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Tropical forests regulate Earth’s carbon cycle, but what governs carbon sequestration following land use remains unclear. Here Tang et al find a shift from strong nitrogen limitation to no nutrient limitation over tropical forest secondary succession.

Decentralized natural resource governance is thought to aid conservation and reduce poverty, but its heterogeneous local effects are under-explored. A study in Nepal shows that forest governance decentralization reduces poverty but the benefits are greater for dominant ethnic and caste groups compared with minority ones.

This Perspective describes how human mobility data can inform air pollution research and public health interventions.

The effectiveness of protected areas depends not only on whether they are intact, but also on whether they are mutually connected. Here the authors examine the structural connectivity of terrestrial protected areas globally, finding that less than 10% of the protected network can be considered connected.

Analysis of a global data set of local biodiversity comparisons reveals an average 13.6% reduction in species richness and 10.7% reduction in abundance as a result of past human land use, and projections based on these data under a business-as-usual land-use scenario predict further substantial loss this century, unless strong mitigation efforts are undertaken to reverse the effects.

Data provided by Amazonian peoples are used to estimate the value of wild animals as a source of food, including its spatial distribution and nutritional value, providing information that will be key for improved management of forest ecosystems in the region.

This Perspective proposes the Population Neuroscience-Dementia Syndemics Framework and model to develop knowledge of how multiple factors may interact to perpetuate inequities in dementia, especially for women in low- and middle-income countries.

Organisms vary in their nitrogen and phosphorus content, shaping ecological and evolutionary processes. This study shows that nitrogen deposition is a consistent global factor associated with plant and animal stoichiometry.

Greenhouse gas emissions, antimicrobial use, land use and animal welfare data representing most global commercial pig production systems show that no single system performs well across all measures, but trade-offs may be avoidable if mitigation measures are implemented within farming systems.

Here, the authors generated and analyzed run-on sequencing data to observe transcription in species across the tree of life to uncover the origins of the promoter-proximal pause.

Co-designed pathways to net-zero farm greenhouse gas emissions revealed that stacking several interventions to mitigate livestock methane, improve animal genetics and sequester carbon were able to negate enterprise emissions in a profitable way.

Genomic analyses of heartworms from multiple continents suggest a deeper evolutionary origin in canids than previously recognised, with evidence of both ancient dispersal events and more recent introductions linked to human movement.

An estimated AU$583 billion per year cost of in situ recovery of terrestrial and freshwater species in Australia, including through habitat restoration and retention and management of invasive species, is not an expected conservation budget, but exemplifies the severe cost of nature declines.

The dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the Middle East have been relatively under-studied. Here, the authors integrate genomic and travel data and show that introductions to the region were initially driven by intercontinental air travel, after which regional land travel became a more important driver.

Geospatial estimates of the prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age across 82 low-income and middle-income countries reveals considerable heterogeneity and inequality at national and subnational levels, with few countries on track to meet the WHO Global Nutrition Targets by 2030.

Dissolved oxygen concentrations are expected to decline with rising water temperatures under climate change. This study projects declining oxygen levels for most rivers globally and an increase in hypoxic days by the end of the century, with implications for ecosystem and fish health.

Future water scarcity is expected to increase up to fourfold in most parts of the Pearl Basin by 2050, driven by changes in both water quantity and quality. Water quality management options could cost-effectively half future water scarcity.

Small island states and territories are often seen as particularly vulnerable to climate change, which affects the shape of the land, its ecosystems and the resources that people depend on. Nature Climate Change asked a selection of scientists from different island states and territories to discuss the role that climate science and action has in supporting island communities.

Particulate and mineral-associated soil organic carbon have different climate sensitivity and distributions in Europe, according to analyses of measurements of soil carbon fractions from 352 topsoils.

Africa is one of the fastest growing regions for the voluntary carbon market. Here, Greve et al.quantify the potential for aboveground C stocking across tropical Africa and assess the optimal placement of carbon-stocking projects when also taking co-benefits and feasibility into account.

Here the authors find one third of global sub-basins will face severe clean water scarcity in 2050. Nitrogen pollution aggravates water scarcity in >2,000 sub-basins thus 3 billion more people will be posed with severe water scarcity in 2050.

Measures of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning show variable responses to perturbations, complicating the prediction of responses to global change. This study shows that the variability of community-level responses itself is predictable and can be used to study species’ responses to perturbations and contributions to functions.

This global meta-analysis of freshwater stressor–response relationships reveals that the biodiversity loss of five riverine organism groups reflects elevated salinity, oxygen depletion and fine sediment accumulation, while the relationship with nutrient enrichment and warming varies among groups.

It is currently unknown how climate and land use changes could affect the endemic area of Lassa virus, a zoonotic pathogen responsible for Lassa fever. Here, the authors show that by 2070, new regions in Africa will likely become ecologically suitable for Lassa virus, drastically increasing the population living in conditions favourable for virus circulation.

Land management strategies for enhancing soil carbon sequestration need to be tailored to different soil types, depending on how much organic matter is stored in pools of mineral-associated and particulate organic matter, suggests an analysis of soil organic matter across Europe.

In Ireland, afforestation, organic soil re-wetting, and cattle destocking are key for meeting the net zero goal regardless of its definition; technical abatement moderates but does not substitute these actions, according to an analysis of agriculture and land use scenarios.

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.

Available wheat genomes are annotated by projecting Chinese Spring gene models across the new assemblies. Here, the authors generate de novo gene annotations for the 9 wheat genomes, identify core and dispensable transcriptome, and reveal conservation and divergence of gene expression balance across homoeologous subgenomes.

Researchers estimate that deep soils contain 15.2 Pg of nitrogen, increasing global soil nitrogen budgets by 16%. These deep soil reservoirs could play a crucial role in nutrient cycling and environmental processes.

Santorini Volcano in Greece was thought to be continually charged by small injections of magma. Measurements of surface deformation show that magma equivalent to 10–50% of that emitted in previous small eruptions has been injected beneath Santorini since January 2011, implying that the volcano is instead charged by rapid, episodic fluxes of melt.

Cumulative pressures are driving tropical coral reefs, pivotal components of the ocean social ecological system, to functional collapse. This Review summarizes their trends and threats, before detailing a strategy to avoid the functional collapse of coral reefs by deploying a global action plan layering a broad range of science-based interventions.

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.

Springtails are omnipresent soil arthropods, vital for ecosystems. In the first global assessment of springtails, this study shows a 20-fold biomass difference between the tundra and the tropics, with distinct temperature-related patterns for diversity and metabolism that suggest climate change may restructure the functioning of soil biodiversity.

Common ragweed is an invasive plant in Europe, and many people are allergic to its pollen. Modelling results indicate that airborne pollen concentrations are likely to increase in Europe over coming decades, at least in part owing to climate change.

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.

Reliable measuring the voltage dynamics of individual neurons in the intact brain is significantly challenging. Here authors developed an all-optical method combining two-photon voltage imaging and optogenetics to measure and induce synaptic plasticity in vivo, revealing LTP of inhibition in cerebellar circuits and providing a blueprint to link synaptic changes to learning.

Antarctic atmospheric rivers are projected to double in frequency and cause 2.5 times more precipitation by 2066–2100 due to rising atmospheric moisture, according to large ensemble climate simulations that highlight the sensitivity of future atmospheric rivers to the detection threshold.

Using satellite observations, communities in the U.S. containing warehouses experience more truck traffic and increased health-harming pollution with a disproportionate number of racial and ethnic minorities living in these communities.

A study proposes four ways in which foods sourced in aquatic environments can contribute to healthier, more environmentally sustainable and equitable food systems, and examines the relevance of these ambitions to nations.

Climate action from local actors is vital in achieving nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. Here the authors show that existing commitments from U.S. states, cities and business could reduce emissions 25% below 2005 levels by 2030, with expanded subnational action reducing emissions by 37% and federal action by up to 49%.

The nutritional, economic and livelihood contributions provided by aquatic food systems are threatened by climate change. Building climate resilience requires systemic interventions that reduce social vulnerabilities.

Outdoor workers may need to adapt to warming by moving labor from midday to cooler hours. Here the authors find this adaptation strategy loses efficacy under additional climate change due to increased heat exposure in the coolest hours of the day.