Arctic permafrost ecosystems may release large amounts of carbon under warmer future climates and may therefore accelerate global climate change. Our study investigated how long-term grazing by large animals influenced ecosystem characteristics and carbon budgets at a Siberian permafrost site. Our results demonstrate that such management can contribute to stabilizing ecosystems to keep carbon in the ground, particularly through drying soils and reducing methane emissions.

Fertilizer-induced ammonia detrimentally affects the environment by not only directly damaging ecosystems but also indirectly altering climate and soil fertility. To quantify these secondary impacts, we enabled CESM to simulate ammonia emission, chemical evolution, and deposition as a continuous cycle. If synthetic fertilizer use is to soar by 30 % from today's level, we showed that the counteracting impacts will increase the global ammonia emission by 3.3 Tg N per year.

The amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) being absorbed by the ocean is relevant to the earth's climate. CO₂ values in the coastal ocean and estuaries are not well known because of the instrumentation used. We used a new approach to measure CO₂ across the coastal and estuarine zone. We found that CO₂ and salinity were linked to the state of the tide. We used our CO₂ measurements and model salinity to predict CO₂. Previous studies overestimate how much CO₂ the coastal ocean draws down at our site.

The largest share of terrestrial carbon is stored in soils, making them highly relevant as regards global change. Yet, the mechanisms governing soil carbon stabilization are not well understood. The present study contributes to a better understanding of these processes. We show that qualitative changes in soil organic matter (SOM) co-vary with alterations of the soil matrix following soil weathering. Hence, the type of SOM that is stabilized in soils might change as soils develop.

Volcanic islands consist mainly of basaltic rocks. Additionally, there are often occurrences of small phonolite rocks differing in color and surface. On La Palma (Canary Islands), phonolites appear to be more suitable for plants than the omnipresent basalts. Therefore, we expected phonolites to be species-rich with larger plant individuals compared to the surrounding basaltic areas. Indeed, as expected, we found more species on phonolites and larger plant individuals in general.

The trace gas dimethyl sulfide (DMS) plays an important role in the ocean sulfur cycle and can also influence Earth’s climate. Our study used two statistical methods to predict surface ocean concentrations and rates of sea–air exchange of DMS in the northeast subarctic Pacific. Our results show improved predictive power over previous approaches and suggest that nutrient availability, light-dependent processes, and physical mixing may be important controls on DMS in this region.

We spectroscopically evaluated the gradients of dissolved C, N, S, Fe and Mn in a newly formed redox-stratified lake. The lake features an intermediate redox state between nitrogenous and euxinic conditions that encompasses vigorous open sulfur cycling fuelled by the reducible Fe and Mn stocks of the anoxic sediments. This results in substantial bottom water loads of dissolved iron and sulfate. Observations made in this ecosystem have relevance for deep-time paleoceanographic reconstructions.

We developed and used a terrestrial biosphere model to compare and evaluate widely used empirical dry deposition schemes with different stomatal approaches and found that using photosynthesis-based stomatal approaches can reduce biases in modeled dry deposition velocities in current chemical transport models. Our study shows systematic errors in current dry deposition schemes and the importance of representing plant ecophysiological processes in models under a changing climate.

We develop a convolutional neural network, named SIFnet, that increases the spatial resolution of SIF from TROPOMI by a factor of 10 to a spatial resolution of 0.005°. SIFnet utilizes coarse SIF observations, together with a broad range of high-resolution auxiliary data. The insights gained from interpretable machine learning techniques allow us to make quantitative claims about the relationships between SIF and other common parameters related to photosynthesis.

In pegmatites from Ukraine Precambrian fossils between 1.5 Ga and 1.76 Ga were preserved in cavities connected to the surface in a geyser system. The fossilization process is silicification of the outermost rim of the fossils, stabilizing the remaining part of the organisms. The variety of organisms points to an ecosystem of several microorganisms which was active in the continental environment, and igneous rocks such as the pegmatites seem to be an ideal habitat for the deep biosphere.

This study presents a new individual-based vegetation model to investigate salinity control on mangrove productivity. The model incorporates plant hydraulics and tree competition and predicts unique and complex patterns of mangrove forest structures that vary across soil salinity gradients. The presented model does not hold an empirical expression of salinity influence on productivity and thus may provide a better understanding of mangrove forest dynamics in future climate change.

Zooplankton play a key role in marine ecosystems, forming the base of the marine food web and a link between primary producers and higher-order consumers, such as fish. This aspect is crucial in the Adriatic basin, one of the most productive and overexploited areas of the Mediterranean Sea. A better understanding of community and food web structure and their response to water mass changes is essential under a global warming scenario, as zooplankton are sensitive to climate change.

Drought is one of the biggest challenges for future food production globally. During a simulated drought, pea and barley mainly relied on water from shallow soil depths, independent of different cropping systems.