Plants are consumed by a variety of organisms, including herbivores and pathogens, which significantly impact plant biomass, diversity, community composition, and ecosystem functioning. While the impacts of vertebrate herbivores are well established, the effects of consumer groups such as insect herbivores, mollusks, and fungal pathogens on plant communities are less clear and remain understudied in many systems. Existing evidence of how they affect plant biomass, diversity, and community composition is mixed, and most studies have focused on individual consumer groups in isolation. However, different consumer groups interact with each other, directly or indirectly, in ways that alter their impacts on plants, and the consequences of these interactions for plant community structure and ecosystem function remain understudied. Further, consumer impacts vary across environmental gradients and likely depend on abiotic conditions such as climate, soil type, or elevation, and biotic conditions such as plant productivity, diversity, or community composition. Existing studies testing the impacts of invertebrate herbivores and fungal pathogens on plant communities differ substantially in methodology, making generalities across large scales difficult. This calls for experimental approaches that implement standardized protocols across many sites. Here, we introduce and report on the methodology of a novel global research network, The Bug-Network (BugNet), that implements standardized consumer-reduction experiments across 5 continents and 18 countries in diverse, herbaceous- or shrub-dominated ecosystems to investigate: (1) the influence of fungal pathogens, insect herbivores, and mollusks on plant diversity and ecosystem functioning, (2) interactions among these consumer groups, and (3) the abiotic and biotic drivers of context-dependent consumer impacts. BugNet aims to advance a predictive understanding of plant-consumer interactions in order to test fundamental ecological hypotheses and improve predictions of global change impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

The last half of the previous century has seen an explosion in publications on biocrusts, communities of eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms inhabiting the uppermost surface of predominantly dryland soils. Much of the early work emanated from the western United States, yet there have been few attempts to document the breadth of this work and its contribution to our understanding of the ecosystem roles of biocrusts. We used a structured literature search to extract the 868 publications on biocrusts published between January 1900 and July 2024, and explored the trends in publications in 12 subject areas over that time. We found that almost half of the 868 publications focussed on the ecological and physiological effects of biocrusts and that more recent research explored emerging fields such as restoration, monitoring and climate change impacts. Five authors comprised about 10% of all authors on these publications, and 5.5% of publications had 10 or more authors. The number of authors per publication tended to increase over time. We identified three main periods of research ranging from basic ecology and exploration of ecological mechanisms pre-2000 to biocrust function, physiology and climatic drivers up to 2020. The post-2020 period was characterized by a greater emphasis on molecular approaches, restoration and climate change impacts. Our literature review identifies knowledge gaps associated with the need for more trained taxonomists, and greater education on biocrust ecology and function. Potential developments in biocrust research include a greater use and recognition of biocrust species traits, the establishment of a dedicated international biocrust society, and the development of a global research and monitoring network to coordinate methods and provide a framework to answer critical knowledge gaps.

Soil organisms represent the most abundant and diverse organisms on the planet and support almost every ecosystem function we know, and thus impact our daily lives. Some of these impacts have been well-documented, such as the role of soil organisms in regulating soil fertility and carbon sequestration; processes that have direct implications for essential ecosystem services including food security and climate change mitigation. Moreover, soil biodiversity also plays a critical role in supporting other aspects from One Health-the combined health of humans, animals, and the environment-to the conservation of historic structures such as monuments. Unfortunately, soil biodiversity is also highly vulnerable to a growing number of stressors associated with global environmental change. Understanding how and when soil biodiversity supports these functions, and how it will adapt to changing environmental conditions, is crucial for conserving soils and maintaining soil processes for future generations. In this Essay, we discuss the fundamental importance of soil biodiversity for supporting multiple ecosystem services and One Health, and further highlight essential knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to conserve soil biodiversity for the next generations.

Drylands are highly vulnerable to global-scale aridity thresholds that cause drastic reductions in their productivity. While protected areas may help buffer against the impact of aridification, their effectiveness in mitigating the aridity thresholds across global drylands remains virtually unknown. Here we assembled a global dataset of drylands and found that highly protected areas, which include national parks and wilderness areas, can buffer the emergence of aridity thresholds in ecosystem productivity by up to 0.15 units of aridity. This suggests that, in highly protected regions, drylands must become substantially drier before reaching an aridity-induced threshold in ecosystem productivity. The importance of highly protected area for supporting drylands was consistent across 23 years of study, in woody and non-woody ecosystems and after accounting for rangelands. Notably, only 3.3

Grasslands support multiple ecosystem functions and services, and diverse biota, and are critical for human wellbeing. Grazing is the most pervasive land use in grasslands, but can have damaging effects when poorly managed. How grazing management and the environment interact to affect ecosystem functions globally is less well understood. Addressing this knowledge gap is important if we are to evaluate where (climate region, soil texture, and grassland type), what (livestock type), and how (grazing intensity, grazing regime, and duration) grazing might minimize grassland degradation and sustain healthy grassland functions. We used a systematic metaanalysis to explore the effects of grazing on ecosystem functions (primary production, carbon sequestration, water conservation, nutrient cycle, and decomposition) based on 3917 paired data from 148 studies across the globe. We found that grazing substantially reduced plant productivity (-26 %), followed by water conservation (-18 %) and carbon sequestration (-19 %). The value of most ecosystem functions declined with increasing grazing intensity, and more pronounced negative effects of grazing with mixed-herbivore than single species grazing. Grazing impacts also varied with environmental conditions, with light grazing increasing carbon sequestration in arid regions, but reducing it in semi-arid regions. Further, increasing aridity indirectly weakened the positive impacts of light grazing on ecosystem functions by suppressing grazing effects. Our study suggests that the interactions between grazing management and environmental conditions are critical when assessing the effects of grazing on grassland functions, and this will likely be more important as climates become hotter and drier.

Rewilding with locally extinct terrestrial vertebrates has been a popular conservation initiative over the past few decades. Among the animals used for rewilding are the small‐ to medium‐sized vertebrates that forage in the soil and that have been lost from many ecosystems due to habitat destruction or predation by exotic species. Soil foraging by these animals creates surface depressions that generate resource‐rich patches and novel niches. Thus, their reintroduction can have beneficial effects on both the biodiversity and functioning of the ecosystems they inhabit. An important knowledge gap, however, is the extent to which soil foraging by these animals might compromise ecosystem functioning if they reach extremely high densities in the absence of natural predators, such as occurs with the extensive soil disturbance by feral pigs. We performed a field experiment to test the effects of increasing soil disturbance and herbivory, and their interaction, on ecosystem functioning and the diversity of multiple taxa in a dry subhumid grassy woodland. Of the 106 possible attribute x treatment combinations assessed, we found only eight effects (three declines and five herbivory effects that varied depending on disturbance or community) in response to increasing levels of soil surface disturbance or herbivory. System‐based modelling revealed that the greatest overall effects on our organisms were due to plants (plant richness, plant biomass, litter depth), with generally positive effects of plants on surface‐active arthropods, negative effects on the whole metazoan community, and a negative litter effect, but only on microbes. Levels of disturbance (0–60%) and herbivory (0–100%) imposed in our treatments were greater than those observed under natural conditions. Our results suggest therefore that there are unlikely to be substantial negative impacts of reintroducing soil‐foraging animals on biodiversity or ecosystem functioning in our target dry woodlands, even under potentially large levels of disturbance and herbivory.

Aim: To evaluate how grazing pressure, a key land-use factor, interacts with climatic, vegetation, and soil variables to shape the fragmentation of perennial vegetation across drylands globally. Location: 171 plots across 25 countries on six continents. Time Period: Field data: 2016-2019. Major Taxa Studied: Perennial grasses, shrubs, and woody plants. Methods: We conducted a standardised field survey across 171 45 m x 45 m plots to assess grazing pressure, vegetation, and soil properties. Vegetation fragmentation was quantified using three patch-based metrics derived from high-resolution satellite images. Linear mixed-effects models were used to relate fragmentation to climatic, vegetation, and soil variables. Predictor importance was assessed through multi-model inference and validated using a random forest approach. Results: Vegetation fragmentation increased with aridity, and this effect was 4.7 times stronger under high grazing pressure than under low pressure. The most influential interactions involved grazing pressure with soil amelioration (49.7% importance) and with vegetation cover (44.6%). Soil amelioration-measured as the enrichment of soil organic carbon beneath vegetation-reduced fragmentation, especially under high grazing pressure. In contrast, the ability of vegetation cover to sustain large patches diminished as grazing intensity increased. Soil amelioration was strongly linked to the proportion of facilitated plant species (p < 0.01), whereas soil organic carbon alone-beneath vegetation (p = 0.37) or in bare areas (p = 0.94)-was not significantly related. Main Conclusions: Grazing pressure and aridity interact to intensify vegetation fragmentation, potentially accelerating land degradation in drylands under future climate and land-use scenarios. Mitigating this fragmentation requires not only enhancing vegetation cover but also promoting plant-soil facilitation processes, especially under high grazing pressure. These findings underscore the critical role of plant-driven soil amelioration in maintaining ecosystem structure and resilience across global drylands.

In Gross et al.1 we produced the largest ever standardized dryland plant trait database including 133,769 trait measurements from 301 perennial plant species surveyed across 326 plots and six continents. Our findings indicate that arid and hyper-arid drylands act as a global reservoir of plant phenotypic diversity, challenging the common assumption that harsh environmental conditions reduce plant trait diversity. Tordoni et al.2 speculate that the larger phenotypic diversity in harsh environments found in our study is overestimated and misinterpreted. The re-analyses presented here further confirm that the patterns we originally reported are robust, and thus that the concerns from Tordoni et al. are not well-founded and do not apply to our study. We stand for the main conclusions of our study and maintain that lonely plants in arid land are functionally hyperdiverse. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Dryland grazing sustains millions of people worldwide but, when poorly managed, threatens food security. Here we combine livestock and wild herbivore dung mass data from surveys at 760 dryland sites worldwide, representing independent measurements of herbivory, to generate high-resolution maps. We show that livestock and wild herbivore grazing is globally disconnected, and identify hotspots of herbivore activity across Africa, the Eurasian grasslands, India, Australia and the United States. Wild herbivore dung mass was negatively correlated with total organic nitrogen, yet strong site-level correlations exist between our livestock dung estimates and total soil organic nitrogen. Using dung mass as a proxy of herbivore abundance enables standardized, field-based measures of grazing pressure that account for different herbivore types. This can improve herbivore density modelling and guide better management practices for populations that rely on dryland-grazing livestock for food. Global maps of dryland livestock and wild herbivore dung mass show that dung can be used as a proxy for herbivory to improve herbivore density modelling and guide dryland management strategies.

Tetradesmus sp. strain 198 is a microalga with potential for the biotechnological production of carotenoids. In this study, we have sequenced the genome, obtaining a total contig-level genome assembly length of 149 Mbp. The BUSCO completeness was 91%, the N50 was 783 kbp, and the total number of annotated genes was 19,841.

Biocrusts are a major ground cover type in drylands, driving ecosystem function and contributing to biodiversity at large scales. However, their small size and similar colour to background soils and vegetation make them challenging to monitor with remote sensing. We developed a simple and accurate field method for large scale surveys of biocrust, using drone imagery and machine learning, guided by visual ground survey data. We compared the accuracy of three different camera sensors- RGB, multispectral, and thermal. We used XGBoost predictive modelling to classify groundcover into six classes including three biocrust community morphology types (bare ground, cyanobacteria-lichen biocrust, crustose and foliose lichen biocrust, moss biocrust, dead vegetation, live vegetation). Visual ground-based survey data and fine-scale photography were used to ground truth drone imagery to develop training datasets. Modelled outputs demonstrated that Multispectral was the best drone camera sensor type, with the highest accuracy of 97.0 %, with NDVI the most important band for the model. When we applied the model to 50 m2 plots to validate its predictions, we had similar results to visual classification from field surveys and fine-scale photographs, successfully separating biocrust from bare ground. Our relatively simple method can be applied to biocrusts using readily available, low-cost technology. Considerable opportunities exist for using this approach to provide landscape-level biocrust assessment, using remote sensing, leading to improved restoration and management of drylands for conservation.

Sustainable land management practices are a strategic tool for addressing land degradation processes that threaten agroecosystem services supply. Currently, carbon credit schemes are important promoters of the adoption of such practices, yet their effectiveness on providing services other than carbon sequestration is not frequently assessed. Particularly, vegetation cover may not only be a mediator of CO2 fixation, but also act as protection against soil erosion and prevent water quality deterioration. The overarching aim was to develop generalizable methods to assess the effectiveness of sustainable land management practices for maintaining agroecosystem integrity. To achieve this, we assessed the effect of soil carbon sequestration practices on remotely sensed groundcover levels and its stability, and on its response to short-term antecedent accumulated rainfall. These methods were tested in the Cowra Trough, an agricultural region of semi-arid New South Wales, Australia. Time series statistics (mean and standard deviation) and non-parametric tests were used to analyse temporal change in remotely sensed groundcover on paddocks undergoing different land management change intensities. This was complemented with a regional scale analysis of the effect of land use to contextualize paddock-scale results. Moreover, sequential linear regressions of remotely sensed vegetation cover response to antecedent rainfall through a moving temporal window were employed to assess trends in this relationship. A significant effect of land management change was demonstrated: over 90% of the sites implementing sustainable practices had increased and more stable ground cover levels, and the same number (though not the same sites) decreased their ground cover dependence on rainfall. The size of the effect was not related to the intensity of management change implemented for soil carbon sequestration. Land use type proved to be an important spatiotemporal predictor of ground cover and its stability at the Cowra Trough scale with cropping performing worse than grazing systems. Notably, the implementation of carbon farming practices was found to have a more prevalent positive impact on ground cover than on soil carbon contents, suggesting that such practices may provide cobenefits even when no carbon sequestration occurred. This study advances the possibility of monitoring agroecosystem multifunctionality and the development of integrative 'payment for ecosystem services' schemes.

In Australia, species declared as 'extinct' are afforded no legal protection, even after rediscovery, despite rediscovery being the most common reason for changes to extinct species' listing. Here we use the rediscovery of Atriplex acutiloba R.H.Anderson, an Australian arid zone plant species listed as extinct, to examine how species listing policies may inhibit conservation once a species is, at least on paper, declared extinct. We also provide previously unpublished ecological notes to help reduce taxonomic confusion and improve the veracity of future records of Atriplex acutiloba. We provide recommendations for provisional relisting or emergency revisions where rediscovered species were presumed extinct to ensure that necessary protections are afforded until dedicated reassessment can occur.

Cleistogenes squarrosa is a pioneer tumble plant widely distributed across the Eurasian steppes. It achieves long-distance wind dispersal through stem reshaping. However, the underlying ecological adaptation mechanisms of this dispersal strategy remain unexplored. Combining with field and laboratory observations, we revealed that four coordinated processes - plant phenology, cell wall development, water supplies, and aerodynamic adaptations - interactively facilitate the anemochory of this endemic species in the Eurasian steppes. Specifically, the development of the cell wall with heterogeneous microfibril arrangement plays a critical role in hygroscopic stem reshaping, which occurs in synchrony with seed maturation. Remarkably, the subsequently dry and windy season perfectly follows these two synchronized processes, providing ideal dehydration conditions for stem reshaping and enhancing aerodynamic efficiency for long-distance dispersal. This model for long-distance dispersal innovatively showcases how microscopic cell wall structure propels macroscopic dispersal capabilities and environmental adaptation, ultimately enhancing ecosystem resilience to environmental changes. Collectively, these results indicate the potential for promoting the introduction and cultivation of C. squarrosa to support the restoration of degraded and arid ecosystems. Moreover, this newly identified mechanism provides a valuable direction for future research aimed at developing herbaceous plant varieties with improved dispersal capabilities through molecular breeding techniques.

Mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) constitutes a major fraction of global soil carbon and is assumed less sensitive to climate than particulate organic carbon (POC) due to protection by minerals. Despite its importance for long-term carbon storage, the response of MAOC to changing climates in drylands, which cover more than 40% of the global land area, remains unexplored. Here we assess topsoil organic carbon fractions across global drylands using a standardized field survey in 326 plots from 25 countries and 6 continents. We find that soil biogeochemistry explained the majority of variation in both MAOC and POC. Both carbon fractions decreased with increases in mean annual temperature and reductions in precipitation, with MAOC responding similarly to POC. Therefore, our results suggest that ongoing climate warming and aridification may result in unforeseen carbon losses across global drylands, and that the protective role of minerals may not dampen these effects..

Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25% threshold) and moderate (>50%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.

Earth harbours an extraordinary plant phenotypic diversity(1) that is at risk from ongoing global changes(2,3). However, it remains unknown how increasing aridity and livestock grazing pressure-two major drivers of global change(4-6)-shape the trait covariation that underlies plant phenotypic diversity(1,7). Here we assessed how covariation among 20 chemical and morphological traits responds to aridity and grazing pressure within global drylands. Our analysis involved 133,769 trait measurements spanning 1,347 observations of 301 perennial plant species surveyed across 326 plots from 6 continents. Crossing an aridity threshold of approximately 0.7 (close to the transition between semi-arid and arid zones) led to an unexpected 88% increase in trait diversity. This threshold appeared in the presence of grazers, and moved toward lower aridity levels with increasing grazing pressure. Moreover, 57% of observed trait diversity occurred only in the most arid and grazed drylands, highlighting the phenotypic uniqueness of these extreme environments. Our work indicates that drylands act as a global reservoir of plant phenotypic diversity and challenge the pervasive view that harsh environmental conditions reduce plant trait diversity(8-10). They also highlight that many alternative strategies may enable plants to cope with increases in environmental stress induced by climate change and land-use intensification.

Biocrusts play vital roles in arid ecosystems, yet their responses to environmental change remain poorly understood, especially for biocrusts sheltered beneath vegetation canopies. This study aimed to identify critical environmental drivers and thresholds shaping under-canopy biocrust distribution and development across the Mu Us Sandland in northwestern China. We measured biocrust characteristics (cover, thickness, shear strength) and environmental variables (vegetation, soil, topography, climate, disturbance) at 44 sites. Relationships were analyzed using correlation analyses and regression tree models. Vegetation cover emerged as the primary driver, with total biocrust cover increasing markedly above 56

The spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) poses a substantial threat to human health. Phage-mediated transduction could exacerbate ARG transmission. While several case studies exist, it is yet unclear to what extent phages encode and mobilize ARGs at the global scale and whether human impacts play a role in this across different habitats. Here, we combine 38,605 bacterial genomes, 1432 metagenomes, and 1186 metatranscriptomes across 12 contrasting habitats to explore the distribution of prophages and their cargo ARGs in natural and human-impacted environments. Worldwide, we observe a significant increase in the abundance, diversity, and activity of prophage-encoded ARGs in human-impacted habitats linked with relatively higher risk of past antibiotic exposure. This effect was driven by phage-encoded cargo ARGs that could be mobilized to provide increased resistance in heterologous E. coli host for a subset of analyzed strains. Our findings suggest that human activities have altered bacteria-phage interactions, enriching ARGs in prophages and making ARGs more mobile across habitats globally.

AimChanges in climate are likely to have major impacts on benefits (i.e., biodiversity and ecosystem services) supported by trees. Here we explore the extent to which trees can support multiple benefits, and the potential tradeoffs among them, under increasing dryness.LocationEastern Australia.Time period2018-2019.Major taxa studiedTrees.MethodsWe evaluated changes in biodiversity and services supported by trees and the nature of potential tradeoffs in response to increasing aridity, our proxy of drying regional climates. We assessed six benefits (biodiversity and five ecosystem services) supported by trees at 126 sites across a gradient from Australia's mesic coast to the arid interior.ResultsThe value of average benefits did not vary with aridity, with winners and losers in biodiversity and ecosystem services as aridity intensified. Tradeoffs between biodiversity and soil stability declined with increasing aridity, but only in mesic environments, whereas tradeoffs between wood production potential and carbon storage intensified under greater aridity levels, but only in mesic environments. Aridity and tree structure were the major regulators of these tradeoffs, particularly under dry environments. Increasing aridity affected tradeoffs directly or indirectly by either suppressing the positive effect of tree height or exacerbating the negative effect of tree canopy size.Main conclusionsOur results indicate that biodiversity and most ecosystem services supported by trees are likely to decline under future climate change scenarios and demonstrate the importance of targeting afforestation programs to specific services in particular climatic areas rather than attempting to improve multiple services.