Root-filled soils are hot spots of nutrient cycling and carbon storage. New research finds that the world has lost millions of cubic meters of rooted soil volume—and we’re on track to lose much more.
plants
Posted inResearch Spotlights
High-Frequency Monitoring Reveals Riverine Nitrogen Removal
Years of daily readings provide an unprecedented view into how a submerged aquatic meadow kept nitrogen from reaching the St. Lawrence Estuary as well as insights on how climate change may alter it.
Posted inNews
Warmer Winters Keep Crops Sleepy into Spring, Hurting Yield
Annual crops go dormant during winter. Frosty temperatures cue them to wake up—but the warmer winters brought on by climate change scramble the cold signal, hurting yield.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Warming and Agitation Intensify Seagrass Meadow Carbon Fluxes
Carbon dioxide emissions surge in sediments when temperature and agitation increase, both of which are likely to continue rising in degraded Mediterranean seagrass meadows.
Posted inNews
What Can Zircons Tell Us About the Evolution of Plants?
The versatile mineral could contain evidence of the evolution of land plants and their effect on the sedimentary system.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Vegetation Carries the Signature of Recent Precipitation
Vegetation response to precipitation is important for near-term weather predictability, and researchers show that such a response can occur within a few days and last up to two months.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Plants Need a Lot of Power to Pump Sap
A novel calculation reveals how much power plants need to move water through their stems—and how plants gain energy from the process.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Plant-Nibbling Insects May Make It Cloudier and Cooler
Insects that eat plant leaves could change the local atmosphere, but current climate models do not account for this impact.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Using Sap Flow to Infer Plant Hydraulic Properties
The internal hydraulic properties of plants are difficult to measure but may be inferred from observable sap flow.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
It’s Cool to be Short When You’re in the Arctic Permafrost
Extensive ground temperature measurements complicate our understanding of how vegetation cover, snow duration, and microtopography influence the pace of permafrost thaw in a changing climate.