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Global mean vegetation greenness reached a record high in the year 2025, extending the multi-decadal upward trend. A total of 68.2% of vegetated land surfaces experienced greening, particularly in grasslands and croplands in the Southern Hemisphere and in northern mid-latitudes.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis owes its success partly to its ability to enter a ‘dormant’, non-replicative state, reactivating years or even decades after initial infection. In this work, authors find that a key alteration in a gene involved in this dormancy response has evolved, or is evolving, in parallel in human-adapted lineages across the globe.

2024 witnessed record-high global vegetation greenness, far outpacing the previous high set in 2020. A total of 67.7% of vegetated land surfaces experienced greening, notably in Eurasian and tropical grasslands, and global croplands.

Global greening continued into 2023, reaching near-record values that were dominated by regional enhancement in the mid-western USA, Europe, northern Australia and parts of equatorial Africa. In contrast, climatic events contributed to browning signals in Russia, Canada, Mexico and tropical drylands.

The future of terrestrial systems is influenced by their past, but this carryover effect is rarely quantified. Here, the authors provide the first quantitative evidence that a greener spring begets a greener summer and autumn, and that this carryover effect is even stronger than climate drivers.

Global warming accelerated canopy senescence in July, but slowed it in late summer and early fall in the Northern Hemisphere, according to an analysis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index satellite retrievals over 1982–2018

A study of 1,028 global cities from 2000-2018 shows increased human exposure to greenspace, reducing greenspace inequality. Notably, cities in the Global South improved nearly four times faster than those in the Global North. These insights can guide city greening strategies.

Global potential forestation currently increases runoff in tropical regions but reduces it in boreal regions, such latitudinal divergence is driven mainly by forest-atmosphere feedbacks rather than direct effects of forest expansion.

Through an analysis of global differences in human exposure to greenspace, a new study identifies a contrasting pattern of greenspace exposure between Global South and North cities and finds seasonal variations in greenspace exposure inequality.

An enduring question in ecology is how new ecosystems form. Studying retreating glaciers, this study shows that life’s first foothold in these new environments is not established by photosynthetic organisms as long assumed, but rather by versatile microbes that harvest chemical energy from soil and thin air.

Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgardarchaeota, in conditions that may have given rise to early eukaryotes.

Vegetation change over the past two decades has limited the decline in global water availability by enhancing rainfall over evapotranspiration, according to analysis of observation-based atmospheric moisture transport data.

The ratio of plant transpiration to total terrestrial evapotranspiration (T/ET) captures the role of vegetation in surface–atmosphere interactions. An emergent constraint approach strongly increases existing model T/ET estimates with implications for river flows.

A previously uncharacterized microbial enzyme is responsible for the production of molecular hydrogen in the gut, which drives the growth of other bacteria and has implications for human health.

Estimates of global dryland changes are often conflicting. This Review discusses and quantifies observed and projected aridity changes, revealing divergent responses between atmospheric and ecohydrological metrics that can be explained by plant physiological responses to elevated CO₂.

Metabolic strategies of cave microorganisms are poorly studied. Here, the authors show that cave microbes use atmospheric trace gases hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane as energy and carbon sources, sustaining primary production and revealing how life can thrive in oligotrophic and dark ecosystems.

With nature in cities, as with the chemicals we ingest, the dose can make the difference. This analysis looks across other studies to find that, in practice, a moderate ‘dose’ of urban greenness provides the greatest mental health benefits.

Climate deterioration towards desertification in North Africa following the African Humid Period has previously been associated with the emergence of pastoralism. Here, using a climate-vegetation model, the authors show that pastoralism in fact likely slowed the deterioration of orbitally-driven climate change.

Antarctica has a unique environment and geographic isolation that affect its biodiversity patterns. In this Perspective, the authors examine how five key ecological processes shape Antarctica’s biodiversity and use this information to establish predictions for future change in the region.

The photosynthesis performed by trees makes them an important sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, but trees are also sources of the potent greenhouse gas methane. Here the authors find that tree bark in some common lowland species is colonized by methane oxidizing bacteria that can reduce tree methane emissions by ~ 36%.

With efforts to promote sustainability on the rise, researchers are making gains — but doing science in a green way isn’t always easy.

This study examines the influence of greenspace and air pollution on allostatic load, a measure of stress, in the United Kingdom. It found that people living in areas with more air pollutants were more likely to have a higher allostatic load, whereas greenness was associated with a lower allostatic load.

Here, Kropp et al. use cryo-electron microscopy and structural modeling to show that the enzyme [MoCu]-CO dehydrogenase interacts with its partner, the membrane-bound quinone-binding protein CoxG, to facilitate electron transfer from atmospheric CO oxidation to the respiratory chain. This interaction is conserved across diverse bacteria and archaea.

Understanding benefits of carbon mitigation is an important impetus for governments to adopt more ambitious climate targets. Here, the authors show positive air quality and health co-benefits are possible if China’s CO₂ emissions peak before 2030.

Structural and biochemical studies of the Mycobacterium smegmatis hydrogenase Huc provides insights into how [NiFe] hydrogenases oxidize trace amounts of atmospheric hydrogen and transfer the electrons liberated via quinone transport.

The African Genome Variation Project contains the whole-genome sequences of 320 individuals and dense genotypes on 1,481 individuals from sub-Saharan Africa; it enables the design and interpretation of genomic studies, with implications for finding disease loci and clues to human origins.

Diverse bacteria can use the low levels of hydrogen and carbon monoxide present in the air as energy sources for growth and survival. Here, Leung et al. show that ability is also found in thermophilic archaea of the order Sulfolobales.

Openshaw and colleagues find myeloid inflammation and complement activation signatures in patients with long COVID who were previously hospitalized.

Northern Hemisphere photosynthesis is thought to respond positively to temperature variations, yet the strength of this relationship may change over time. Here, using a combination of satellite data and models, the authors assess the temporal change of this relationship over the past three decades.

Here, the authors reveal that protozoal communities shape rumen microbiome structure, offering fresh insights into how these complex communities coordinate essential metabolic tasks across multiple microbial domains.

Genome-resolved metagenomics, biogeochemistry, modelling and culture-based analysis reveal that marine bacteria consume H₂ to support growth.

C₄ photosynthesis has evolved independently in over 60 plant lineages. This study shows expression of key C₄ enzymes being controlled by light and the chloroplast in C₃ leaves, potentially facilitating repeated evolution of C₄ traits.

In sandy, permeable sediments, which frequently cycle between oxic and anoxic conditions, there is an uncoupling of fermentative and respiratory bacteria, and bacterial, rather than microalgal, fermentation drives the accumulation of hydrogen in this environment.

A combination of metagenomic analyses, thermodynamic modelling and in situ measurements of gas fluxes shows that a large fraction of soil bacteria can use inorganic energy sources, such as the trace gases hydrogen and carbon monoxide, for growth and persistence.

Cofactor F₄₂₀ plays crucial roles in bacterial and archaeal metabolism, but its biosynthetic pathway is not fully understood. Here, the authors present the structure of one of the enzymes and provide experimental evidence for a substantial revision of the pathway, including the identification of a new intermediate.

The Ross Ice Shelf is the most extensive ice shelf of Antarctica and isolates the underlying ocean from sunlight. Here the authors use multi-omics to unravel the phylogenetic and functional diversity of microbial life in this ecosystem.

Gut microbes rely on nutrient exchange for survival, but these cross-feeding interactions remain poorly characterized. Here, Marcelino et al. present a metabolite-exchange scoring system derived from metagenome-scale metabolic models, designed to identify the potential microbial cross-feeding interactions most affected in human diseases.

The roles of Asgard archaea in soil ecosystems are unclear. In this study, the authors report complete genomes and metatranscriptomic data of Asgard archaea that indicate a role in production and consumption of carbon compounds known to serve as substrates for methane production in wetland soils.

Little is known about genetic heterogeneity within deep sea cold seep microbial populations. From examining 39 abundant microbial species identified in sediment layers below the sea floor and across six cold seep sites, this study reports that their evolutionary trajectories are depth-dependent and differ across phylogenetic clades.

A phase 2 randomized controlled trial of ustekinumab in 72 adolescents with recent-onset type 1 diabetes showed that treatment was well tolerated and β-cell function was 49% higher in the intervention group compared to the placebo arm after 12 months.

Describing anaerobic short chain alkane degrading archaea at a newly discovered cold seep, the authors here suggest that these organisms play much more important roles in submarine carbon cycling globally than previously thought.

Mitonuclear interactions can promote population divergence. Here, the authors find a genomic cluster of differentiation and signatures of selection in a region with an over-representation of nuclear genes that interact with mitochondrial genes in a songbird.

Little is known about the microbial ecology of the deep seabed. Here, Dong et al. predict metabolic capabilities and microbial interactions in deep seabed petroleum seeps using shotgun metagenomics, sediment geochemistry, metabolomics, and thermodynamic modelling.

This Consensus Statement presents the standards for technical reporting in environmental and host-associated microbiome studies (STREAMS) guidelines.