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Termites, the largest lineage of non-hymenopteran social insects, are important decomposers of plant organic matter in the tropics. Here, the authors sequence the genomes of 45 termites and two cockroach outgroups and investigate the influence of diet on the evolution of termite genomes.

Large variability of wood carbon fractions in different trees can lead to an error of up to 8.9% in carbon estimates for forests, according to an analysis of wood carbon data across global forested biomes.

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.

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.

Tree longevity is thought to increase in harsh environments, but global evidence of drivers is lacking. Here, the authors find two different pathways for tree longevity: slow growth in resource limited environments and increasing tree stature and/or slow growth in competitive environments.

Aqueous two-phase systems have potential as biomimetic materials, but often lack stability and are prone to collapse. Here, the authors use interfacial assembly of chitin nanofibres and cellulose nanocrystals to prepare a biobased system with permeability and switchable motility.

Tree mortality is increasing with climate change, which suggests that the biomass of dead wood is likely becoming more and more important to the global carbon cycle. Here, the authors perform a meta-analysis of the carbon content of dead wood and find that past estimates of total forest carbon were overestimated.

Inventory data from 90 lowland Amazonian forest plots and a phylogeny of 526 angiosperm genera were used to show that taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity are both predictive of wood productivity but not of biomass variation.

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.

Neotropical tree community composition shows opposing successional pathways for wet and dry forests, but as vegetation cover increases over time, trends converge. Selecting species that have similar wood density to early successional communities could improve reforestation prospects.

Sambaquis are archaeological shellmounds found in Brazil. Here, the authors use archaeological and molecular methods to show southern right whale, humpback whale, and dolphin were exploited 5000 years ago by Sambaqui groups to manufacture whale-bone harpoons and other artefacts.

Antigen presentation in skull bone marrow by hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells induces myelopoiesis and generates CD4⁺ regulatory T cells in a mouse model of ependymoma, promoting immune tolerance. Treatment with anti-GM-CSF antibody has antitumor effects that are augmented by immunotherapy.

Climate is assumed to be the predominant control on the decomposition rates of organic matter in Earth-system models. Now, research investigating the sensitivity of this relationship to spatial scale reveals the important role of local-scale factors in controlling regional decomposition dynamics.

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.

Auxin activity controls plant stem cell function. Here the authors show that in the cambium, moderate auxin activity restricts cambial stem cell number via ARF5-dependent repression of the stem‐cell‐promoting factor WOX4, while ARF3 and ARF4 promote cambial activity outside of the WOX4‐expression domain.

Saturation genome editing of a cancer mutation hotspot in CTNNB1, the gene encoding β-catenin, reveals a gradient of effects of missense mutations on Wnt signaling.

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.

Climate change can alter when and how animals grow, breed, and migrate, but it is unclear whether this allows populations to persist. This global study shows that shifts in seasonal timing are key to helping vertebrate species maintain population growth under global warming.

Wood-feeding 'higher' termites rely on their hindgut symbionts for the intitial steps in cellulose degradation. Metagenomic analysis of this microbial community reveals a diverse range of bacterial cellulase and hydrolase genes, as well as genes important in other metabolic functions, such as H2 metabolism, CO₂-reductive acetogenesis and N₂ fixation.

Radiation reaction (RR) on particles in strong fields is the subject of intense experimental research, but previous efforts lacked statistical significance due to the extreme regimes required. Here, the authors report a 5σ observation of RR and obtain strong, quantitative evidence favouring quantum models over classical, using an all-optical setup where electrons are accelerated by a laser in a gas jet before colliding with a second, intense pulse.

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

Affinity-proteomics platforms often yield poorly correlated measurements. Here, the authors show that protein-altering variants drive a portion of inter-platform inconsistency and that accounting for genetic variants can improve concordance of protein measures and phenotypic associations across ancestries.

Genome-wide association studies incorporating data for populations of African ancestry provide an expanded view of the genetic basis of schizophrenia, which has previously been studied mainly in European and East Asian cohorts.

Tree functional strategies regulate responses to water stress, but how these strategies scale up to the forest community level is not well known. This study shows coherent spatial variation in community-level trait associations across temperate forests that is linked to temperature.

China’s 2060 carbon neutrality goal relies on forestation to enhance carbon removal. This study reconciles national and scientific LULUCF carbon flux estimates, projecting that continued forestation could offset 43% of CO₂ emissions by 2060.

Unlike Amazonian forests, African forests have maintained their carbon sink until recently but by 2030 the African carbon sink will have shrunk by 14 per cent and the Amazonian sink will reach almost zero.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

Here, the authors produce an updated termite classification with genomic scale analyses, highlighting thirteen family-level lineages and resilience of their classification to future termite research.

Researchers studied the blood-based metabolome of over 23,000 people from ten ethnically diverse cohorts. They identified 235 metabolites associated with future risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). By integrating genetic and modifiable lifestyle factors, their findings provide insights into T2D mechanisms and could improve risk prediction and inform precision prevention.

A plasma lens capable of focusing broadband extreme-ultraviolet attosecond pulses is demonstrated.

The chimeric candidate Zika virus vaccine YF-ZIK has been previously shown to confer protection in mice after a single dose regimen. Here the authors further characterise the response to YF-ZIK and show induction of immunity and protection in non-human primates.

In the river Rhine, almost 70% of litter particles above 1 cm in diameter are plastics, most of which come from single-use items, often from private consumers, but they comprise less than 15% of all litter by weight, according to continuous monitoring over 16 months with a custom-made physical-interception litter trap.

It is unclear whether CO₂-stimulation of photosynthesis can propagate through slower ecosystem processes and lead to long-term increases in terrestrial carbon. Here the authors show that CO₂-stimulation of photosynthesis leads to a 30% increase in forest regrowth over a decade of CO₂ enrichment.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

While experiments in younger trees support increased production under higher CO₂, it is unclear whether more mature trees can respond similarly. Here, the authors show increased production of biomass in a 180-year-old Quercus robur L. woodland under 7 years of free-air CO₂ enrichment (FACE).

Rainforest conversion to plantations driven by global demand for agricultural products generates high environmental costs. Here, the authors show that the high oil palm plantation production efficiency is associated with decreased carbon storage and slower organic matter cycling that affect ecosystem services.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

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.

Loss of peat through increased burning will have major impacts on the global carbon cycle. Here, the authors use pyrolysis combustion flow calorimetry to determine the temperature of maximum thermal decomposition (T_max) of peats from different latitudes, and couple this to a botanical composition analysis.

Across 97% of forest area from eight million sampled forested locations worldwide, the density of aboveground biomass is lower near forest edges than in forest interiors. Given widespread forest fragmentation, this edge effect is estimated to be responsible for 9% reduction in forest aboveground biomass.