Europe’s forests store vast amounts of carbon, but climate-driven disturbances are becoming more frequent. By combining satellite records with information on forest age and structure, we show that recent disturbances increasingly affect the oldest and most carbon-rich forests, particularly spruce forests in Central Europe. This emerging pattern puts long-accumulated carbon at risk and may reduce the long-term climate benefits provided by Europe’s forests.

Japanese anchovy is a highly abundant and important fish, where its larvae travel and settle after spawning were modeled here. Most larvae remain in nearby coastal waters, especially in the Bohai Sea, the northern Yellow Sea, and along the southern Shandong Peninsula. In contrast, larvae from the Changjiang Estuary can travel much farther, reaching distant regions. This highlights its key role in connecting populations and provides useful insight for fisheries management and conservation.

Stream biofilm microbial communities play key roles in elemental cycles and stream food webs, yet little is known about their response to transient changes in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) composition and characteristics. Using chemical analyses and eDNA metabarcoding, this study found that DOC composition shifted during storm events, but the composition of most biofilm communities remained stable, suggesting ecological resilience to transient shifts in DOC composition and characteristics.

Using a 17-year record of year-round peatland carbon exchange, we found that over half of the carbon sequestrated during summer was released during winter. In one year, CO₂ emissions during snow melt and soil thaw in spring were large enough to shift the peatland from a net carbon sink to a source. These findings demonstrate that winter and early-spring processes have a strong impact over the annual carbon balance of northern peatlands.

Using observations and a numerical model from a semi-enclosed coastal sea in Japan, we found that seasonal nitrogen release from sediments cannot be explained by organic matter input alone. Instead, nitrogen cycling is regulated by the interaction of organic matter supply, oxygen conditions, and nutrient concentrations in the overlying water. This framework helps explain differences among coastal seas and may improve predictions of environmental change.

Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems disproportionately contribute to global productivity and fisheries. Using CMIP6 Earth System Models, we assess response of phytoplankton productivity to climate change in these regions and to what extent it is explained by changes in wind-driven upwelling. While this process drives productivity decline across 25% of upwelling systems area, wind curl, geostrophic transport, stratification and subsurface nutrients changes are needed to explain response elsewhere.

We created a new independent method that uses only near real time satellite data to estimate how much carbon is emitted from landscape fires in the high latitudes. Our estimates are similar, but smaller, than estimates using modelled data, based on laboratory experiments and observations of burned area. This provides the first clear picture of fire emissions across high-latitude regions and will help us better understand the role of wildfires in climate change now and in the future.