PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET

The establishment of novel pests and pathogens that devastate populations of trees is increasing around the world, giving rise to policy and management decisions about how to restore treescapes. Such decisions may be informed by the example of Dutch elm disease (DED) which caused most mature elms in Europe and North America to be lost in the mid-20th Century. Although affected elms can regenerate, they succumb again after several years. Considerable effort has been made to restore elm through: (1) cloning and breeding of surviving local trees, (2) introduction of resistant Asiatic species, (3) introduction or production of hybrids bred from local and Asiatic species. As trees are planted out into the landscape, it is necessary to record them, and monitor their survival. Here, we compile and map 82,244 elm trees in Britain recorded as 269 distinct elm species, hybrids and cultivars. The vast majority of records are for surviving field elm, English elm and wych elm, which would grow again to maturity if the virulence of the pathogen could be attenuated. The most commonly planted elms were the hybrids: Nanguen (commercial name Lutece), followed by New Horizon, Ademuz, Lobel and Sapporo Autumn Gold, each of which had over 200 occurrences. The current elm-scape of Britain represents much restoration effort and contains considerable genetic diversity.

A core aim of ex situ conservation is to represent wild genetic diversity in managed living collections. For the climate-threatened tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) flora of northeast Australia, an ex situ metacollection of plants and seeds has been established by the Tropical Mountain Plant Science (TroMPS) project. In this study we used reduced-representation sequencing (DArTseq) of wild, herbarium, and ex situ material alongside provenance information for ten species, to pursue two central aims: to characterise landscape-scale genetic structure across species' ranges, and to evaluate how well the assembled metacollections represent that wild diversity. Analyses revealed consistent patterns of genetic differentiation among mountain top populations across multiple species, reflecting the isolating influence of lowland gaps between upland habitats, with the degree of differentiation varying among species. These results provide the first genetic baseline for Australian TMCF flora and reinforce the importance of treating individual mountain top populations as distinct units for conservation management. Additionally, the project provided valuable insights into the logistical challenges of coordinated multi-institutional collecting, informing strategies for metacollection design more broadly. Evaluation of the metacollection revealed both strengths and gaps in representation across species, providing an evidence base to refine the current holdings and guide future targeted collecting to strengthen their long-term conservation value.

This report presents a field assessment of wild Coffea eugenioides, the diploid maternal progenitor of cultivated Arabica coffee, in Nyungwe Forest National Park and the adjoining, isolated Cyamudongo forest fragment in south-western Rwanda. The assessment targeted trees identified as candidate mother trees (individuals bearing fruit and therefore potential seed sources): 59 such trees were georeferenced and measured for structural, phenological and reproductive traits using a structured KoBoToolbox questionnaire (reproduced in Annex 1). The work was undertaken to inform the establishment of a seed orchard for this species under the RTRP-Seed (IKI) and TREPA (GCF) projects implemented by Landscape Alliance (CIFOR & ICRAF in action). On C. eugenioides, the cherry is the fleshy fruit that contains the seed, so cherry load is a direct measure of fruit and seed output. Reproductive output across the assessed trees is low, highly variable and weakly related to tree size. The median tree carried an estimated 29 cherries in the whole canopy, 31% of trees carried 15 cherries or fewer, and the coefficient of variation in cherry load exceeded 110%. Tree size explained little of this variation (stem diameter, the single significant structural predictor, accounted for under 10% of the variance; r = 0.31). Trees in the isolated Cyamudongo fragment carried significantly fewer cherries than those in the main Nyungwe block (medians 15 vs 32 cherries; Mann-Whitney p = 0.021), and every observation of sub-optimal on-tree seed quality occurred in the fragment. Low and asynchronous fruiting, together with the reduced fruit and seed set typical of small, isolated populations, makes large-scale seed collection an unreliable basis for an orchard. The original plan was to collect seed from wild trees and raise a Breeding Seed Orchard (BSO). On the evidence presented here, that plan should be redirected toward a Clonal Seed Orchard (CSO): rather than collecting seed, scions (budwood) are taken from selected wild trees and grafted onto vigorous local Rwandan Coffea arabica rootstock. This captures the full genotype of each selected tree, shortens the time to flowering, secures the germplasm of a threatened wild relative ex situ, and aligns with Rwandas restoration and climate commitments.

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is grown in Cote d'Ivoire (the world's leading producer), almost always in association with trees, yet these cocoa-based agroforestry systems (cocoa AFS) remain characterized largely descriptively, without a robust inferential framework or modern diversity indices. We analyse a survey database covering 474 farms and 103 localities across the three main cocoa-producing zones of Cote d'Ivoire, locally known as " loops " (East/South-East, Centre/Centre-West, South/South-West; surveys 2013-2016), applying a renewed ecological and statistical framework: Hill numbers (q = 0, 1, 2), individual-based Hurlbert rarefaction, multiplicative alpha/beta/gamma diversity partitioning, ordination (PCoA) and PERMANOVA on Bray-Curtis matrices, Ward's hierarchical clustering for a data-driven floristic typology, multivariate MANOVA, and linear mixed models. Across 99 adequately sampled localities (>10 stems), mean taxonomic richness and the Shannon index differed significantly among zones (MANOVA: Wilks' = 0.350; F8,180 = 15.5; p < 0.001), including after standardizing sampling effort by rarefaction (F = 8.72; p < 0.001). Floristic composition differed significantly by zone (PERMANOVA, pseudo-F = 2.85; p = 0.001), though with uneven within-group dispersion (PERMDISP, p = 0.024) that calls for caution in interpretation. The Centre/Centre-West zone showed the highest beta diversity (inter-farm floristic turnover = 16.4, versus 7.2 and 2.2 in the other two zones), revealing a highly heterogeneous mosaic of individual agroforestry choices rather than a homogeneous regional system. A typological classification based on floristic composition distinguishes four cocoa-AFS profiles, ranging from dense, diverse stands to impoverished systems with low densities of associated trees, partially but not fully overlapping with the zonal boundaries. At the scale of the three loops (n = 409 farms with both age and yield recorded), cocoa yield varied significantly by orchard age class (Kruskal-Wallis, H = 18.2; p < 0.001), following a bell-shaped profile peaking around 20-35 years, consistent with the intermediate-age yield optimum suggested qualitatively by the source study; this relationship, robust to log-transformation of yield and to the exclusion of extreme values, nonetheless remains of small magnitude (R2=1.5%) and confers no out-of-sample predictive power under cross-validation, illustrating the need to distinguish statistical significance from predictive utility. This reanalysis provides a reproducible and transferable statistical framework for characterizing West African cocoa AFS, and highlights the potential value of high beta diversity as a possible indicator of landscape resilience.

Incomplete information on distributions for a high proportion of the world's plant species together with biases in global biodiversity data mean that current estimates of plant diversity patterns are skewed. A key issue is that current predictions rely on a subset of species that is not representative of all plant species. Here we tested the feasibility of a representative sampling approach for mapping global vascular plant diversity at the finest scale where comprehensive data is available. Using the World Checklist of Vascular Plants as a reference, we generate random samples of species with increasing sample sizes from the global species pool. We compare the diversity patterns retrieved from the samples against the patterns of the reference dataset using spatially weighted correlation coefficients and four different diversity metrics. We find that at the botanical country scale, representative global maps of species and phylogenetic diversity can be created with small numbers of species (~1% [0.2% and 0.4%, respectively]) at the botanical country scale. For effective growth form and family diversity sample sizes encompassing ~20% [19.2% and 19.5%, respectively] of all species are needed. Random samples require markedly fewer species to reach high correlations than when restricting the pool of species to single plant families or genera. We show that when representative samples are used robust inferences of plant diversity patterns can be made from only a small proportion of species.

Plant health research within National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) represents a critical yet neglected pillar of agricultural resilience in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where crop productivity remains substantially below global averages due to persistent biotic and abiotic stresses. Although plant health units have a strategic mandate to support crop protection, disease surveillance, and varietal improvement, the institutional capacity of these units across NARES in SSA is not defined. Here, we assessed 36 plant health units across 26 SSA countries to determine research capacity, identify operational constraints, and examine their contributions to crop improvement and food security. Our findings reveal the existence of a strong human capital operating under structurally constrained systems. More than 65% of personnel possess postgraduate qualifications, indicating the presence of a highly trained scientific workforce with considerable potential to drive plant health innovation. However, this expertise is undermined by severe infrastructural and institutional limitations that restrict research delivery. Access to essential facilities remains low, whereby only 53% of respondents had access to plant pathology laboratories, 43% had molecular biology platforms, and 37% had glass/screenhouses, while only 30% of respondents maintained phenotyping infrastructure such as sick plots or endemic/hot spot disease sites. These deficiencies undermine plant health research in areas like biotic stress resistance screening, pathogen diagnostics, and diversity. It was noted that plant health units primarily target staple food crops central to regional food systems, including cereals (maize, rice, sorghum, and millets), legumes (groundnut and cowpea), and root and tuber crops (cassava and potato). All these crops are affected by diverse biotic stresses that include fungi, bacteria, viruses, insect pests, and parasitic weeds. Yet research effectiveness to address these challenges is further constrained by unclear or fragmented protocols, poorly equipped laboratories, weak data capture, and management systems. Critical gaps were consistently identified in pathogen isolation and characterization, disease phenotyping, surveillance and mapping, experimental design, and data management. Workforce composition raises additional concerns regarding long-term system sustainability. Women account for only 18% of plant health personnel, while researchers younger than 35 years represent just 10% of the workforce, reflecting weak generational succession and gender inequity. These demographic imbalances constitute an existential threat to institutional continuity and innovation capacity. In summary, closing these gaps will require coordinated investment in infrastructure, technical training, institutional strengthening, and digital modernization. Equally important is the development of inclusive workforce strategies that improve gender representation and strengthen succession pathways. Unlocking the potential of NARES plant health networks is essential for accelerating resilient crop development, strengthening agricultural productivity, and advancing food security across SSA.

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWThis study seeks to advance understanding of how ancient Hoabinhian communities engaged with the diversity of their environments, focusing on plant resource management and the role of plants in technological and subsistence strategies at the Laang Spean site, Cambodia. The methodological approach relies on phytolith assemblages recovered from sediments associated with micro-plant residues adhering to the lithic tools, interpreted using anatomical and histological knowledge of plant tissues. Phytolith extraction from nine stratigraphic layers revealed distinct differences between Hoabinhian contexts (Stratigraphical Unit=SU): the layer 9 contained mainly palm trees phytoliths, while layers 10 and 11 showed higher phytolith diversity and diagnostic grass forms. Besides the Monocots strong assemblage results between the two main periods studied, a diversity of phytolith arboreal taxa indicate broader plant use and environmental complexity during Hoabinhian occupations (consistent with the other archaeobotanical studies held on Hoabinhian archaeological sites in the region). Upon the nine lithics artefacts studied, only one has delivered micro-plant remains identified as leaf-culm part of Monocots (plants that do not produce wood), and most probably of bamboo origin. This multidisciplinary research aims to refine interpretations of Hoabinhian plant exploitation (subsistence and environmental context), and contributes to current debates on "forest technologies" in Southeast Asia.

Oaks (Quercus L.) are among the most ecologically important tree genera in the northern hemisphere, with an intricate evolutionary history reflected in a reticulated phylogeny. Oak diversity has been profoundly shaped by introgression and diversification, yet the Iberian Peninsula remains an understudied natural laboratory for understanding these evolutionary processes. We used RAD-seq to characterize 38 taxa (including nothotaxa) and investigate the evolutionary history of the Iberian white oaks, with an emphasis on hybrid swarms. Results led to a readdressing of Iberian white oak species, expanding our current understanding of the phylogeography of the European Section Quercus. Furthermore, molecular evidence led to the circumscription of two new subsections, reflecting the contrast between typical temperate and Atlantic distributed species (Group A), and the submediterranean marcescent oaks (Group B). The former unveiled the recovery of Q. estremadurensis and a Northwestern Iberian lineage represented by Q. broteroana and Q. orocantabrica as southwestern representatives of the broad European pedunculate oaks (Q. robur s.l.). The latter led to the validation of hybrid swarms, emphasizing the Iberian oak syngameon and the importance of gene flow to oak evolution. Ultimately, our approach advances the understanding of European white oak evolution across different evolutionary scales, establishing the Iberian Peninsula as an important reservoir of oak diversity.

ContextThe global diversity hotspot in Southwest Australia has >480 orchids facing increasing threats from climate extremes, fire and habitat decline. AimsTo develop effective and consistent tools for measuring climate impacts on productivity in a diverse urban orchid community. MethodsAnnual variations in flower and seed production for 17 orchids were determined using thousands of records over a decade with extreme climate variability. Key resultsRainfall deficits and temperatures in autumn, winter and spring increased substantially over 125 years. Seasonal climate anomalies reduced flowering and seed production for orchids, but this varied between species and seasons. These effects were summarised by climate response (CRI) and sensitivity (CSI) indexes. Early or late flowering species were most vulnerable to seasonal drought, and visually deceptive pollination preferred warm dry conditions. CRIs were strongly correlated with orchid pollination syndromes and flowering times. Effects on mycorrhizal fungi and pollinators were also observed. Extrapolating climate trends to 2100 predicted further impacts on orchid productivity (-5-40%). ConclusionsOrchid climate responses were diverse and deeply integrated with pollination, phenology, fire sensitivity and other key traits. ImplicationsResearch in an urban climate observatory produced a climate analysis framework that is likely relevant to many orchids and other biota.

Smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa are constrained by declining soil fertility, erosion, and rising fertilizer costs, creating an urgent need for scalable inputs that sustain yields while maintaining soil health. While there is some evidence that microbial inoculants may offer a promising complement to conventional fertility management, field-scale evidence in tropical cereal and tuber systems remains limited. Here, we evaluated a multi-species inoculant composed of 20-22 Bacillus and Streptomyces species on potato and maize across four sites in Rwanda over two growing seasons (2025A and 2025B). Treatments included the inoculant applied at two rates (150 and 250 g ha-1), both alone and in combination with standard fertilization (inorganic fertilizer plus manure), alongside untreated and fertilized controls. Co-application of the inoculant with standard fertilization increased yield and plant biomass beyond fertilization alone, with gains of 6-51% for maize and 3-58% for potato. However, while the inoculant applied alone outperformed untreated controls, it generally did not match standard fertilization. Responses were strongest and most consistent for large-grade potato tubers, and application rate interacted with crop type, whereby the lower dose maximized marketable tuber yield, while maize showed a positive dose-response for grain and biomass. Yield increases were not accompanied by reductions in crop nutrient density, which was instead governed by site-level differences. Altogether, these results indicate that multi-species microbial inoculants are an effective complement to existing fertility practices that may offer, pending further research, a potential pathway to partial fertilizer replacement while sustaining productivity and nutritional quality in smallholder tropical agriculture.

Cropland abandonment is a widespread socio-ecological transition that can generate heterogeneous ecological outcomes, including opportunities for vegetation recovery as well as the accumulation of invasive alien plants (IAPs). Understanding broad-scale correlates of IAP richness in abandoned croplands is challenging because published studies differ in sampling design, spatial extent, and reporting detail. To provide an exploratory national-scale synthesis, we compiled literature-derived occurrence records of 57 IAP species reported from abandoned croplands across China and examined study-level recorded richness using generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) with province as a random effect. Fourteen socio-economic and environmental predictors were screened for multicollinearity and standardized, and the number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) was included as a proxy for potential sampling-effort variation. Asteraceae accounted for 43.9% of recorded species, and more than 70% of taxa were classified as high-risk invaders (Levels 1-2). Recorded richness exhibited a pronounced southeast-northwest gradient, with higher values in economically developed coastal provinces. In the exploratory GLMM, regional GDP (IRR = 1.67, p < 0.05) and mean annual temperature (IRR = 1.49, p < 0.05) were positively associated with recorded richness, whereas other environmental, accessibility, soil, and sampling-effort variables showed no detectable associations. Model diagnostics indicated no evidence of overdispersion, zero inflation, or residual spatial autocorrelation. Given the heterogeneous nature of literature-derived data and the small number of study units, these results should be interpreted as broad-scale correlational patterns rather than causal drivers. The findings highlight regional socio-economic context and climatic conditions as key correlates of recorded IAP richness in abandoned croplands and provide an initial baseline for understanding invasion patterns in post-agricultural landscapes undergoing rapid land-use transitions..

A better understanding factors regulating agricultural production is a research priority, given the pace of environmental change and global human population growth. Fruit orchards may be particularly vulnerable to climate change owing to the strong temperature-dependency of reproduction in temperate trees. In this study, we explored climate influences on the reproductive dynamics of apple (Malus domestica), one of the most widely-grown, economically-important fruit crops worldwide. Observations of individual-tree fruit-set, a key indicator of final yield, were acquired for three apple cultivars in an eight-year census of ~44,900 trees in >5,500 orchards spanning wide climate gradients across the Republic of Korea. With maximum-likelihood models, we quantified temporal and climate-driven patterns in fruit-set, investigated evidence for spatially-synchronized production, and conducted simulations of orchard vulnerability to climate change. We found annual fruit-set oscillated around modal levels and was synchronized between orchards within 25 km. Higher temperatures had contrasting influences, reducing fruit-set during the cold-season (consistent with climate-induced phenological shifts), while increasing fruit-set during the season of bud initiation (prior spring). Simulations predict that higher future temperatures during bud initiation increase average fruit-set, despite the constraints of cold-season warming, but that such enhancements level-off by late-century and are accompanied by heightened volatility. Decelerating fruit-set and greater instability in production have implications for future societal needs, as robust supply systems depend as much on consistent production as on high average output. Our analyses also imply that future climate patterns promoting synchrony in fruit-set among orchards may accentuate the negative consequences of fluctuating production.

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is an increasingly important crop with applications spanning fibre, seed oil and bioactive cannabinoid production, yet the development of reliable tissue culture systems for this species remains a significant challenge. The establishment of axenic seedling cultures is a prerequisite for hypocotyl-based regeneration and future genetic transformation pipelines, but hemp seeds harbour diverse endophytic microbial communities that frequently overwhelm standard surface sterilisation protocols. Here, we present a systematic comparative evaluation of seed sterilisation strategies across seven industrial hemp accessions, examining the effects of sterilisation chemistry, seed provenance and accession identity on both contamination outcome and the subsequent morphogenic competence of hypocotyl explants. Across all treatments and accessions, in-house glasshouse-harvested seeds achieved higher sterility rates than commercially sourced material regardless of protocol applied. This provenance effect, combined with considerable batch-to-batch variation within seed sources, indicates that contamination load is a primary determinant of successful hemp seed sterilisation. Among the sterilisation treatments evaluated, a baseline of 75% ethanol combined with sequential 1% hydrogen peroxide incubation performed consistently well for low-load seed batches, while supplementation with Plant Preservative Mixture (PPMTM) might be necessary to achieve acceptable rates of non-contaminated seedlings from high contamination load batches. Beyond their effect on contamination, sterilisation treatments influenced the morphogenic fate of hypocotyl explants independently of sterility outcomes. Notably, seedling treatment with the Prochloraz-based fungicide Octave promoted shoot and root co-regeneration in the absence of exogenous plant growth regulators in some cases. Hormone-free organogenesis from hypocotyl explants was achievable across multiple hemp accessions, demonstrating that this developmental capacity is broadly distributed within hemp, though its frequency and consistency varied with accession identity and protocol conditions. Together, these findings provide a practical framework for axenic hemp seed culture that can be used as starting point requiring local adaptation based on seed source, batch history and the intended downstream application.

Peanut smut, caused by Thecaphora frezzii, is an important constraint to peanut production in Argentina, but quantitative estimates of yield losses across environments remain limited. We quantified the relationship between disease incidence and kernel yield using 922 observations from 26 field studies conducted in Cordoba, Argentina, between 2021 and 2025. Study-specific incidence-yield relationships were analyzed using linear regression, random-effects meta-analysis, and linear mixed-effects models. Peanut smut incidence was consistently associated with yield reduction across studies. The estimated damage coefficient ranged from 24.2 to 28.7 kg ha-{superscript 1} per 1% increase in disease incidence, corresponding to a relative yield reduction of 0.74-0.87% of attainable yield. In contrast, attainable yield varied markedly among studies, ranging from 1,370 to 5,409 kg ha-{superscript 1}. Although an exploratory segmented analysis suggested a breakpoint near 12% incidence, subsequent moderator analyses, study- specific regressions, and normalized response curves provided no evidence of a biologically meaningful change in the damage coefficient across incidence or yield classes. These results indicate that differences among environments were primarily associated with attainable yield rather than with changes in the magnitude of disease-associated yield loss. The resulting damage function provides a quantitative basis for yield-loss assessment and disease management in peanut.

Exotic pests and pathogens pose a major threat to forest ecosystems. Early detection of newly introduced organisms is critical for implementing effective eradication measures before they become established. Citizen science platforms have emerged as promising sources of biodiversity data for detecting invasive pests and pathogens, yet their integration into formal biosecurity surveillance remains limited. Using France as a case study, we surveyed 101 professionals involved in forest and urban tree management and pest surveillance to assess their knowledge of regulated tree pests and pathogens and their attitudes towards online citizen science platforms for biosecurity applications. We focused on ten focal species representing different regulatory statuses under EU legislation. We assessed the knowledge professionals have of these species and their regulatory status, and explored sources of variation in their opinions regarding the use of citizen science platforms as a tool for post-border biosecurity. Experts involved in mandatory surveillance of regulated organisms (SORE experts) demonstrated consistent knowledge of quarantine pests, whereas other professionals knowledge varied by species, with greater familiarity for non-quarantine, widely distributed pests. Half of respondents used citizen science platforms, predominantly to consult species distribution rather than to contribute observations. Professionals receptivity to citizen science increased significantly when species were perceived as easy to identify, but they expressed more confidence in citizen science for monitoring established pests than for the early detection of quarantine species. The survey reveals that while citizen science platforms are known and valued as information sources, they remain underutilized as mechanisms for sharing field observations, even among surveillance professionals.

Maximising ecosystem service (ES) benefits while minimising ecosystem disservices (EDS) is essential for ecological intensification in annual crop systems. Yet ecosystem disservices are often underreported in the scientific literature, potentially biasing how agroecosystem functioning is understood. To test this, we built a predicted network of plausible links between ecosystem service providers (taxa or functional groups that can deliver ecosystem services or disservices), and the ES or EDS they may provide. We then compared this with a realised network based on systematic Scopus searches of annual crop literature. The predicted network contained 47 nodes and 103 links, whereas the realised network contained 33 nodes and 58 links, representing declines of 29.8% in nodes and 43.7% in links. Overall connectivity declined, especially for highly connected nodes, and four of the nine predicted disservice nodes were absent from the literature. ES links were more likely to be documented than EDS links, and EDS links were three times more likely to be absent. Across all links, ES were reported in 6.6 times more papers than EDS. Projected networks, which map indirect connections by linking ES directly to EDS if they share common providers, showed that these bundled interactions were strongly reduced, obscuring multifunctionality and trade-offs. This systematic underrepresentation of EDS, reflecting a cognitive bias, can inflate perceived benefits, distort the evaluation of key taxa and interactions, and create unrealistic expectations about intervention outcomes in biological crop protection. Addressing EDS alongside ES is therefore essential for more balanced assessments of crop-system management and better-informed decisions.

AimHere we aim to disentangle species-specific bioclimatic drivers of forest site productivity and project their future dynamics, providing a spatially explicit basis for anticipating climate-driven shifts in productivity and their implications for forest carbon sequestration. LocationIberian Peninsula. Time period1985-2014 (calibration); 2071-2100 (projected under CMIP6 scenarios). Major taxa studied21 Iberian tree species. MethodsWe used Site Form (SF) maps derived from the Third Spanish National Forest Inventory, spatially interpolating plot-level SF estimates as a continuous productivity index and relating them to 25 bioclimatic variables. Multiple linear regression models were selected via complementary stepwise and subset regression and validated on independent hold-out data (80%/20% split). ResultsValidated [Formula] ranged from 0.46 (Quercus faginea) to 0.97 (Pinus pinaster); 17 of 21 species reached [Formula]. BI013 precipitation of the wettest month), not BI014, was the most frequently retained predictor (15/17); BI014 was retained in only (11/17 models with a near-even sign split. Combining projected changes in mean productivity and habitat extent under SSP5-8.5, fifteen of sixteen applicable species lose total productivity by 2071-2100, six -- including Fagus sylvatica and Betula alba -- collapsing to below 1% of their reference-period value; only Pinus pinaster gains, and only under the lowest-emission pathway (up to 175%) -- under SSP5-8.5 it too loses productivity, albeit less than any other species (35% of its reference-period value retained). Limiting warming to SSP1-2.6 spares Mediterranean pine and oak species but not Euro-Siberian and montane ones. Main conclusionsThese validated, extrapolation-aware models reveal a near-universal, climate-driven collapse in Iberian forest site productivity, with direct implications for the carbon-sink potential currently attributed to these forest types, and provide a route to dynamic, climate-aware carbon-uptake estimates for the region.

Tropical dry evergreen forests (TDEFs) are a unique and highly threatened forest type of the dry tropics. Their restoration could be strengthened if native species demonstrate carbon sequestration comparable to widely used non-native trees. We assessed biodiversity and carbon sequestration in a restored TDEF in India, developed over 50 years from a largely barren landscape. The site now supports high woody-plant diversity, with 91 native species across 34 families. Aboveground biomass (AGB) averaged 66.91 +/- 41.2 Mg/ha comparable to seasonally dry tropical forests globally. Although native species were planted more recently and are shorter than non-natives, they contributed 23.86 +/- 23.4 Mg/ha to AGB and show potential for future increases in basal area. Given their comparable wood densities and capacity to attain similar heights, native species are predicted to sequester carbon at levels similar to non-natives in the long term. AGB was unrelated to species diversity. Overall, native TDEF species can achieve carbon storage while maintaining ecological integrity.

Polycultures have long been practiced in traditional agriculture, yet their ecology-based benefits have remained underexplored. Here, under realistic conditions, we experimentally evaluated the productivity and ecological interactions in cultivated milpa, a traditional Mesoamerican polyculture of maize, squash and beans, using a substitutive design in which total plant density was held constant while varying species composition. Specifically, we asked whether productivity gains arose through complementary or selection effects, and whether these gains were associated with changes in arthropod communities and herbivory. We additionally evaluated whether prior cultivation influenced maize performance in the following season. Milpa plots produced significantly higher total yields, more than 2.6 times those of monocultures, despite poor bean performance. In particular, squash and maize equivalent yields increased approximately threefold. We found that these improvements were mainly explained by complementary effects rather than selection effects. Arthropod communities responded in species-specific ways to crop diversity, with predator abundance tracking herbivore presence. However, no consistent patterns emerged between herbivore load, predator abundance and plant damage, suggesting that belowground plant interactions may play a more important role than top-down herbivore control in explaining complementarity effects. In the following season, maize yield increased by [~]30% in plots previously planted with squash or beans, with milpa plots showing intermediate responses. These findings demonstrate that milpa can substantially enhance productivity while generating benefits that extend into the advantages and soil into the following growing season. Overall, our results suggest that complementarity among crops is the primary driver of productivity in milpa under low-input conditions.

Commercial inoculants based on associative diazotrophs and methylotrophic bacteria, and bios-timulant programs, are marketed for broad use in cereal and fiber production, yet most field deployment occurs over already adequate mineral fertilization, where their marginal value is poorly quantified. We reanalyzed three randomized complete-block trials conducted at commercial scale in the Brazilian Cerrado (Sao Desiderio, Bahia) under full conventional fertilization: corn (seven treatments, four blocks; 2023/24), cotton (five treatments, four blocks; 2024/25), and soybean (four treatments, six blocks; 2024/25). Treatments evaluated Azospirillum brasilense, Methylobacterium symbioticum, Bradyrhizobium spp., a Bacillus phosphorus solubilizer, and biostimulants, applied via seed and foliar routes. Beyond conventional analysis of variance, we fit mixed models with block as a random effect, quantified effect sizes and coefficients of variation, computed the minimum detectable difference at 80% power, and applied two one-sided equivalence tests (TOST) against the untreated control at margins of plus or minus 10% and 15% of control yield. No treatment produced a statistically significant yield gain in any crop (all p greater than 0.8; fixed and mixed models concordant). In cotton, the best-powered trial (coefficient of variation 6%), all treatments were statistically equivalent to the untreated control within a 10% margin, an affirmative negative result. In corn and soybean the trials were underpowered (minimum detectable difference 21 to 26% of control), so non-significance is not equivalence; corn showed non-significant numerical gains up to 8.9% with phosphorus-solubilizer and methylotroph combinations that could not be excluded. Foliar nutrient concentrations (single composite per treatment, descriptive) showed no enrichment in inoculated treatments. Under standard fertilization, these commercial inputs delivered no detectable agronomic value where the data were adequately powered to test it. The results clarify the low empirical bar that current associative-fixation products meet in the field and, by extension, the agronomic threshold that engineered, plant-controlled nitrogen fixation must exceed to be useful.