementing adiabatic processes. A clever solution subjects a charged particle to a noisy electrostatic force that mimics a thermal bath.