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Enhanced weathering of basalt (EW) removes CO2 chemically, and biotically by enhancing ecosystem growth through phosphorus release. This study shows that leveraging the biotic process can triple the contribution of EW to climate change mitigation.

The global net land sink is relatively well constrained. However, the responsible drivers and above/below-ground partitioning are highly uncertain. Model issues regarding turnover of individual plant and soil components are responsible.

The ability of BCG vaccination to prevent pulmonary tuberculosis could be improved by targeting mucosal immunity within the lung. Here the authors compare latent Mtb-infected donors with intradermal or oral BCG vaccine recipients to show distinct systemic and pulmonary immune responses are induced by differing routes of natural infection or vaccination.

Using systematic satellite observations of land surface temperature and soil moisture during soil dry-downs, the spatially-explicit global distribution of the critical soil moisture threshold of plant water stress and its drivers is uncovered.

Phosphorus (P) limitation is pervasive in tropical forests. Here the authors analyse the dependence of photosynthesis on leaf N and P in tropical forests, and show that incorporating leaf P constraints in a terrestrial biosphere model enhances its predictive power.

Bioenergy crops has been proposed as a climate mitigation measure, but how the biophysical effects of large-scale cultivation would influence the climate is not well known. Here, the authors use models to show that large-scale cultivation could cool the global land by 0.03 to 0.08 °C.

Despite growing aquaculture production and environmental concerns on phosphorus (P) enrichment, the P budgets of fisheries have been largely overlooked. Here, Huang et al. calculate global fishery P budgets and estimate P use efficiency for a wide range of aquaculture systems.

Changes in the leaf area index alter the distribution of heat and moisture. The change in energy partitioning related to leaf area, increasing latent and decreasing sensible fluxes over the observational period 1982–2016, is moderated by plant functional type and background climate.

Increasing variability of net biome production over recent decades may be due to climate change and points to destabilization of the carbon–climate system.

Increased global land precipitation, due to the atmospheric feedbacks of large-scale bioenergy cultivation, may partially compensate the water consumption by such rainfed bioenergy crops at the global scale.

Nitrogen loss due to soil denitrification in global natural ecosystems is quantified using an isotope-benchmarking method, and is overestimated by almost two times in the current earth system models.

The impact of land-use and cover-change (LUCC) on ecosystem carbon stock in China is poorly known due to large biases in existing databases. Here the authors develop a new LUCC database with corrected false signals and reveal that forest expansion is the dominant driver of China’s recent carbon sink.

China has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060. Here the authors find a promising option to abate 1.0 Gt CO₂-eq yr⁻¹ of carbon emissions at a marginal cost of $69 (t CO₂-eq)⁻¹ by retrofitting 222 GW of coal power plants to co-fire with biomass and upgrading to CCS operation across 2836 counties in China.

Grasslands, and the livestock that live there, are dynamic sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, but what controls these fluxes remains poorly characterized. Here the authors show that on the global level, grasslands are climate neutral owing to the cancelling effects of managed vs. natural systems.

The climate impact of water-table drawdown in peatlands is unclear as carbon dioxide emissions increase and methane emissions decrease due to drying. This study shows decreasing water-table depth results in net greenhouse gas emissions from global peatlands, despite reducing methane emissions.

Phosphorus limitation can significantly reduce the response of the Amazon forest to CO₂ fertilization, according to ecosystem-model ensemble simulations of a free-air CO₂ enrichment experiment.

The Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to study a variety of microbial communities that exist throughout the human body, enabling the generation of a range of quality-controlled data as well as community resources.

Loss of eyes is a common feature of cave-adapted animals such as the blind cave morphs of Astyanax mexicanus. Here, the authors show that DNA methylation mediates eye-specific gene repression and globally regulates early eye development in A. mexicanus.

The Human Microbiome Project Consortium reports the first results of their analysis of microbial communities from distinct, clinically relevant body habitats in a human cohort; the insights into the microbial communities of a healthy population lay foundations for future exploration of the epidemiology, ecology and translational applications of the human microbiome.

Enhanced rock weathering alters ecosystem functions, particularly carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions, by changing microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling genes, according to a two-year wollastonite addition manipulation experiment in a trophic rubber plantation in China.

Despite worldwide prevalence, post-agricultural landscapes remain one of the least constrained human-induced land carbon sinks. To appraise their role in rebuilding the planet’s natural carbon stocks through ecosystem restoration, we need to better understand their spatial and temporal legacies.

Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is crucial for carbon storage, but its variability is difficult to capture due to inconsistent measurements and complex interactions. This perspective proposes integrating diverse data and models to improve CUE in carbon cycle models

The enhanced CO₂ uptake by vegetation in response to powdered rock should be considered in assessing the feasibility of enhanced weathering as a negative emission technology in mitigating climate change, suggest simulations of a land surface model.

Ecosystem productivity losses associated with hydroclimatic extremes increased in northern mid-latitudes but decreased in pantropic regions between 1982 and 2016, according to an analysis of gross primary production data from observations and models.

Independent observation-based model validation and improved information flow between predictive and conceptual models are needed to enhance confidence in soil organic carbon predictions, suggests a review of 250 soil organic carbon models.

A systemic approach which considers all stakeholders and combines multiple policy instruments is necessary to reduce global reliance on chemicals in agriculture, according to a review of the agronomic and economic challenges and barriers to existing policies.