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The capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to retain carbon or sequester more atmospheric carbon is frequently investigated as a potential natural climate solution. However, global carbon inventories, national carbon assessments, and atmospheric inversion studies suffer from key limitations: infrequent estimates, low spatial resolution, or a lack of partitioning into different carbon sinks and sources. In contrast, process-based ecosystem models can represent ecosystem biogeochemical fluxes on daily time scales, globally, constrained by near-real time observations from satellite sensors. The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive mission Level 4 Carbon (L4_C) data set now provides over a decade of daily, global estimates of gross primary production (GPP), soil heterotrophic respiration, net ecosystem exchange, and soil organic carbon for terrestrial ecosystems. We present a validation of the latest L4_C product release, Version 8 (V8), and its updates compared to the previous version. Since 2015, L4_C has consistently met its performance target and provides carbon flux estimates similar to or better than global extrapolations such as FLUXCOM-X when compared to eddy-covariance tower measurements (ubRMSE of NEE , GPP = 1.13 g C ). We also compare L4_C V8 to the magnitude and direction of trends in global carbon uptake and net carbon balance predicted by the TRENDYv13 ensemble of dynamic global vegetation models. Based on regional case studies for recent extremes of fire weather, heat, and drought, L4_C demonstrates sensitivity to the impacts of short-term climate variability on the terrestrial carbon cycle and provides a basis for near-real time assessment of global carbon sinks and sources.
Biodiversity loss is a central dimension of the triple planetary crisis and underscores the need for stronger science-policy engagement to support transformative change. Early-career researchers (ECRs) can make important contributions at the biodiversity science-policy interface but often face barriers, including limited training, networks, time, resources, and institutional recognition. This Brief Report draws on insights from a two-day capacity-building workshop that brought together 20 doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from Swiss institutions and 13 experts from academia, government, and boundary organizations. The workshop aimed to strengthen participants’ understanding of science-policy processes in biodiversity conservation and to support the development of tailored engagement strategies. Based on workshop discussions, practical exercises, and expert exchange, we identify five key components of effective science-policy engagement for ECRs: understanding one’s position, analyzing the policy environment, defining engagement objectives, building networks, and reflecting on success. We argue that science-policy engagement is context-specific and requires strategic, adaptive, and sustained approaches rather than standardized solutions. Strengthening institutional support through training, mentorship, and appropriate incentives is essential to enable ECRs to engage meaningfully in biodiversity governance. Supporting ECRs at the science-policy interface can enhance both their professional development and the contribution of research to biodiversity conservation.
The Swiss Journal of Geosciences (SJG) is the scientific full Open-Access journal of the Swiss Geological Society. First published in 1888 as “Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae”, it has a long tradition. From the 1920s until 2006, it was published in collaboration with “Birkhäuser”, a scientific publisher based in Basel which was sold to Springer in 1985. In 2006, the SJG merged with the «Schweizerische Mineralogische und Petrographische Mitteilungen (SMPM, first published in 1921), after which the journal was renamed to Swiss Journal of Geosciences (see Schmid, 2006; Schmid et al., 2007). From 2007 (Vol. 100) to 2019 the SJG was published with Springer, and since 2020 it has been published as a full Open Access Journal with SpringerOpen.
Broad evidence suggests a positive relationship between local species richness and ecosystem functioning [1][1],[2][2]. However, Earth’s terrestrial surface is formed by a mosaic of different habitats, which constitutes a higher level of diversity known as landscape diversity. Recent studies indicate that landscape diversity can also promote ecosystem functions, including primary productivity, but the underlying mechanisms and relevant spatial scales remain poorly understood [3][3],[4][4]. Here, we combine satellite remote sensing of vegetation productivity with high-resolution land cover data to investigate the effects of landscape diversity on ecosystem functioning across different spatial scales. Using a plot network covering North America, we find that the observed landscape-wide effects cannot be explained by local-scale interactions along ecosystem interfaces. In a subsequent, global-scale analysis, we instead demonstrate that landscape diversity effects are most strongly associated to landscape diversity at a spatial scale of a few kilometers. This association holds across continents and climatic zones, indicating that this pattern is universal. Our investigation therefore suggests that effective land management and biodiversity conservation strategies must integrate both local species richness and higher-level organizational diversity, such as landscape diversity, to ensure robust ecosystem functioning. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. University of Zurich, https://ror.org/02crff812, Research Priority Program Global Change and Biodiversity (URPP GCB) European Union, https://ror.org/019w4f821, Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant 847585 [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-2 [3]: #ref-3 [4]: #ref-4
