Special issue  

Given the complex nature of SOC pool, we conducted a field experiment to assess the effect of N addition on SOC fractions. We found that N addition reduces the persistence and increases the nutrient density of SOC. A trade-off between SOC bridging and adsorption keeps MAOC constant. These findings provide mechanistic insights into the effects of N addition on the SOC pool and are pivotal for understanding SOC dynamics especially in future scenarios with more frequent and severe perturbations.

We assess the representation of the plant' response to surface water in a global atmospheric chemistry model. This sensitivity is crucial for the return of precipitation back to the atmosphere and thus significantly impacts the representation of weather as well as air quality. The newly implemented response function reduces this process towards a better comparison with satellite observations. This yields a higher intensity of unusual warm periods and a higher production of air pollutants.

Ecosystem respiration is influenced by daytime (DT) and night-time (NT) phenomenon. We studied the potential impacts of experimental warming on DT and NT respiration rates. Warming increased both DT and NT respiration rates. Q10 analyses revealed that NT respiration rates are more sensitive to warming than DT. This is the first study addressing the gap of monitoring night-time respiration along with daytime to estimate the respiration rates under experimental warming.

Higher evaporation in peatlands has been predicted due to climatic drying. We determined whether the water-conservative vegetation at a Southern Hemisphere bog could cause a different response to dryness compared to a 'typical' Northern Hemisphere bog, using decades-long evaporation datasets from each site. At the southern bog, evaporation increased at a much lower rate with increasing dryness, suggesting that this peatland type may be more resilient to climate warming than northern bogs.

Many important processes within the global mercury (Hg) cycle operate over thousands of years. Here, we explore the timing, magnitude, and expression of Hg signals retained in sediments of lakes Prespa and Ohrid over the past ~90,000 years. Divergent signals suggest that local differences in sediment composition, lake structure, and water balance that influence the local Hg cycle, and determine the extent to which sedimentary Hg signals reflect local or global-scale environmental changes.

Fatty alcohols (FAs) are major components of surface lipids in plant leaves and serve as surface-active aerosols. Our study on the aerosol size distributions in a forest suggested that secondary FAs (SFAs) originated from plant waxes, and that leaf senescence status is likely an important factor controlling the size distribution of SFAs. This study provides new insights into the sources of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) and their effects on the aerosol ice nucleation activity.