Ecosystem ecology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nutrient enrichment is a major global change component. Here the authors show that soil acidification induced by nutrient enrichment, rather than changes in mineral nutrient and carbon availability, modulates soil biodiversity-function relationships

    • Zhengkun Hu
    • , Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
    •  & Manqiang Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    International initiatives set ambitious targets for ecological restoration. Here, the authors conduct a meta-analysis to quantify the impacts of ecological restoration on greenhouse gas emissions and find that forest, grassland, and wetland restoration reduce global warming potential.

    • Tiehu He
    • , Weixin Ding
    •  & Quanfa Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soil microbial diversity and composition is thought to play a major role in elemental cycling. Here, the authors analyse a large dataset of soil microbiome and carbon data from European forests and find that soil fungal community composition is a strong predictor of carbon storage.

    • Mark A. Anthony
    • , Leho Tedersoo
    •  & Colin Averill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This work leverages a new diet database and six long term monitoring efforts of 361 taxa to build comparable pre- and post-heatwave ecosystem models. The study provides empirical demonstration of changes in ecosystem-wide patterns of energy flux and biomass in response to marine heatwaves.

    • Dylan G. E. Gomes
    • , James J. Ruzicka
    •  & Joshua D. Stewart

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting species responses to climate change may be complicated by the influence of other factors. Here, the authors report that warming is linked to terrestrial and freshwater community shifts towards warm-adapted species overall, but body size, thermal niche breadth, species richness and baseline temperature modulate the trends.

    • Imran Khaliq
    • , Christian Rixen
    •  & Anita Narwani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coral diseases are commonly sediment-associated. Here the authors conduct a field experiment in French Polynesia and Palmyra Atoll showing that removal of sea cucumbers that clean reef sediments while feeding increases coral disease.

    • Cody S. Clements
    • , Zoe A. Pratte
    •  & Mark E. Hay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study finds that habitat connectivity can increase resilience to ecosystem regime shifts. The authors used >7,000 fish samplings from the Baltic Sea to study a spatially propagating shift from an ecosystem dominated by predatory fish to one dominated by their prey, also finding that fish-eating seals and cormorants increased the risk of a shift.

    • Agnes B. Olin
    • , Ulf Bergström
    •  & Johan S. Eklöf

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although co-occurring species may differ widely in their response traits, coordinated functional trait shifts may emerge at the community level in response to environmental factors. Here, the authors use data from 150 grassland sites to identify a coordinated slow-fast strategy response to land-use intensification across above- and belowground taxa.

    • Margot Neyret
    • , Gaëtane Le Provost
    •  & Peter Manning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Due to fundamental anatomical and biochemical differences, C3 and C4 plant species tend to differ in their biogeography and response to climate change. Here, the authors use global observations and optimality theory to map patterns and temporal trends in C4 species distribution and the contribution of C4 plants to global photosynthesis.

    • Xiangzhong Luo
    • , Haoran Zhou
    •  & Christopher J. Still

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nutrient limitation is a well-known control of phytoplankton growth, but predicting specific responses in individual lakes based on nutrient data alone has proven challenging. Here, the authors show that long-term signals of chlorophyll-a dynamics in shallow lakes can be captured based on stoichiometric effects of N and P concentrations along a continuum of total N:total P ratios.

    • Daniel Graeber
    • , Mark J. McCarthy
    •  & Thomas A. Davidson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using a global synthesis of size spectra data from pelagic food webs, this study finds that size structure is not driven by temperature as often suggested, but by the nutrient status of the system. This means that modest phytoplankton declines projected for key fishing grounds at mid-latitudes will amplify into substantial reductions in the supportable biomass of fish.

    • Angus Atkinson
    • , Axel G. Rossberg
    •  & Constantin Frangoulis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change is redistributing species poleward, threatening widespread socio-ecological disruption as key tipping-points are exceeded. This study examines space-time dynamics of kelp ecosystem collapse over a 15-year period along the warming coastline of eastern Tasmania and shows that an early-warning signal of kelp ecosystem collapse is recognisable well-in-advance.

    • Scott D. Ling
    •  & John P. Keane

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soils combat climate change by storing carbon but lose considerable amounts of carbon into downstream waters. Here a general process for how microbes transform carbon across soil-to-stream to impact its persistence in the natural environment is demonstrated.

    • Erika C. Freeman
    • , Erik J. S. Emilson
    •  & Andrew J. Tanentzap

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microplastic uptake by animals is often assumed to reflect the level of contamination in the environment. Here, the authors compile a global inventory of individual microplastic body burden in benthic marine invertebrates and find that feeding mode and geographic location are more important predictors than environmental microplastic loading.

    • Adam Porter
    • , Jasmin A. Godbold
    •  & Tamara S. Galloway

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Factors behind interspecific variation in masting are unclear. Here, the authors show that, in 517 species of terrestrial perennial plants, masting is more frequent in species that have high stem tissue density, suggesting that stronger stress resistance may buffer against missed reproductive opportunities.

    • Valentin Journé
    • , Andrew Hacket-Pain
    •  & Michał Bogdziewicz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Abrupt regime shifts could in theory be predicted from early warning signals. Here, the authors show that true critical transitions are challenging to classify in lake planktonic systems, due to mismatches between trophic levels, and reveal uneven performance of early warning signal detection methods.

    • Duncan A. O’Brien
    • , Smita Deb
    •  & Christopher F. Clements

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study relates 88,000 elevation range sizes of vascular plants in 44 mountains to short-term and long-term temperature variation. The authors finding of decreasing elevation range sizes with greater diurnal temperature range supports a novel biodiversity hypothesis and indicates increased extinction risk of continental species.

    • Arnaud Gallou
    • , Alistair S. Jump
    •  & John-Arvid Grytnes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ecosystem productivity generally declines under drought. Here, the authors show that spring droughts are linked to increases in gross primary productivity in energy-limited ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere, and that terrestrial biosphere models tend not to capture this.

    • David L. Miller
    • , Sebastian Wolf
    •  & Trevor F. Keenan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energetic tradeoffs help determine where individual traits confer a competitive advantage. Here, the authors grow ten Eucalyptus species at four common gardens along a rainfall gradient and show that 50 traits mostly vary as predicted, and that species in their native ranges generally outperform others in height growth.

    • Duncan D. Smith
    • , Mark A. Adams
    •  & Thomas J. Givnish

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cetaceans such as dolphins and whales contribute to the cycling of essential nutrients in the surface ocean through defecation. Using a bioenergetic modelling approach, this study shows that the contribution of different cetaceans is heterogeneous both in terms of quantity and in quality, as the nutrient cocktails they release reflect the physiology and ecology of each species.

    • Lola Gilbert
    • , Tiphaine Jeanniard-du-Dot
    •  & Jérôme Spitz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The sustainability of the majority of multispecies reef fisheries around the globe remains unassessed. This study provides context-specific sustainable reference points for coral reef fish using environmental conditions. Using these reference points, they show that most reef fish stocks have failed at least one fisheries sustainability benchmark.

    • Jessica Zamborain-Mason
    • , Joshua E. Cinner
    •  & Sean R. Connolly

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vegetation resilience to drought is underlain by plant physiological responses. Here, the authors combine remote sensing data, explainable machine learning and model simulations to map global vegetation responses to drought linked to physiological processes such as stomatal regulation and light use efficiency.

    • Wantong Li
    • , Javier Pacheco-Labrador
    •  & Rene Orth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear whether trait trade-offs and optimality principles observed at the individual level scale up to the ecosystem level. Here, the authors show that plant trait coordination principles also predict patterns between community-level traits and ecosystem-scale processes.

    • Ulisse Gomarasca
    • , Mirco Migliavacca
    •  & Markus Reichstein

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Increasing C storage in mineral-associated organic matter is insufficient due to diverse, environmentally specific persistent soil organic matter formation. Context-dependent management strategies highlighting the importance of particulate organic matter are necessary.

    • Gerrit Angst
    • , Kevin E. Mueller
    •  & Carsten W. Mueller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transitions from bare tidal flats to vegetated marshes are an example of shift between alternative stable ecosystem states. Here, the authors use remote sensing and modelling to quantify three stages in tidal flat evolution and identify early warning signals.

    • Gregory S. Fivash
    • , Stijn Temmerman
    •  & Tjeerd J. Bouma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ecosystem responses to prehistoric sea-ice loss are poorly known. Using marine sedimentary ancient DNA form the Bering Sea covering the last ~20,000 years, this study reveals a transition from a sea ice-adapted ecosystem, characterized by diatoms, copepods and codfish, to an ice-free Holocene with cyanobacteria, salmon and herring.

    • Heike H. Zimmermann
    • , Kathleen R. Stoof-Leichsenring
    •  & Ulrike Herzschuh

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Zooplankton are a critical link to higher trophic levels and play an important role in global biogeochemical cycles. This Review examines key responses of zooplankton to ocean warming, highlights key knowledge and geographic gaps that need to be addressed, and discusses how better use of observations and long-term zooplankton monitoring programmes can help fill these gaps.

    • Lavenia Ratnarajah
    • , Rana Abu-Alhaija
    •  & Lidia Yebra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The high persistence of deep soil carbon is controlled by bioenergetic constraints of decomposers resulting from the poor energy quality of soil carbon together with the lack of energy supply by roots due to their low density at depth

    • Ludovic Henneron
    • , Jerôme Balesdent
    •  & Sébastien Fontaine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aquatic (blue) and terrestrial (green) food webs are part of the same landscape, but it remains unclear whether they respond similarly to shared environmental gradients. Using long-term monitoring data from Switzerland and a metaweb approach, this study reveals how inferred blue and green food webs exhibit different properties along an elevation gradient and among land-use types.

    • Hsi-Cheng Ho
    • , Jakob Brodersen
    •  & Florian Altermatt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biomass allocation in plants is fundamental for understanding and predicting terrestrial carbon storage. Here, the authors conduct a meta-analysis showing that warming effect on plant root:shoot is influenced by precipitation and the type of mycorrhizal fungi associated.

    • Lingyan Zhou
    • , Xuhui Zhou
    •  & Madhav P. Thakur

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plant-wax isotope and dust flux records reveal that the long-term variability of the Northwest African monsoon is controlled by tropical solar radiation gradients. Grasslands expand into the Sahara during strong monsoons, but the ultimate composition of the ecosystem is controlled by CO2.

    • Nicholas A. O’Mara
    • , Charlotte Skonieczny
    •  & Pratigya J. Polissar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    ‘Human-caused fires and natural fires could have different impacts. Here the authors report a geospatial analysis of lightning-ignited and human-ignited fires in California between 2012 and 2018, finding that the latter were more likely to develop under extreme conditions with larger ecosystem impacts.’

    • Stijn Hantson
    • , Niels Andela
    •  & James T. Randerson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Disentangling causal interactions among biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and environmental factors is key to understanding how ecosystems respond to changing environment. This study presents a global scale analysis quantifying causal interactions and feedbacks among phytoplankton diversity, biomass and nutrients along environmental gradients of aquatic ecosystems.

    • Chun-Wei Chang
    • , Takeshi Miki
    •  & Chih-hao Hsieh

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