Grassland ecology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Zero-deforestation policies are reducing the loss of tropical rainforest to oil palm expansion, but spatial analyses indicate that this may cause unintended large-scale loss of biodiverse grasslands and dry forests unless protections are extended under certification agreements.

A field study investigates three different routes by which plant litter and soil microbiomes can disperse.

African savannah grasslands initially proliferated in the late Miocene due to declining atmospheric CO₂, rather than previously proposed regional climate drying. Supplanting previous woodland vegetation due to photosynthetic adaptations, these grasslands set the stage for subsequent mammalian evolutionary trends on the continent.