The unprecedented use of Earth's resources by humans, in combination with increasing natural variability in natural processes over the past century, is affecting the evolution of the Earth system. To better understand natural processes and their potential future trajectories requires improved integration with and quantification of human processes. Similarly, to mitigate risk and facilitate socio-e

The increasing strength of land CO2 uptake in the 2000s has been attributed to a stimulating effect of rising atmospheric CO2 on photosynthesis (CO2 fertilization). Using terrestrial biosphere models, we show that enhanced CO2 uptake is induced not only by CO2 fertilization but also an increasing uptake by plant regrowth (accounting for 0.33 ± 0.10 Pg C/year increase of CO2 uptake in the 2000s com

Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement, there has been an increasing interest in quantifying impacts at discrete levels of global mean temperature (GMT) increase such as 1.5 °C and 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Consequences of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on agricultural productivity have direct and immediate relevance for human societies. Future crop yields will be affected b

Biotic disturbances (BDs, for example, insects, pathogens, and wildlife herbivory) substantially affect boreal and temperate forest ecosystems globally. However, accurate impact assessments comprising larger spatial scales are lacking to date although these are critically needed given the expected disturbance intensification under a warming climate. Hence, our quantitative knowledge on current and

An integrated understanding of the biogeochemical consequences of climate extremes and land use changes is needed to constrain land-surface feedbacks to atmospheric CO2 from associated climate change. Past assessments of the global carbon balance have shown particularly high uncertainty in Southeast Asia. Here, we use a combination of model ensembles to show that intensified land use change made S

Land use contributes to environmental change, but is also influenced by such changes. Climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels’ changes alter agricultural crop productivity, plant water requirements and irrigation water availability. The global food system needs to respond and adapt to these changes, for example, by altering agricultural practices, including the crop types or intensity

In biogas plants, lignocellulose-rich biomass (LCB) is particularly slowly degraded, causing high hydraulic retention times. This fact lowers the interests for such substrates. To enhance LCB-degradation, cattle rumen fluid, a highly active microbial resource accruing in the growing meat industry, might be used as a potential source for bioaugmentation. This study compares 0%, 20% and 40% rumen li

The use of dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) to estimate CO2 emissions from land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) offers a new window to account for spatial and temporal details of emissions and for ecosystem processes affected by LULCC. One drawback of LULCC emissions from DGVMs, however, is lack of observation constraint. Here, we propose a new method of using satellite- and inventory-ba

Terrestrial ecosystems provide a range of important services to humans, including global and regional climate regulation. These services arise from natural ecosystem functioning as governed by drivers such as climate, atmospheric carbon dioxide mixing ratio, and land-use change. From the perspective of carbon sequestration, numerous studies have assessed trends and projections of the past and futu

Tree planting is widely advocated and applied in urban areas, with large-scale projects underway in cities globally. Numerous potential benefits are used to justify these planting campaigns. However, reports of poor tree survival raise questions about the ability of such projects to deliver on their promises over the long-term. Each potential benefit requires different supporting conditions-relati

Volatile organic compounds of biogenic origin (BVOCs) in the atmosphere are a key component of the Earth system, influencing ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation, and the global oxidant budget. Global BVOC emissions are dominated by terrestrial vegetation, in particular the compound isoprene, whose emission rate, in common with many BVOCs, is strongly and non-linearly dependent on tempera

Street-level concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM) exceed public health standards in many cities, causing increased mortality and morbidity. Concentrations can be reduced by controlling emissions, increasing dispersion, or increasing deposition rates, but little attention has been paid to the latter as a pollution control method. Both NO2 and PM are deposited onto su

Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) is one of the key drivers of anthropogenic climate change. In addition to greenhouse gases such as CO2 or CH4, LULCC affects also the emission of other carbon trace gases such as biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs). We investigate the impact of changing LULCC on the emission of isoprene and monoterpenes during the 21st century using seven different la

Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) represents one of the key drivers of global environmental change. However, the processes and drivers of anthropogenic land-use activity are still overly simplistically implemented in terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs). The published results of these models are used in major assessments of processes and impacts of global environmental change, such as the repo

The terrestrial biosphere absorbs about 20% of fossil-fuel CO 2 emissions. The overall magnitude of this sink is constrained by the difference between emissions, the rate of increase in atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, and the ocean sink. However, the land sink is actually composed of two largely counteracting fluxes that are poorly quantified: fluxes from land-use change and CO 2 uptake by terres

High temperatures are detrimental to crop yields and could lead to global warming-driven reductions in agricultural productivity. To assess future threats, the majority of studies used process-based crop models, but their ability to represent effects of high temperature has been questioned. Here we show that an ensemble of nine crop models reproduces the observed average temperature responses of U

With flexibility in tuning their electric and magnetic properties, multiferroics can be used in information exchange and storage in ways that are very different from the present electronic materials. Here we use resonant soft x-ray scattering spectroscopy to study the -type and -type (0, 1-, 0) diffraction peaks from sinusoidal antiferromagnetic spin order in multiferroic DyMnO. By comparing the t

The aggregation of simulated gridded crop yields to national or regional scale requires information on temporal and spatial patterns of crop-specific harvested areas. This analysis estimates the uncertainty of simulated gridded yield time series related to the aggregation with four different harvested area data sets. We compare aggregated yield time series from the Global Gridded Crop Model Interc

The potential impact of global temperature change on global crop yield has recently been assessed with different methods. Here we show that grid-based and point-based simulations and statistical regressions (from historic records), without deliberate adaptation or CO 2 fertilization effects, produce similar estimates of temperature impact on wheat yields at global and national scales. With a 1 °C