glmm.hp is an R package designed to evaluate the relative importance of collinear predictors within generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs). Since its initial release in January 2022, it has been rapidly gained recognition and popularity among ecologists. However, the previous glmm.hp package was limited to work GLMMs derived exclusively from the lme4 and nlme packages. The latest glmm.hp package has extended its functions. It has integrated results obtained from the glmmTMB package, thus enabling it to handle zero-inflated generalized linear mixed models (ZIGLMMs) effectively. Furthermore, it has introduced the new functionalities of commonality analysis and hierarchical partitioning for multiple linear regression models by considering both unadjusted R₂ and adjusted R2 Related Articles | Metrics

Drought represents a paramount abiotic stressor constraining global agroforestry productivity. Plants have evolved multifaceted adaptive strategies involving active modulation of symbiotic microbial communities to mitigate drought stress. These plant-associated microbes enhance plant drought adaptation via five principal mechanisms: (i) extracellular polymeric substance-mediated biofilm formation on plant surface enhances hydroregulation and edaphic structural stability; (ii) osmoprotectant biosynthesis (e.g., proline) maintains cellular osmotic equilibrium; (iii) synthesizing antioxidants to reduce damage from reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress; (iv) regulating plant phytohormone metabolism by secreting hormones (e.g. indole-3-acetic acid) and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic deaminase; (v) emitting signaling molecules (e.g. volatile organic compounds, hormones and enzymes) to activate plant drought adaptation. Future researches should focus on the development of host-specific drought-adaptive microbial consortia while elucidating phyllosphere–rhizosphere microbiome crosstalk, ultimately harnessing translational microbiome engineering to evaluate their efficacy in multi-environment agricultural systems.

The tree height-diameter at breast height (H-DBH) and crown radius-DBH (CR-DBH) relationships are key for forest carbon/biomass estimation, parameterization in vegetation models and vegetation-atmosphere interactions. Although the H-DBH relationship has been widely investigated on site or regional scales, and a few of studies have involved CR-DBH relationships based on plot-level data, few studies have quantitatively verified the universality of these two relationships on a global scale. This study evaluated the ability of 29 functions to fit the H-DBH and CR-DBH relationships for six different plant functional types (PFTs) on a global scale, based on a global plant trait database. Results showed that most functions were able to capture the H-DBH relationship for tropical PFTs and boreal needleleaf trees relatively accurately, but slightly less for temperate PFTs and boreal broadleaf trees (BB). For boreal PFTs, the S-shaped Logistic function fitted the H-DBH relationship best, while for temperate PFTs the Chapman-Richards function performed well. For tropical needleleaf trees, the fractional function of DBH satisfactorily captured the H-DBH relationship, while for tropical broadleaf trees, the Weibull function and a composite function of fractions were the best choices. For CR-DBH, the fitting capabilities of all the functions were comparable for all PFTs except BB. The Logistic function performed best for two boreal PFTs and temperate broadleaf trees, but for temperate needleleaf trees and two tropical PFTs, some exponential functions demonstrated higher skill. This work provides valuable information for parameterization improvements in vegetation models and forest field investigations.

The evolution and expression of floral traits are responsive to selection pressure from biotic and abiotic factors. Although floral traits significantly vary among environments, the flower remains unchanged. We aimed to understand the adaptation of Epimedium chlorandrum of floral traits to a frequently nocturnally rainy and wet environments and the roles of floral traits in pollination and reproduction. We observed flowering phenology, measured floral characteristics including the number of pollen grains and ovules per flower, measured pollen viability and stigma receptivity, tested the volume and sugar concentration of nectar and conducted flower-visit observations in this species. Different pollination treatments were performed to characterize the breeding system. The inner sepals and highly curved longer spurs of E. chlorandrum jointly formed an umbrella that shielded the anthers and stigma from rain wash and prevented nectar dilution. Epimedium chlorandrum was visited by six species, while Bombus trifasciatus was the only effective pollinator and fed on the nectar. One flower secreted approximately 17.06 µL of nectar with a 29.19 g/100 mL sugar concentration, and the pollination efficiency of B. trifasciatus was positively associated with the nectar sugar concentration. The self- and open-pollination treatments resulted in fewer fertile seeds than the cross-pollination treatment. In contrast, the autonomous self- pollination treatment failed to yield fertile seeds. In summary, pollen limitation caused by harsh weather and pollinator shortage occurred during the pollination process of E. chlorandrum, which was partially alleviated by self-compatibility.

The decline in tree growth has become a global issue. It is critically important to explore the factors affecting tree growth under the background of global climate change to understand tree growth models. A database was established based on Robinia pseudoacacia growth and its driving factors on China’s Loess Plateau. Linear regression and three machine learning methods, including support vector machine, random forest (RF) and gradient boosting machine were used to develop R. pseudoacacia growth models considering forest age, density, climate factors and topographic factors. The root mean square deviation method was adopted to quantitatively assess the relationship between tree growth and soil properties. The average tree height of R. pseudoacacia on the Loess Plateau was 8.8 ± 0.1 m, the average diameter at breast height (DBH) was 10.4 ± 0.1 cm and the average crown diameter was 3.2 ± 0.1 m. The RF model was a fast and effective machine learning method for predicting R. pseudoacacia growth, which showed the best simulation capability and could account for 67% of tree height variability and 55% of DBH variability. Model importance indicated that forest age and stand density were the main factors predicting R. pseudoacacia growth, followed by climate factors. The trade-off between R. pseudoacacia growth and soil properties revealed that soil texture and soil pH were the primary determinants of R. pseudoacacia growth in this region. Our synthesis provides a good framework for sustainable forest management in vulnerable ecological areas under future climate change.

Phylosymbiosis, the congruence of microbiome composition with host phylogeny, is a valuable framework for investigating plant–microbe associations and their evolutionary ecology. This review assesses the prevalence of phylosymbiosis across the plant kingdom, elucidates the fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes contributing to its occurrence based on previous research and explores commonly used methods for identifying phylosymbiosis. We find that the presence of phylosymbiosis may be influenced by both phylogenetic distance and the taxonomic level at which host plants are examined, with the strength of associations potentially decreasing as the taxonomic scale becomes finer. Notably, the endophytic microbiome exhibits a stronger phylosymbiosis signal compared with the epiphytic or rhizosphere-associated microbiomes. Microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria can yield highly variable evidence for phylosymbiosis due to differences in colonization, transmission or functional characteristics. We also outline how the four community assembly processes (dispersal, selection, diversification and drift) contribute to the establishment and maintenance of host–microbe phylosymbiosis. Furthermore, we highlight the diversity of methods employed to detect phylosymbiosis, which involves three key processes: constructing host phylogenies, assessing microbial data and statistically evaluating the correlation between host phylogeny and microbial composition. Remarkably different methodologies across studies make comparisons between findings challenging. To advance our understanding, future research is expected to explore phylosymbiosis at lower taxonomic levels and investigate different microbial communities coexisting synergistically within the same host. Understanding the relative importance of community assembly processes in driving phylosymbiosis will be critical for gaining deeper insights into the ecology and evolution of host–microbe interactions.

The survival and reproduction of plants in a particular region are closely related to the local ecological niche. The use of species distribution models based on the ecological niche concept to predict potential distributions can effectively guide the protection of endangered plants, prevention and control of invasive plants, and plant introduction and ex-situ conservation. However, traditional methods and processes for predicting potential distributions of plants are tedious and complex, requiring the collection and processing of large amounts of data and the manual operation of multiple tools. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve large-scale prediction of the potential distributions of plants. To address these limitations, by collecting and organizing a large amount of basic data, occurrence records, and environmental data and integrating species distribution models and mapping techniques, a workflow to automatically predict the potential distributions of Chinese plants was established, thus the innovative work of predicting the potential distributions of 32 000 species of plants in China was completed. Furthermore, an online platform for predicting plant distributions in China based on visualization technology was developed, providing a basis for sharing the prediction results across a wide range of scientists and technologists. Users can quickly access information about the potential distributions of plants in China, providing a reference for the collection, preservation, and protection of plant resources. In addition, users can quickly predict the potential distribution of a certain plant in a certain region across China according to specific needs, thus providing technical support for biodiversity conservation.

Wood density (WD) indicates important plant functions and plays a key role in carbon cycling of forest ecosystems by affecting wood decomposition. However, how WD varies globally and how it evolved through the evolutionary history of angiosperms remain unclear. Here, by integrating data of WD, phylogeny and distributions for angiosperms worldwide, we estimated global spatiotemporal patterns of WD and their relationships with modern climate and paleoclimate. We found that mean WD decreased with latitude in the northern hemisphere but increased with latitude in the southern hemisphere. The interspecific WD variation within each geographic unit did not show clear latitudinal gradients. Temperature was the best predictor of the global geographic pattern in mean WD, while the geographic variation in mean WD across high-temperature regions could be explained by geographic variation in precipitation and precipitation seasonality (PS). Since the Cenozoic (66 million years ago (Mya)), WD increased first (until 20 Mya) and then decreased. In general, the Cenozoic WD was positively correlated with paleotemperature and negatively correlated with paleoprecipitation, especially during more arid periods. Interestingly, the evolutionary trends of WD on different continents differed, which corresponded to the divergence in WD patterns and their relationships with modern climate on different continents. Our results highlight the dominant effect of environmental temperature on global variation in angiosperm WD with an additional strong effect of PS. Our study also demonstrates the critical role of aridity and biogeographic idiosyncrasies in driving angiosperm WD evolution.

In the early 20th century, numerous western botanists, often referred to as “plant hunters”, embarked on ambitious expeditions to China, playing a crucial role in the study of botany and botanical diversity. Despite their contributions, comprehensive assessments of their explorations are lacking. To bridge this gap, this article focuses on the work of Joseph Charles Francis Rock, a notable figure in that era. Our work revisits Rock’s botanical expeditions within the broader context of botanical diversity conservation. It outlines his historical experiences in collecting plants in China and enumerates the species composition and phenotypic traits of the plants he collected. Additionally, it also analyzes the spatial distribution of the species, the completeness of his collection, and the α-diversity and β-diversity of the plants he collected. Our findings reveal that Rock led four major botanical expeditions in China between 1922 and 1933, amassing a total of 28,184 sheets and 16,608 numbers across 204 families, 1,081 genera, and 4,231 species. His focus was predominantly on ornamental species, which exhibit a variety of flower colors and inflorescences. His collection work spanned 5 provinces, 35 cities, and 72 counties, with a notable concentration in the Hengduan Mountains, a current biodiversity hotspot. This study not only reconstructs Rock’s botanical legacy but also offers valuable historical data and fresh analytical insights for understanding contemporary plant diversity. It contributes to the ongoing discourse on the importance of preserving plant diversity as a cornerstone of environmental sustainability.

It is feasible for widely distributed mosses to monitor atmospheric nitrogen deposition in northern China, a global hotspot of atmospheric nitrogen pollution. Based on the nitrogen contents and nitrogen isotope values of mosses collected at Mengshan, Shandong Province in 2012, 2018 and 2022, we established a bottom-up method to calculate local atmospheric nitrogen deposition levels and source contributions. Moss nitrogen contents increased from 1.9 ± 0.2% in 2012 to 2.1 ± 0.4% in 2018, and to 2.4 ± 0.3% in 2022. On the contrary, moss nitrogen isotope values decreased from −7.5 ± 1.5‰ in 2012 to −8.6 ± 1.6‰ in 2018 and to −9.6 ± 1.3‰ in 2022. From 2012 to 2022, the total nitrogen deposition fluxes increased significantly (from 34.2 to 39.9 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹), especially the fluxes of ammonium-nitrogen deposition increased. Based on the results of Bayesian stable isotope analysis, volatilization-related ammonia (mainly from fertilizer applications and wastes) was predominant in ammonium-nitrogen deposition in the last decade. Fossil fuel nitrogen oxides contributed more than non-fossil fuel nitrogen oxides to nitrate-nitrogen deposition. Our results reveal that it is urgent to control volatilization-related ammonia and fossil fuel nitrogen oxides emission sources, which are the major contributors to atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the Mengshan area.

Tree allometric models based on height (H) and diameter (D) are the most commonly used method to estimate forest biomass. Environments and stand characteristics are recognized to affect tree allometries. However, few studies have considered to incorporate these effects into allometric models, which restricts the use of these models in a wide domain. Adopting the power-law function Y = aG^b as a basic model where Y is either tree height or biomass and the corresponding G is tree diameter D at breast height or D²H, we developed a two-step approximation procedure to quantify the effects of environments and stand characteristics on allometric coeffcients a and b for Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus forest in China. Results show that most of the allometric coeffcients are dependent on stand characteristics for C. lanceolata forest, and on mean annual temperature, stand age and latitude for Pinus forest. The allometric models via the two-step approximation Y = f(α + α_jx_j) G^{f (β+βixi)} (x_j or x_i are key drivers associated with environments and stand characteristics. α, α_j,β and β_i are regression coeffcients) considerably improved the accuracy of tree height and biomass estimation. Compared to the basic model, the second approximation models signifcantly reduced the mean absolute bias between the observed and computed values by 25%–34% for C. lanceolata and by 21%–26% for Pinus forest, respectively. Our results highlight the necessity of incorporating environments and stand characteristics into the allometric models and provide a universal method to accurately estimate H-D-based tree biomass across a wider domain.

The Loess Plateau (LP) of China stands out as one of the world’s most prominent greening hotspots. While previous studies have largely attributed this greening to ecological restoration initiatives such as ‘Grain for Green Program (GFGP)’, it remains unclear whether the observed increase in vegetation greenness is primarily due to land use changes related to GFGP or to vegetation restoration within unchanged land use types. To address the knowledge gap, this study utilizes high-resolution (30 m) vegetation greenness and land use data to quantitatively assess the contributions of different greenness baselines and land use types to the overall greening of the LP from 2000 to 2020. Our findings revealed a significant upward trend in vegetation greenness across the LP during the study period. Notably, stable grasslands with lower-greenness baselines emerged as the largest contributor to regional greening, accounting for 47.6% of the observed increase, followed by stable croplands at 36.8%. Ecosystems with greenness-baseline values between 0.2 and 0.5 played a pivotal role in driving the greening process, with the most substantial increases occurring in areas characterized by lower-greenness baselines. In contrast, regions with higher-greenness baselines exhibited relatively modest improvements. Importantly, this study demonstrates that the greening of the LP was predominantly driven by the enhancement in grasslands and croplands with lower-greenness baselines, rather than by land use conversions such as cropland-to-forest or cropland-to-grassland transitions. By highlighting the disproportionate contribution of lower-greenness-baseline areas, this research provides scientific evidence and novel perspectives to inform the protection and restoration of degraded ecosystems at regional and national scales.

Grazing exerts a profound influence on both the plant diversity and productivity of grasslands, while simultaneously exerting a significant impact on regulating grassland soil carbon sequestration. Moreover, besides altering the taxonomic diversity of plant communities, grazing can also affect their diversity of functional traits. However, we still poorly understand how grazing modifies the relationship between plant functional diversity (FD) and soil carbon sequestration in grassland ecosystems. Here, we conducted a grazing manipulation experiment to investigate the effects of different grazing regimes (no grazing, sheep grazing (SG) and cattle grazing (CG)) on the relationships between plant FD and soil carbon sequestration in meadow and desert steppe. Our findings showed that different livestock species changed the relationships between plant FD and soil organic carbon (SOC) in the meadow steppe. SG decoupled the originally positive relationship between FD and SOC, whereas CG changed the relationship from positive to negative. In the desert steppe, both SG and CG strengthened the positive relationship between FD and SOC. Our study illuminates the considerable impact of livestock species on the intricate mechanisms of soil carbon sequestration, primarily mediated through the modulation of various measures of functional trait diversity. In ungrazed meadows and grazed deserts, maintaining high plant FD is conducive to soil carbon sequestration, whereas in grazed meadows and ungrazed deserts, this relationship may disappear or even reverse. By measuring the traits and controlling the grazing activities, we can accurately predict the carbon sequestration potential in grassland ecosystems.

Climate refugia can serve as a remnant habitat or stepping stones for species dispersal under climate warming. The largest freshwater lake by surface area, Lake Superior, USA and Canada, serves as a model system for understanding cooling-mediated local refugia, as its cool water temperatures and wave action have maintained shoreline habitats suitable for southern disjunct populations of arctic–alpine plants since deglaciation. Here, we seek to explain spatial patterns and environmental drivers of arctic–alpine plant refugia along Lake Superior’s shores, and assess future risk to refugia under moderate (+3.5 °C) and warmest (+5.7 °C) climate warming scenarios. First, we examined how the interactive effects of summer surface water temperatures and wind affected onshore temperatures, resulting in areas of cooler refugia. Second, we developed an ecological niche model for the presence of disjunct arctic–alpine refugia (pooling 1253 occurrences from 58 species) along the lake’s shoreline. Third, we fit species distribution models for 20 of the most common arctic–alpine disjunct species and predicted presence to identify refugia hotspots. Finally, we used the two climate warming scenarios to predict changes in the presence of refugia and disjunct hotspots. Bedrock type, elevation above water, inland distance, July land surface temperature from MODIS/Terra satellite and near-shore depth of water were the best predictors of disjunct occurrences. Overall, we predicted 2236 km of the shoreline (51%) as disjunct refugia habitat for at least one species under current conditions, but this was reduced to 20% and 7% with moderate (894 km) and warmest (313 km) climate change projections.

Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses that limits plant growth. Roots, the primary organs responsible for water uptake, are the first to perceive and respond to water deficit conditions. Therefore, maintaining activity and promoting primary root elongation under drought stress are considered critical adaptive strategies for drought survival. However, despite increasing evidence of primary root elongation under drought stress, the underlying mechanisms, particularly hormonal regulation and its integration with environmental cues, remain poorly understood across different species and developmental contexts. Previous studies have shown that a highly coordinated network of plant hormone crosstalk plays a significant role in this adaptive process. In this review, data from diverse plant species confirmed the promoting effect of drought on primary root growth. This study further elucidated the role of abscisic acid (ABA) in enhancing primary root growth under drought conditions and explored the potential coordination of ABA with other hormones, including ethylene, auxin, and cytokinin, to synergistically promote primary root elongation. Furthermore, several physiological processes, such as cell cycle regulation, osmotic adjustment, and lateral root growth dynamics, had been systematically investigated for their contributions to this adaptive response. By dissecting these mechanisms, this study aims to propose feasible strategies to increase plant drought tolerance through targeted root system architecture modification, addressing challenges posed by future climate scenarios.

A meandering riverbank plays a vital role in maintaining natural river ecosystems, providing habitats for riparian vegetation. However, dams have significantly altered riverbank shapes. To restore the riparian ecosystems, it is imperative to understand how different riverbank curvatures influence them. This study aims to uncover the ecological impacts of riverbank curvature on the structure and assembly process of plant communities in the riparian zone of the Yangtze River, regulated by the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) in China. We categorized the riparian zones into four types: cove, lobe, wavy and linear shapes. We documented the composition and diversity of riparian plant communities. Our findings revealed that wavy and cove riverbanks exhibited greater species diversity (with Shannon–Wiener diversity index values 1.5× higher) compared to communities along linear riverbanks. Furthermore, the analysis of functional traits indicated that wavy riverbanks promoted the differentiation of plant functional traits, thus enhancing ecosystem functions, with functional dispersion index (FDis) values 1.3 times higher than those of linear riverbanks. Significant variations in the assembly of riparian communities were also observed among different riverbanks, with standardized effect size (SES) values indicating a higher degree of niche differentiation in cove riverbanks (SES = 0.4) compared to linear riverbanks (SES = –0.6). These results highlight the ecological importance of diverse riverbank curvatures in influencing the diversity, structure and assembly of riparian communities along the waterway. In summary, this study underscores the necessity of maintaining or restoring various natural morphological curvatures when rehabilitating riparian communities along rivers impacted by human activities.

Species coculture can increase agro-biodiversity and therefore constitutes an ecological intensification measure for agriculture. Rice-aquatic animal coculture, one type of species coculture, has been practiced and researched widely. Here, we review recent studies and present results of a quantitative analysis of literature on rice-aquatic animal coculture systems. We address three questions: (i) can rice yield and soil fertility be maintained or increased with less chemical input through rice-aquatic animal coculture? (ii) how do aquatic animals benefit the paddy ecosystem? (iii) how can coculture be implemented for ecological intensification? Meta-analysis based on published papers showed that rice-aquatic animal cocultures increased rice yield, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen and decreased insect pests and weeds compared with rice monocultures. Studies also showed that rice-aquatic animal cocultures reduced pesticide and fertilizer application compared with rice monocultures. Rice plants provide a beneficial environment for aquatic animals, leading to high animal activities in the field. Aquatic animals, in turn, help remove rice pests and act as ecological engineers that affect soil conditions, which favor the growth of rice plants. Aquatic animals promote nutrient cycling and the complementary use of nutrients between rice and aquatic animals, which enhances nutrient-use efficiency in the coculture. To generate beneficial outcomes, how to develop compatible partnerships between rice and aquatic animals, and compatible culturing strategies for coculture systems are the key points. Investigating which traits of aquatic animals and rice varieties could best match to create productive and sustainable coculture systems could be one of the future focuses.

The ecology of plant species relies on the synchronous functioning of leaves and roots, but few studies have simultaneously examined the community trait dispersion (CTD) patterns of both organs. We measured 16 analogous leaf and root traits on 44 co-occurring woody species in a subtropical forest in southern China, aiming to examine whether leaf and root traits were coordinated, organized into parallel trait axes, exhibited similar CTD, and displayed consistent responses in CTD and community-weighted means of (CWM) traits over environmental gradients. While the first axes of leaf and root trait variation similarly exhibited a fast-slow continuum, leaf traits covered a secondary “carbon economics” axis, contrasting to root traits depicting a collaboration axis reflecting species’ mycorrhizal dependency. Analogous leaf and root chemical traits were generally coordinated but less so for morphological traits. At the community level, changes in the CWM of the first axes were generally consistent among organs with more conservative traits found as increasing elevation but not for the second axis. While root traits became thinner and more conservative as soil phosphorus concentration decreased, leaf traits rarely varied. When different trait axes were combined, leaf traits were overdispersed but tended to converge with increased elevation and soil potassium and phosphorus levels, whereas root traits were clustered but tended to diverge along the same gradients. Our study highlights fine filtering of different suites of traits above- and belowground, which in turn might reduce overall niche overlap among species and promote coexistence with diverse functional designs.

Drought can greatly impact the biodiversity of an ecosystem and play a crucial role in regulating its functioning. However, the specific mechanisms by which drought mediate the biodiversity effect (BE) on community biomass in above- and belowground through functional traits remain poorly understood. Here, we conducted a common garden experiment in a greenhouse, which included two plant species richness levels and two water addition levels, to analyze the effects of biodiversity on aboveground biomass (AGB), belowground biomass (BGB) and total biomass (TB), and to quantify the relationship between BEs and functional traits under drought conditions. Our analysis focused on partitioning BEs into above- and belowground complementarity effect (CE) and selection effect (SE) at the species level, which allowed us to better understand the impacts of biodiversity on community biomass and the underlying mechanisms. Our results showed that plant species richness stimulated AGB, BGB and TB through CEs. Drought decreased AGB, BGB and TB, simultaneously. In addition, the aboveground CE was positively associated with the variation in plant height. SEs in above- and belowground were negatively correlated with the community mean plant height and root length, respectively. Furthermore, drought weakened the aboveground CE by decreasing variation in plant height, resulting in a reduction in AGB and TB. Our findings demonstrate that the complementarity of species is an important regulator of community biomass in above- and belowground, the dynamics of biomass under environmental stress are associated with the response of sensitive compartments.

The evolution of land use/land cover (LULC) patterns significantly influences the dynamics of carbon storage (CS) in terrestrial ecosystems. In response to future environmental changes, however, most studies fail to synthesize the effects of policy pathways and evolving core driving factors on LULC projections. This article presents a systematic framework to assess the dynamic response of the terrestrial ecosystem CS to future LULC changes. After investigating spatiotemporal characteristics and driving forces, policy effects and future core driving factors are integrated into the improved Markov–future land use simulation model to project LULC across diverse scenarios. Then the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Service and Tradeoff model is coupled to explore CS dynamics with LULC changes. This framework was applied to the Weihe River Basin. The finding reveals that the overall proportion of cultivated land, forestland and grassland is above 85% and is significantly influenced by policy effects. Precipitation, temperature, population density and gross domestic product are core driving factors of LULC changes. Equal-interval projection is a viable approach to mitigate policy impacts by avoiding error propagation while coupling future core driving factors to improve LULC projection accuracy. Ecological protection should be emphasized in the future. The rate of increase in CS is 1.25 and 1.63 times higher than the historical trend and economic development scenario, respectively, which alleviates carbon loss from the expansion of built-up land. This research provides a valuable reference for future insight and optimization of ecological conservation strategies.

In the Eurasian forest-steppe, with increasing aridity, the balance between naturally co-existing forest and grassland patches is expected to shift towards grassland dominance in the long run, although feedback mechanisms and changes in land-use may alter this process. In this study, we compared old and recent aerial photographs of Hungarian forest-steppes to find out whether and how the forest proportion and the number of forest patches change at the decadal time scale. The percentage area covered by forest significantly increased in all study sites. The observed forest encroachment may be a legacy from earlier land-use: due to ceased or reduced grazing pressure, forests are invading grasslands until the potential forest cover allowed by climate and soil is reached. The number of forest patches significantly increased at one site (Fülöpháza), while it decreased at two sites (Bugac and Orgovány) and showed no significant change at the fourth site (Tázlár). This indicates that forest encroachment can happen at least in two different ways: through the emergence of new forest patches in the grassland, and through the extension and coalescence of already existing forest patches. Though the present work revealed increasing tree cover at a decadal time scale, the dynamic process should be monitored in the future to see how the vegetation reacts to further aridification. This could help devise a conservation strategy, as the woody/non-woody balance has a profound influence on basic ecosystem properties.

Invasive plants often generate more positive plant–soil feedbacks (PSFs) than natives. The direction and strength of PSFs have been affected by resource availability and conspecific plant density, but their joint effects on PSFs of invasive plants have not been examined. We conducted a two-phase PSF experiment to examine how soil nutrient availability and planting density affect feedback with soil biota between a community of five invasive Asteraceae plants (two clonal species) and four co-occurring native plants (one clonal species). Soil biota from invaders did not inhibit plant growth, but soil biota from natives did so. The difference in PSFs between geographic origins was most pronounced under high-nutrient and high-density conditions where the biomass of natives in conspecific soils was much lower than that in soils conditioned by heterospecific invaders. Clonality and its inter-actions with nutrient and density did not affect PSFs. Soils from invaders had a higher diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and soils from invaders and natives differed in the composition of pathogenic fungi. Our results may explain why invaders but not natives often form dense monocultural stands. That is, as plants take advantage of increased nutrient supply and conspecific density increases, PSFs change little for invaders, but they change to be highly negative for natives, preventing them from forming dense monocultural stands. This invasion mechanism may be particularly pertinent to clonal invaders, as they can swiftly proliferate within habitats via clonal reproduction without encountering negative density dependence, thus establishing dense monocultural stands rapidly from just a few individuals.

The biomass of wetland plants is highly responsive to environmental factors and plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool. In this study, we collected and analyzed global data on wetland plant biomass from 1980 to 2021. By examining 1134 observations from 182 published papers on wetland ecosystems, we created a comprehensive database of wetland plant above-ground biomass (AGB) and below-ground biomass (BGB). Using this database, we analyzed the biomass characteristics of different climate zones, wetland types and plant species globally. Based on this, we analyzed the differences between the biomass of different plant species and the linkage between AGB and BGB and organic carbon. Our study has revealed that wetland plant AGB is greater in equatorial regions but BGB is highest in polar areas, and lowest in arid and equatorial zones. For plant species, the BGB of the Poales is higher than the AGB but Caryophyllales, Cyperales and Lamiales have higher AGB. Moreover, our findings indicate that BGB plays a more significant role in contributing to the organic carbon pool compared to AGB. Notably, when BGB is less than 1 t C ha⁻¹, even slight changes in biomass can have a significant impact on the organic carbon pool. And we observed that the SOC increases by 5.7 t C ha⁻¹ when the BGB content is low, indicating that the SOC is more sensitive to changes in biomass under such circumstances. Our study provides a basis for the global response of AGB and BGB of wetland plants to organic carbon.

The distribution and assembly of plant species is a fundamental ecological question. Understanding how various drivers of community assembly vary along elevational gradients and differentially affect species occurrence versus abundance is critically important. Using an advanced tool, the joint species distribution model (JSDM), we aim to investigate shifts in the relative importance of climatic and non-climatic effects on forest community assembly along large elevational gradients, and to compare the elevational trends of these effects on species occurrence and abundance. We documented 243 forest plots, each with a size of 20 × 30 m, along elevational gradients (700–3650 m) of Qinling Mountains, the highest mountain in Central China. We performed JSDMs to quantify the relative importance of climatic and non-climatic effects on species occurrence and abundance along elevational gradients. Climatic and non-climatic effects exhibited distinct elevational trends and differed in their respective influences on species occurrence and abundance. The influence of climate on species abundance increased with elevation, whereas its effect on species occurrence showed a weak decline. At lower elevations, species occurrence was mainly determined by climate, while abundance was affected by both climatic and non-climatic drivers. At higher elevations, climate emerged as the dominant factor affecting both occurrence and abundance. Our study reveals different trends of climate and non-climate effects on species occurrence versus abundance. These findings underscore the importance of jointly considering both types of environmental drivers and both occurrence and abundance, which is critical for predicting community dynamics under climate change and guiding conservation strategies.

Ecological intensification (EI) is the enhancement of ecosystem services to complement or substitute for the role of anthropogenic inputs in maintaining or increasing yields. EI has potential to increase farming’s environmental sustainability, e.g. reducing environmentally harmful management activities while sustaining yields. EI is based upon ecological processes which in turn are influenced by biodiversity. We review how biodiversity, particularly vascular plant diversity, can regulate ecosystem processes relevant to EI at multiple spatial scales. At an individual plant genotype level, complementarity in functional traits has a direct impact on productivity. At in-field, population level, mixtures of crop types confer resilience to minimize the risk of pest and disease incidence and spread. Scaling up to the field level, a diversity of non-crop plants (i.e. weeds) provides resources necessary for in-field functional processes, both below ground (carbon inputs, decomposition) and above ground (resource continuity for pollinators and natural enemies). At the landscape scale, mosaics of semi-natural and managed vegetation provide buffers against extreme events through flood and drought risk mitigation, climate amelioration and pest population regulation. Overall this emphasizes the importance of heterogeneity across scales in maintaining ecosystem functions in farmland. Major research challenges highlighted by our review include the need: to better integrate plant functional diversity (from traits to habitat scales) into cropping system design; to quantify the (likely interactive) contribution of plant diversity for effective EI relative to other management options; and to optimize through targeted management the system function benefits of biodiversity for resilient, efficient and productive agroecosystems.

Evergreen and deciduous species coexist in the subtropical forests in southeastern China. It has been suggested that phosphorus (P) is the main limiting nutrient in subtropical forests, and that evergreen and deciduous species adopt different carbon capture strategies to deal with this limitation. However, these hypotheses have not been examined empirically to a sufficient degree. In order to fill this knowledge gap, we measured leaf photosynthetic and respiration rates, and nutrient traits related to P-, nitrogen (N)- and carbon (C)-use efficiencies and resorption using 75 woody species (44 evergreen and 31 deciduous species) sampled in a subtropical forest. The photosynthetic N-use efficiency (PNUE), respiration rate per unit N and P (R_d,N and R_d,P, respectively) of the deciduous species were all significantly higher than those of evergreen species, but not in the case of photosynthetic P-use efficiency. These results indicate that, for any given leaf P, evergreen species manifest higher carbon-use efficiency (CUE) than deciduous species, a speculation that is empirically confirmed. In addition, no significant differences were observed between deciduous and evergreen species for nitrogen resorption efficiency, phosphorus resorption efficiency or N:P ratios. These results indicate that evergreen species coexist with deciduous species and maintain dominance in P-limited subtropical forests by maintaining CUE. Our results also indicate that it is important to compare the PNUE of deciduous species with evergreen species in other biomes. These observations provide insights into modeling community dynamics in subtropical forests, particularly in light of future climate change.

Legumes play critical roles in agroecosystems by modulating nitrogen-fixing microorganisms to enhance soil fertility and promote crop productivity. Current research on the effects of legumes predominantly focuses on surface soil, lacking a comprehensive analysis of their overall impact across multiple soil layers and an in-depth understanding of associated microbial mechanisms. Here, the community structure of soil nitrogen-fixing microorganisms in three soil layers (0–20 cm, 20–50 cm and 50–100 cm) under legume and non-legume cultivation was investigated through metagenomic sequencing. We found that only in topsoil (0–20 cm) legume treatment exhibited a significantly higher relative abundance of nitrogen-fixing genes than non-legume treatment. Under legume cultivation, the relative abundance of nitrogen-fixing genes was significantly higher in the topsoil layer than in deeper layers, whereas non-legume treatment displayed an inverse depth-dependent pattern. Combining soil physicochemical properties, the relative abundance of nitrogen-fixing genes correlated significantly with soil moisture, total carbon (TC), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content. Both TC and DOC were identified as key drivers of these genes. Subsequently, a similar depth-dependent pattern within the relative abundance of soil carbon degradation genes was found in response to the cultivation of both crops. The relative abundances of soil carbon degradation genes were negatively correlated with nitrogen-fixing genes under legume treatment individually, distinct from non-legume treatment. Our findings highlight the depth-dependent impact of legumes on nitrogen fixation and the critical interaction between soil carbon degradation and nitrogen fixation, providing insights into carbon management in legume cultivation practices to enhance nitrogen fixation in future agriculture.

We screened 161 eligible papers of experimental data across the Tibetan plateau for Meta-analysis, in order to systematically assess and validate potential application of plant resource allocation strategies, such as the optimal allocation hypothesis, the isometric allocation hypothesis, and the allometric allocation hypothesis under environmental changes, and to explore the effects of environmental factors (temperature change, grazing intensity) on plant resource allocation strategies in alpine grassland ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau. Overall, we found that the aboveground and belowground growth relationship in alpine grasslands follows the allometric growth hypothesis, which was unaffected by warming, grazing and their interactions. In addition, the biomass transferred between aboveground and belowground, the former was decreased, while the later was increased under warming condition in alpine steppe implies that the resource allocation strategy in alpine steppe grassland may potentially follow the optimal allocation hypothesis. We further found that the effect of soil properties on biomass, not the biomass allocation, was different under warming and grazing condition in alpine grasslands, which further conforms the above conclusion. In addition, warming helped to mitigate the negative effects of grazing, which indicated that the interaction between warming and grazing is important in alpine grassland ecosystems. Overall, results of this study are of theoretical significance for understanding how moderate grazing affects the growth of plants in alpine grasslands under changing climate.

Variations in plant traits are indicative of plant adaptations to forest environments, and studying their relationships with tree growth provides valuable insights into forest regeneration. The spatial arrangement of plant seeds within the forest litter or soil critically influences the variations of root-leaf traits, thereby affecting the adaptive strategies of emerging seedlings. However, our current understanding of the impacts of individual root-leaf traits on seedling growth in different relative position, and whether these traits together affect growth, remains limited. This study focuses on the dominant tree species, Castanopsis kawakamii, within the Sanming C. kawakamii Nature Reserve of China. The present experiment aimed to examine the variations in root-leaf traits of seedling, focus on the relative positions of seeds within different layers: beneath or above the litter layer, or within the bare soil layer (without litter). Our findings provided evidence supporting a coordinated relationship between root and leaf traits, wherein leaf traits varied in conjunction with root traits in the relative positions of seeds. Specifically, we observed that seedlings exhibited higher values for specific leaf area and average root diameter, while displaying lower root tissue density. The mixed model explained 86.1% of the variation in root-leaf traits, surpassing the variation explained by the relative positions. Furthermore, soil nitrogen acted as a mediator, regulating the relationship between seedling growth and root-leaf traits, specifically leaf dry matter content and root tissue density. Therefore, future studies should consider artificially manipulating tree species diversity based on root-leaf traits characteristics to promote forest recovery.

Global climate change is expected to have a significant impact on ecosystems worldwide, especially for alpine meadows which are considered as one of the most vulnerable components. However, the effects of global warming on the plant nitrogen-phosphorus stoichiometry and resorption in alpine meadows remain unclear. Therefore, to investigate the plant nitrogen-phosphorus stoichiometry and resorption in alpine meadows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, we conducted an artificial warming study using open-top chambers (OTCs) over the 3 years of warming period. We selected three dominant species, four height types of OTCs (0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 m) and four warming methods (year-round warming, winter warming, summer-autumn-winter warming and spring- summer-autumn warming in the experiment) in this experiment. In our study, soil temperature significantly increased with increasing the height of OCTs under the different warming methods. Kobresia pygmaea presented an increase in nitrogen (N) limitation and Kobresia humilis presented an increase in phosphorus (P) limitation with increasing temperature, while Potentilla saundersiana was insensitive to temperature changes in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus limitations. Both nitrogen resorption efficiency:phosphorus resorption efficiency and N:P trends in response to rising temperatures were in the same direction. The differential responses of the chemical stoichiometry of the three species to warming were observed, reflecting that the responses of nitrogen and phosphorus limitations to warming are multifaceted, and the grassland ecosystems may exhibit a certain degree of self-regulatory capability. Our results show that using chemical dosage indicators of a single dominant species to represent the nitrogen and phosphorus limitations of the entire ecosystem is inaccurate, and using N:P to reflect the nutritional limitations might have been somewhat misjudged in the context of global warming.

Floral syndrome is one of the key components of plant pollination syndromes, affecting variety of evolutionary and ecological processes in angiosperms. The evolutionary transition from self-incompatible heterostyly to self-compatible homostyly occurred repeatedly in angiosperm families. Although the evolution of heterostyly and homostyly has been deeply studied, our understanding on their differences in ecological strategies is still lacking. In this work, using the floral syndrome and distributions of the Primula in China we compared the spatial pattern of floral syndrome frequency and its climatic determinants. Our results reveal that distylous and homostylous Primula have similar primary centers of species diversity in southwest China, while distylous species have larger range size than homostylous ones. Temperature seasonality is the dominant climate factor of these geographic patterns, but its effect is much stronger in distylous than in homostylous Primula. Distylous species have larger flower size and number, and fruit size than homostylous ones. Climate, especially temperature seasonality mainly influenced species range size via its effects on floral syndrome. Our study suggests that homostyly is likely derived from heterostylous ancestors in similar geographical context, and larger reproductive investment in floral phenotype may provide compensatory mechanisms for obligate out-breeding heterostyly. Future investigations regarding the evolutionary history and tolerance or resistance to environmental change between distyly and homostyly may greatly advance our understanding of their spatial pattern and adaptative differences.

Expansion of global trade and acceleration of climate change dramatically promote plant invasions. As a result, a large number of habitats harbor multiple invasive plant species. However, patterns of invasive interactions and the drivers mediating their interactions remain unclear. In this greenhouse, potted plant study, we tested the impacts of 18 invasive plant species on the growth of target invader Erigeron canadensis which is dominant in central China. Neighboring invasive species belong to three functional groups (grass, forb and legume) and have different levels of relatedness to E. canadensis. Growth of E. canadensis’ strongly depended on the identity of neighboring invaders. Some neighboring invasive species suppressed growth of E. canadensis, others had no effect, while some promoted growth of E. canadensis. Through analyses of functional and phylogenetic similarities between the target species and neighboring invaders, we showed that two factors probably play roles in determining the relative responses of E. canadensis. Generally, E. canadensis responded negatively to invasive grasses and forbs, while it responded positively to invasive legumes. Furthermore, the negative responses to neighboring invasive grasses and forbs increased with increasing phylogenetic distance between the neighbors and E. canadensis. In contrast, the positive responses to invasive legumes did not depend on phylogenetic distance from E. canadensis. Our results suggest that successful invasion of E. canadensis probably depends on the identity of co-occurring invasive plant species. Interactions between E. canadensis and other invasive species should help managers select management priorities.

The field of ecology has been greatly enhanced by the integration of computational tools and statistical methods, with the programming language R emerging as a pivotal and flexible tool for ecological research. As ecological studies accelerate, understanding the prevalent trends and specific usage patterns of R in recent research is crucial. This study investigated the use of R and its packages in 125 494 scholarly articles published in 40 ecology journals from 2008 to 2023. A total of 52 658 articles (42%) designated R as their principal analytical tool, demonstrating a steady linear growth in its utilization from 10.3% in 2008 to 66.9% in 2023. Twelve R packages, including ‘lme4’, ‘vegan’, ‘nlme’, ‘MuMIn’, ‘ape’, ‘ggplot2’, ‘car’, ‘mgcv’, ‘MASS’, ‘raster’, ‘multcomp’ and ‘lmerTest’, each played a pivotal role in contributing to more than 1000 scholarly articles. The highest usage rate of the 'lme4' package indicates that mixed-effect models have a particularly important role in ecological research, and the application of these models has helped ecologists solve many important scientific problems. Journal-specific package preferences aligned with their scientific domains, while the rise in the average number of R packages per article indicates a trend towards more complex and diverse analytical methods in ecology. Our findings reveal a reciprocal relationship between the development of R and ecological research, underscoring the need for collaboration among quantitative ecologists, R developers and ecologists to further advance both the language and the field. Such collaboration will not only enhance the functionality and versatility of R but also provide robust technical support for the continued progress of ecological research.

Terrestrial plants are colonized by various microorganisms in the rhizosphere, phyllosphere and endosphere. Variations of microorganisms between these niches could affect plant performance. While studies have indicated that microorganisms associated with invasive plants may facilitate their invasion success, niche effects on the composition, function and co-occurrence network of invasive plant microbiomes remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizosphere soil, root and leaf endospheres of two invasive plants, Flaveria bidentis and Eclipta prostrata. Flaveria bidentis is a recently introduced species (introduced in 2001), whereas E. prostrata has been invaded in China for over 1000 years. We found that microbial community of F. bidentis and E. prostrata harbored more specialists, fewer unique amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), and lower diversity and network complexity in the leaf endosphere than that in the rhizosphere soil. Moreover, the bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizosphere soil, root and leaf endospheres of F. bidentis were more diverse, included more unique ASVs, and had a higher network complexity than those of E. prostrata. Predicted functional profiles revealed that there were more beneficial bacteria and fewer pathogenic fungi associated with F. bidentis than those with E. prostrata. These results demonstrate that there is a significant niche differentiation in the two invasive plant microbiotas, and this work may also indicate potential impact of residence time of invasive plants on plant-microbe interactions.

Rhizosheaths can form on the surface of rice (Oryza sativa L.) roots and improve the water-use efficiency of rice under drought stress. The microbes in rhizosheaths can also offer the potential to increase the resilience of rice to future drought. However, little is known about the microbial community in rhizosheath of rice under drought stress. In this study, we compared the root traits, rhizosheath formation and microbial community in the rhizosheath under three irrigation regimes, including well-watered and drought treatments I and II. The irrigation plays important roles in influencing the microbial composition and co-occurrence networks. Drought can promote the accumulation of beneficial microorganisms in rhizosheaths, such as bacteria that are members of the phylum Patescibacteria and the Massilia, Nocardioides, Frateuria and Angustibacter genera and fungi in the genus Talaromyces. However, drought can also induce risk factors for harmful fungi in rice rhizosheaths. Our results suggest that both the rhizosheath and microbes in rhizosheath can offer the potential to improve the resistance of rice to drought. In the future, the isolation and application of beneficial microorganisms in rhizosheaths and scientific planting methods should be studied for the green cultivation of rice.

Changes in soil nitrogen mineralization can impact nutrient availability, and further affect plant growth. It is unclear, however, how temperature elevation in alpine grassland will affect soil net N mineralization rate (N_min) across altitudes. At six altitudes (3200-4200 m with an interval of 200 m) along a slope in Lenglong mountain in the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, we performed an in situ soil incubation experiment by using the resin-core method to assess altitudinal variations of N_min. Meanwhile, we evaluated the effects of temperature elevation on N_min and its temperature sensitivity (Q₁₀) through a soil downward transplantation experiment based on three reference baseline altitudes (3800, 4000 and 4200 m). The results showed that high altitudes generally led to low values of N_min. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that N_min along the altitude was mainly controlled by soil temperature. Increased temperature caused by the altitude transplantation significantly elevated N_min for all of the three reference altitudes. The value of Q₁₀ was 3.4 for soil samples transplanted from the reference altitude of 4200 m, which was about twice that of the lower reference altitudes of 4000 and 3800 m.