Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2026-09-04DOI: 10.1038/s41561-026-02105-y
{"title":"Forests beyond carbon","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02105-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02105-y","url":null,"abstract":"Advances in forest monitoring techniques are transforming our understanding of how forests gain and lose carbon, respond to environmental change, and influence climate. These insights highlight the potential and limitations of forest-based climate solutions.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 9","pages":"989-989"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-026-02105-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148904394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2026-09-04DOI: 10.1038/s41561-026-02084-0
Angela Lafuente
{"title":"Winter carbon cycling beneath biocrusts","authors":"Angela Lafuente","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02084-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02084-0","url":null,"abstract":"Biocrusts can substantially enhance snow retention, sustaining soil biogeochemistry, microbial activity and soil ecosystem functions in cold deserts, according to a long-term field study of how moss-dominated biocrust cover influences snow cover duration and depth.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 9","pages":"1004-1005"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148895462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2026-09-03DOI: 10.1038/s41561-026-02095-x
Yang Chu, Yuhao Feng, Yanjun Su, Chao Wu, Ying-Ping Wang, Tingting Li, Lanlan Guo, Ziqian Zhong, Tiewei Li, Hongtao Xu, Guoyan Yang, Huan Zheng, Xiangqi He, Haoxiang Zhao, Chengcheng Huang, Yiyang Gao, Shiyu Yao, Bin He
{"title":"Precipitation and soil phosphorus regulate post-drought resilience in tropical forests","authors":"Yang Chu, Yuhao Feng, Yanjun Su, Chao Wu, Ying-Ping Wang, Tingting Li, Lanlan Guo, Ziqian Zhong, Tiewei Li, Hongtao Xu, Guoyan Yang, Huan Zheng, Xiangqi He, Haoxiang Zhao, Chengcheng Huang, Yiyang Gao, Shiyu Yao, Bin He","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02095-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02095-x","url":null,"abstract":"Tropical forests are increasingly affected by drought, yet the factors that control post-drought ecosystem resilience—the capacity to withstand disturbances—are not fully understood. Here we use temporal autocorrelation of satellite-derived vegetation greenness to quantify ecosystem resilience following 142,444 severe drought events across tropical forests from 2003 to 2022. We show that resilience declined in 68.8% of areas after droughts, particularly in dry environments, whereas 20.3% of areas with increased resilience were located in moist tropical forests. More intense and prolonged droughts led to a pronounced decline in resilience. Mean annual precipitation was identified as the most important regulator influencing resilience changes after drought, while soil phosphorus was the most consistent regulator across forest biomes, exhibiting widespread mitigating effects on resilience loss. Along decreasing precipitation gradients, the mitigating effect of soil phosphorus on post-drought resilience loss intensified. These findings provide insights into how tropical forests respond to drought and offer practical guidance for region-specific, adaptive forest management under a changing climate. Drought disturbances are reducing the recovery capacity of tropical forests, especially in drier conditions, but soil phosphorus can mitigate this impact, according to a satellite-based analysis of ecosystem resilience.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 10","pages":"1241-1247"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148895442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Multilayer soil moisture depletion intensifies drought impacts on global ecosystems","authors":"Xihui Gu, Ruijie Wang, Deliang Chen, Chiyuan Miao, Sijia Luo, Yansong Guan, Sixiang Wang, Liangwei Li, Tianshun Gu, Chuyu Luo, Jianfeng Li, Shengzhi Huang, Xueying Li, Jiefeng Wu, Xiang Zhang, Lunche Wang","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02083-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02083-1","url":null,"abstract":"When soil moisture across all layers of the entire profile is depleted, ecosystems face the highest risk because they lose all vertical buffering capacity against drought. However, these vertically compound soil moisture droughts, in which every soil layer suffers simultaneous water deficits, have been largely ignored because previous monitoring and risk assessments relied on entire-profile mean soil moisture. Here we identify vertically (0–100 cm) compound droughts worldwide during warm seasons of 1981–2020 using multilayer soil moisture products. Their annual duration and ratio have increased across more than half of global lands over the past four decades, with pronounced hotspots in southwestern North America, South America, Africa, mid-latitude Eurasia, southeastern Asia and Australia. Vertically compound droughts cause substantial declines in ecosystem productivity, particularly in forests and croplands, threatening carbon sink stability and food security. By contrast, diagnosing drought solely from entire-profile averages causes an overestimation of vertically compound drought duration by about 128.3% but an underestimation of associated ecosystem losses by about 27.8%. These projections and systematic biases highlight the urgency of developing multilayer monitoring, mitigation and adaptation strategies for vertically compound droughts. Vertically compound soil moisture droughts—when all soil layers are depleted—have intensified worldwide, driving sharper ecosystem losses than single-layer droughts, according to global analyses of multilayer soil moisture.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 10","pages":"1205-1212"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-026-02083-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148899512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hadley circulation drives material isolation and pole-to-pole teleconnection on Mars","authors":"Chen-Shuo Fan, Cong Sun, Zhiang Xie, Yangcheng Luo, Lixiang Gu, Siteng Fan","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02090-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02090-2","url":null,"abstract":"Global-scale circulation dominates material transport in planetary atmospheres, which is thought to account for large-scale compositional mixing on Earth and other planets. However, observations of the Martian atmosphere challenge this picture. The mixing ratios of dust and gas species (H2O, CO, Ar) show large planetary-scale inhomogeneities, yet the mechanism causing this has been difficult to define. Here we investigate particle transport in the Martian atmosphere using a Lagrangian tracking method based on reanalysis data. We find that the coherent structure of the single-cell Hadley circulation on Mars can produce a distinct material transport pattern. Dynamical barriers prevent material mixing between the inside and outside of the Hadley cell and allow pole-to-pole teleconnection. Dimensional analysis indicates this is caused by the combined effect of rapid planetary rotation and the thin atmosphere of Mars. The dominance of the mean circulation over the eddy transport gives rise to this unique transport regime, which is fundamentally distinct from those on Earth and Venus. This finding challenges the conventional view of material mixing from planetary-scale circulations, suggesting planetary atmospheric dynamics can confine materials and restrict redistribution. Single-cell Hadley circulation drives pole-to-pole connection on Mars but also inhibits material mixing between the cell’s interior and exterior, according to a study of the Martian atmosphere using Lagrangian particle tracking.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 10","pages":"1218-1224"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148899596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2026-08-27DOI: 10.1038/s41561-026-02108-9
S. Bokhorst, S. N. Huisman, I. K. de Jonge, T. A. J. Janssen, J. H. C. Cornelissen, K. A. Hughes, P. Convey
{"title":"Author Correction: Antarctic greening is constrained by biology and requires field validation","authors":"S. Bokhorst, S. N. Huisman, I. K. de Jonge, T. A. J. Janssen, J. H. C. Cornelissen, K. A. Hughes, P. Convey","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02108-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02108-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 10","pages":"1255-1255"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-026-02108-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149100848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2026-08-25DOI: 10.1038/s41561-026-02092-0
{"title":"Black carbon warms more strongly in aerosol-rich air","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02092-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02092-0","url":null,"abstract":"Coatings on black carbon particles modulate their warming potential. A decade of global single-particle observations shows that the amount of coating scales with the ratio of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm in diameter to black carbon mass, enabling the warming effect of black carbon to be evaluated worldwide.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 10","pages":"1145-1146"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149100851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2026-08-25DOI: 10.1038/s41561-026-02071-5
Yang Su, Yidi Xu, Xianglin Zhang, David Makowski, Agnes Pellissier-Tanon, Saverio Francini, Tianqi Shi, Ke Yu, Siyu Liu, Haotian Chen, Haoruo Li, Jinfeng Chang, Songchao Chen, Chaohui Yin, Nikola Besic, Martin Brandt, Alba Viana-Soto, Katja Kowalski, Cornelius Senf, Alexandre d’Aspremont, Philippe Ciais
{"title":"Disturbance characteristics and forest properties regulate surface warming and recovery across Europe","authors":"Yang Su, Yidi Xu, Xianglin Zhang, David Makowski, Agnes Pellissier-Tanon, Saverio Francini, Tianqi Shi, Ke Yu, Siyu Liu, Haotian Chen, Haoruo Li, Jinfeng Chang, Songchao Chen, Chaohui Yin, Nikola Besic, Martin Brandt, Alba Viana-Soto, Katja Kowalski, Cornelius Senf, Alexandre d’Aspremont, Philippe Ciais","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02071-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02071-5","url":null,"abstract":"Disturbances that disrupt the structure, composition or functioning of forest ecosystems are increasing in frequency and severity across Europe due to climate change and land-use pressures. Yet their effects on local surface climate remain poorly quantified. Here we combine Landsat-derived summer land-surface temperature estimates with a Europe-wide disturbance record to assess how disturbance attributes and forest properties shape post-disturbance warming and thermal recovery. We find that disturbed forests exhibit higher summer land-surface temperatures, with warming of 1.70 °C relative to adjacent undisturbed forests located 100 to 500 m from disturbance edges. Post-disturbance temperature anomalies are driven primarily by vegetation and canopy-structure loss, with disturbance severity emerging as the strongest predictor. Forest properties further modulate warming, with needleleaf forests warming more strongly than broadleaf forests and plantations more than natural forests. Thermal recovery trajectories shows that more than 82% of disturbance-induced warming dissipates within ten years. Together, these findings identify key biophysical controls on disturbance-driven surface warming across Europe and highlight the potential of forest-management strategies to limit its magnitude, while balancing thermal, ecological and silvicultural goals. Forest disturbances drive substantial surface warming across Europe, with magnitude and recovery shaped by disturbance severity, size and forest characteristics, as inferred from combining satellite-derived land-surface temperature estimates with continent-wide disturbance data.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 9","pages":"1082-1090"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148853686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2026-08-25DOI: 10.1038/s41561-026-02068-0
Dantong Liu, Fei Jiang, Kang Hu, Shuo Ding, Xuan Wang, Huihui Wu, Yang Yang, Zhonghua Zheng, Chenjie Yu, James Allan, Dawei Hu, Yuan Sun, Ping Tian, Delong Zhao, Mengyu Huang, Siyuan Li, Yangzhou Wu, Sobhan Kumar Kompalli, S. Suresh Babu, Weijun Li, Lei Bi, Shaofei Kong, Yuan Wang, Ying Chen, Pengfei Liu, Joshua P. Schwarz, Hugh Coe
{"title":"Warming potential of atmospheric black carbon modulated by particulate matter","authors":"Dantong Liu, Fei Jiang, Kang Hu, Shuo Ding, Xuan Wang, Huihui Wu, Yang Yang, Zhonghua Zheng, Chenjie Yu, James Allan, Dawei Hu, Yuan Sun, Ping Tian, Delong Zhao, Mengyu Huang, Siyuan Li, Yangzhou Wu, Sobhan Kumar Kompalli, S. Suresh Babu, Weijun Li, Lei Bi, Shaofei Kong, Yuan Wang, Ying Chen, Pengfei Liu, Joshua P. Schwarz, Hugh Coe","doi":"10.1038/s41561-026-02068-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-026-02068-0","url":null,"abstract":"The mixing state of atmospheric black carbon is a key determinant of its climate forcing. While higher concentrations of non-black-carbon components surrounding black-carbon particles (known as coatings) can enhance radiative effects, accurately representing and validating these effects at high spatiotemporal resolution remain computationally challenging. Here, we synthesize a decade (2012–2021) of intensive ground-based and aircraft-based global in situ observations of single-particle black carbon and its coatings to quantify how coating thickness varies across urban and wildfire biomass-burning sources and how this variability influences black-carbon radiative forcing. We find that coatings increase the global top-of-atmosphere radiative effect of black carbon from 0.20 ± 0.25 W m−2 to 0.30 ± 0.42 W m−2, with an additional 0.065 ± 0.15 W m−2 attributable to black carbon in cloud liquid water. Thicker coatings make the radiative effects of biomass-burning black carbon two to three times stronger than the radiative effects of urban black carbon. This enhanced forcing may persist into the future, as particulate-matter concentrations are projected to follow divergent trajectories over the next half century. Our results suggest that black carbon exerts stronger warming effects in more polluted environments, highlighting the importance of jointly controlling black-carbon and particulate-matter emissions. Layers of particulate matter that accumulate on black carbon can boost warming by raising top-of-atmosphere forcing, with biomass-burning particles two to three times more impactful than urban ones, based on a model and global observations.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 10","pages":"1174-1181"},"PeriodicalIF":20.6,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148853494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}