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Open Access
Featured
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Article |
Global crop production increase by soil organic carbon
Increasing soil organic carbon can, under optimum management only, enhance global production of maize, wheat and rice by up to 0.7% with important regional differences, according to 13,662 field trials across a broad range of soils, climates and management practices.
- Yuqing Ma
- , Dominic Woolf
- & Johannes Lehmann
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Research Briefing |
Soil mosses provide critical ecosystem services across the globe
Field studies reveal that carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition and soil-borne plant pathogen control are greater in soils beneath mosses than in unvegetated soils. Based on these studies, modelling shows the likely extent of soil moss cover and underlines its value to the planet.
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Article
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Carbon fixation rates in groundwater similar to those in oligotrophic marine systems
Direct measurements of carbon fixation rates in groundwater suggest a substantial contribution of in situ primary production to subsurface ecosystem processes.
- Will A. Overholt
- , Susan Trumbore
- & Kirsten Küsel
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News & Views |
Agroforestry in the Sahel
West African farmers adjust tree cover to realize the co-benefits of agroforestry, according to analyses of remote sensing data.
- Niall P. Hanan
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Article |
Reduction of tree cover in West African woodlands and promotion in semi-arid farmlands
Farmland management promotes tree cover around villages in the semi-arid Sahel of West Africa, according to analyses of satellite imagery. This implies that a higher population density does not always lead to reduced tree cover.
- Martin Brandt
- , Kjeld Rasmussen
- & Rasmus Fensholt
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Editorial |
Not just carbon widgets
Forests are important for the global carbon cycle, and for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, the role forests play in carbon sequestration should not eclipse everything else we value them for.
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Letter |
Reduced sediment transport in the Yellow River due to anthropogenic changes
The sediment load of China’s Yellow River has been declining. Analysis of 60 years of runoff and sediment load data attributes this decline to river engineering, with an increasing role of post-1990s land use changes on the Loess Plateau.
- Shuai Wang
- , Bojie Fu
- & Yafeng Wang
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News & Views |
Deforestation by land grabbers
Leases of land concessions in Cambodia have accelerated in the last ten years. An analysis using high-resolution maps and official documents shows that deforestation rates in the land concessions are higher than in other areas.
- Tom Rudel
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Letter |
The legacy of the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions on nutrient availability in Amazonia
Between about 50 and 10 thousand years ago, almost 100 genera of large animals went extinct. Mathematical analyses suggest that the extinctions in Amazonia have led to a reduction in the lateral flux of the limiting nutrient phosphorus—by transport of dung and bodies—by 98%.
- Christopher E. Doughty
- , Adam Wolf
- & Yadvinder Malhi
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Commentary |
Biodiversity in the dark
A multitude of organisms makes soils the fertile factories of food and fibre production, decomposition and nutrient cycling that they are. But tying changes in soil biodiversity to shifts in ecosystem function is a daunting task.
- Diana H. Wall
- , Richard D. Bardgett
- & Eugene Kelly
Substantial and increasing global losses of timber-producing forest due to wildfires