An interdisciplinary collaboration of 36 international researchers from 35 institutions highlights recent findings in biosphere research. Within eight themes, they discuss issues arising from climate change and other anthropogenic stressors and highlight the co-benefits of nature-based solutions and ecosystem services. Based on an analysis of these eight topics, we have synthesized four overarching insights.

China's vegetation restoration projects plan to expand grassland coverage to 60 %. Excessive vegetation restoration undermined soil drying in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northwest China (APENWC). The potential impacts of future land use and cover change (LUCC) are unclear. Future scenarios with varying proportions of cropland and bare land indicate that increasing grassland coverage to 60 % by 2035 supports ecohydrological sustainability without introducing drying.

Particulate organic nitrogen (PON) plays a central role in ocean biogeochemistry, yet limited in situ data hinder a full understanding of PON variability and associated processes. Measurements of optical properties offer an alternative for assessing PON across diverse marine environments. Our analysis reveals strong relationships between PON and optical properties, supporting a promising means to assess PON from optical measurements performed in situ or conducted from remote-sensing platforms.

A comprehensive survey of the biogeochemistry of the Lake Alaotra system showed that the lake and surrounding wetlands acted as a substantial source of new organic carbon (OC), which was exported downstream. Marsh vegetation was the main source of dissolved OC, while phytoplankton contributed to the particulate OC pool. The biogeochemical functioning of Lake Alaotra differs from most East African lakes studied, likely due to its large surface area, shallow water depth, and surrounding wetlands.

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD), a common coastal hydrological process that involves submarine inflow of groundwater into the sea, is associated with a large nutrient load. To clarify the distribution of SGD-derived nutrients after release at the bottom of the sea and their contribution to phytoplankton growth in the marine ecosystem, we modeled the SGD process in Toyama Bay using a specialized computer code that can distinguish SGD-derived nutrients from nutrients from other sources.

This study explores how microbial dynamics influence the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool in the Patagonian Shelf. Despite high phytoplankton biomass, selective grazing on fast-growing bacteria led to DOM accumulation, likely due to reduced DOM-consuming bacteria and added egestion compounds. Experiments showed that bacteria not only acted as a carbon sink through mineralization but also transferred assimilated carbon dioxide (CO₂) to higher trophic levels.

Globally, lake ecosystems have undergone significant shifts since the 1950s due to human activities. This study presents a unique ~220-year sediment record from a remote Siberian boreal lake, providing a multiproxy perspective on climate warming and anthropogenic air pollution. Analyses of diatom assemblages, diatom silicon isotopes, and carbon and nitrogen sediment proxies reveal complex biogeochemical interactions, highlighting anthropogenic influences even on remote water resources.

Marine ecosystem models (MEMs) are valuable for assessing the threats of global warming to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, but their predictions vary widely. We argue that MEMs should consider evolutionary processes and undergo independent validation. Here, we present a novel framework for MEM development using validation data from sediment archives, which map long-term environmental and evolutionary change. Our approach is a crucial step towards improving the predictive power of MEMs.

Oriental plane leaf area index (LAI) values changed with a definite pattern compatible with phenological periods. Air–soil temperatures were significantly definitive regarding the course of mean LAIs, particularly during foliation. Tree height and diameter at breast height (DBH) were not correlated with point-based maximum LAIs. Point-based mean LAIs increased from 0.80 to 2.76 m² m⁻² during foliation. Mean tree height and DBH for point-based canopies ranged between 17.0–26.7 m and 26.5–38.2 cm, respectively.

This study explores the impact of environmental conditions on the chemistry of coccoliths, calcite minerals produced by marine algae, to better understand past climate changes. By cultivating different species of coccolithophores under various CO₂ and pH levels, we have shown that the isotopic composition of certain species varies with CO₂ concentration and quantified these variations.

We provide the first systematic survey of planktonic foraminifera in the high Arctic Ocean. Our results describe the abundance and species composition under summer sea ice. They indicate that the polar specialist N. pachyderma is the only species present, with subpolar species absent. The data set will be a valuable reference for continued monitoring of the state of planktonic foraminifera communities as they respond to the ongoing sea-ice decline and the “Atlantification” of the Arctic Ocean.

Phytoplankton blooms occur after sea ice retreats in the Southern Ocean. In this study we investigate the influence of seasonal cycle of sea ice concentration on nitrate depletion, testing the hypothesis that meltwater release stabilizes the water column and favors nutrient utilization. We find that, at a regional scale, nitrate depletion and vertical mixing are weakly correlated with sea ice cycle. Nitrate depletion is rather linked to other oceanographic processes controlling mixing depth.

Using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data products, we quantitatively estimate the resistance and resilience of ecosystem functions to wildfires that occurred in the Columbia River basin in 2015. The carbon state exhibits lower resistance and resilience than the ecosystem fluxes. The random forest feature importance analysis indicates that burn severity plays a minor role in the resilience of grassland and a relatively major role in the resilience of forest and savanna.

Cold-water coral mounds are large structures on the seabed that are built by corals over thousands of years. They are regarded as carbonate sinks, with a potentially important role in the marine carbon cycle, but more quantitative studies are needed. Using sediment cores, we calculate the amount of carbon that has been stored in two mounds over the last 400 000 years. We provide the first numbers and show that up to 19 times more carbon is accumulated in mounds than on the common seafloor.

Micronekton significantly impact oceanic carbon transport yet are often overlooked. Using a trait-based model, we simulated their diel vertical migrations and carbon production, revealing size, taxonomy, light, and primary production as key factors. In temperate regions, micronekton greatly influenced the transport efficiency in summer. Future research must focus on micronekton metabolism and dynamics, considering global warming and their potential exploitation.

We assessed how well climate models replicate sub-seasonal changes in ocean chlorophyll observed by satellites. Models struggle to capture these variations accurately. Some overestimate fluctuations and their impact on annual chlorophyll variability, while others underestimate them. The underestimation is likely due to limited model resolution, while the overestimation may come from internal model oscillations.

The balance between CO₂ uptake and emissions from urban green areas is still not well understood. This study evaluated for the first time the urban park CO₂ exchange simulations with four different types of biosphere model by comparing them with observations. Even though some advantages and disadvantages of the different model types were identified, there was no strong evidence that more complex models performed better than simple ones.