Tidal salt marsh soil emits greenhouse gases, as well as sulfur-based gases, which play roles in global climate but are not well studied as they are difficult to measure. Traditional methods of measuring these gases worked relatively well for carbon dioxide, but less so for methane, nitrous oxide, carbon disulfide, and dimethylsulfide. High variability of trace gases complicates the ability to accurately calculate gas budgets and new approaches are needed for monitoring protocols.

Soil carbon is the Earth’s largest terrestrial carbon store, and the response to climate change represents one of the key uncertainties in obtaining accurate global carbon budgets required to successfully militate against climate change. The ability of climate models to simulate present-day soil carbon is therefore vital. This study assesses soil carbon simulation in the latest ensemble of models which allows key areas for future model development to be identified.

Plant hydraulics is often misrepresented in topical research. We highlight the commonly seen ambiguities and/or mistakes, with equations and figures to help visualize the potential biases. We recommend careful thinking when using or modifying existing plant hydraulic terms, methods, and models.

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a critical role in earth-system processes: they are main players in the formation of tropospheric O₃ and secondary aerosols, which have a significant impact on climate, human health and crops. A complex mixture of VOCs, formed as a result of physicochemical and biological processes, is released into the atmosphere from the forest floor. This review presents data on the composition of VOCs and contribution of various processes to their emissions.

Vegetation greenness was monitored with digital cameras in three northern peatlands during five growing seasons. The greenness index derived from the images was highest at the most nutrient-rich site. Greenness indicated the main phases of phenology and correlated with CO₂ uptake, though this was mainly related to the common seasonal cycle. The cameras and Sentinel-2 satellite showed consistent results, but more frequent satellite data are needed for reliable detection of phenological phases.

For the first time, our study highlights the synergistic effects of a 9-month warming and acidification combined stress on the early life stages of a Mediterranean azooxanthellate coral, Astroides calycularis. Our results predict a decrease in dispersion, settlement, post-settlement linear extention, budding and survival under future global change and that larvae and recruits of A. calycularis are stages of interest for this Mediterranean coral resistance, resilience and conservation.

Plants draw CO₂ from the atmosphere during the growing season, while respiration releases CO₂ to the atmosphere throughout the year, driving seasonal variations in atmospheric CO₂ that can be observed by satellites, such as the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2). Using OCO-2 X_CO2 data and space-based constraints on plant growth, we show that permafrost-rich northeast Eurasia has a strong seasonal release of CO₂ during the autumn, hinting at an unexpectedly large respiration signal from soils.

Why does plants' distributional range size vary enormously? This study provides evidence that seed mass, intraspecific seed mass variation, seed dispersal mode and phylogeny contribute to explaining species distribution variation on a geographic scale. Our study clearly shows the importance of including seed life-history traits in modeling and predicting the impact of climate change on species distribution of seed plants.

In this study, we relied on a properly controlled laboratory experiment to test the model’s capability of simulating the dominant microbial processes and the emissions of one greenhouse gas (nitrous oxide, N₂O) from agricultural soils. This study reveals important processes and parameters that regulate N₂O emissions in the investigated model framework and also suggests future steps of model development, which have implications on the broader communities of ecosystem modelers.