Innovative glasshouse films that reduce light quantity and alter spectral quality show great potential to increase light use efficiency in protected cropping. While crop responses to these films vary according to the cultivar and season, underlying mechanisms by which plants respond is not fully understood. This study evaluated the performance of a light-shifting film (LSF) on growth, pigments, and physiology of two lettuce cultivars, butterhead and green cos, grown for two crop cycles during the early and late autumn season. We postulated that overall light intensity reduction, combined with higher red-light levels under LSF, would trigger photo acclimation and stimulate yield via increased leaf expansion under light limiting conditions.Comparing control plants, both cultivars showed reduction in leaf number (-30 to -37%) and yield (-16 to -17%) due to lower light availability in late relative to early autumn, yet only butterhead showed declines in total chlorophyll (-52%) and carotenoid (-54%) content. The LSF reduced light intensity (∼ -20%) and shifted light wavelengths in the green towards red spectrum and affected foliar pigments and lettuce yield in a season and cultivar dependent manner. The LSF significantly reduced foliar pigment (- 14 to -58%) parameters in early autumn and increased yield (+14%) in late autumn, particularly in butterhead cultivar, without changes in light-saturated photosynthesis (Aₛₐₜ) revealing some degree of photo acclimation.In conclusion, the LSF offsets moderate PAR reductions maintaining and significantly enhancing lettuce biomass particularly when grown in seasons of lower light, and in a cultivar-dependent manner. The increased biomass correlated with enhanced leaf area rather than photosynthetic capacity highlighting that LSFs engineered to enhance the red-light wavelengths offer potential not only to offset yield reductions under low-light conditions, but also to actively improve photosynthetic efficiency and crop performance.

Optimizing crop yield while minimizing energy consumption remains a central challenge in greenhouse horticulture. This study introduces an integrated deep learning framework that couples multi-horizon time-series forecasting with dual-layered explainability to address the critical need for spatiotemporal transparency in optimizing greenhouse crop yield and energy efficiency. Four deep learning architectures, including the One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (1D-CNN), Long Short-Term Memory Network (LSTM), Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory Network (BiLSTM), and TinyTimeMixer (TTM), were evaluated across two varieties of capsicum. LSTM and BiLSTM achieved the highest accuracy for incremental yield prediction, whereas TTM outperformed other models in forecasting daily energy usage, reflecting the distinct temporal characteristics of biological growth and environment-driven energy demand. To uncover the factors driving these predictions, two complementary explainability methods were applied: Gradient SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) for feature-level attribution and a Temporal Convolutional Network with Convolutional Block Attention Module (TCN-CBAM) attention mechanism for joint temporal-feature interpretation. Radiation and drainage-related variables consistently emerged as the dominant contributors to yield, whereas external temperature, and humidity were the primary determinants of energy usage. Temporal attention further showed that yield is influenced by both recent irrigation responses and longer-term developmental dynamics, while energy consumption is driven mainly by short-term climatic fluctuations. These findings provide actionable insights for irrigation scheduling, climate-control strategies, and energy optimization, supporting more transparent and sustainable greenhouse management.

The transcriptional responses of plants to high light (HL) are dynamic and specific, varying with exposure duration, growth stage, and tissue type. However, the mechanisms linking transcriptomic and physiological responses in tomato leaves (source) and fruits (sink) remain relatively unknown. Here, transcriptome profiling of tomato fruit tissue and leaf mesophyll cell protoplasts (MCP) identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in the metabolic and signaling pathways under HL. Gene and pathway enrichment analyses revealed distinct strategies: we observed reprogramming of primary metabolism and N-glycan biosynthesis in fruits, while flavonoid and terpenoid pathways were activated in leaf MCP. Furthermore, cell wall metabolism-associated genes associated with ascorbic acid accumulation were markedly regulated under HL, which may facilitate reactive oxygen species detoxification, contribute to the softening of fruit texture, and consequently influence overall tomato fruit quality. These DEGs included GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (SlGGP), ascorbate peroxidases (SlAPXs), ripening inhibitor, a MADS-box transcription factor (SlRIN), and abscisic acid stress ripening 1 (SlASR1). Moreover, HL-triggered molecular regulation in MCP is closely linked to tomato fruit quality traits, through the coordinated expression of both common and specific DEGs such as Small Auxin Up RNA 1 (SAUR1) and Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PLA). Furthermore, the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed that distinct gene modules were significantly correlated with key fruit quality traits in HL compared to the control. These findings suggest that light intensity-dependent transcriptional reprogramming of metabolic and signaling networks contributes to HL acclimation of tomato fruit quality in greenhouse conditions.

Urban vegetation is increasingly exposed to the compound heat and drought stress due to global warming and urban heat island effects, yet heat tolerance and its linkage with drought resistance or photosynthesis remain unclear for plants in urban environments. We evaluated corresponding traits in nine woody species common to northern China's highly urbanized megacity cluster dominated by temperate continental monsoon climate. Specifically, we assessed: (1) temperature thresholds causing declines in the maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), (2) leaf resistance to xylem embolism and turgor loss, and (3) leaf gas exchange and biochemical efficiency of photosynthesis of field-grown, mature plants, but under lab conditions. We also recorded the in situ Fv/Fm and leaf temperature under contrasting air temperatures to assess whether and how plants maintained functional integrity of the photosynthetic apparatus under heat. We showed that stress tolerance and photosynthetic traits differed markedly among species. The overall weak heat tolerance of these plants resulted in significantly decreased Fv/Fm in four species under high air temperature, while species with a wider thermal safety margin, primarily determined by leaf temperature, retained greater functional integrity. Traits associated with leaf heat tolerance, drought tolerance, and photosynthetic efficiency were decoupled. Moreover, correlations were identified between heat tolerance traits and climatic metrics, indicating the variability in climate of species distributional range. Findings of this study add to the limited knowledge regarding the physiological resistance of urban greening plants and may provide reference during the establishment of green infrastructure in this region.

In protected cropping systems such as greenhouses and hydroponics, fertigation aims to maximise efficiency. Potassium (K) availability and its uptake are crucial for greenhouse crop production. Although K is essential for fruit quality, yield, and enzyme activity, its management in advanced systems frequently results in reduced nutrient-use efficiency. To address this, we conducted agronomical, physiological, and post-harvest measurements as well as resource and carbon footprint analyses on Lebanese and Continental cucumber varieties grown under three K fertigation levels at 185, 370 and 512 mg l-1 in a high-tech greenhouse. High K levels led to significantly higher yield in Lebanese cucumber compared to the low K treatment, while there were no significant K treatment effects observed in the Continental variety. Net photosynthetic rates remained stable across K treatments, in both Lebanese and Continental varieties. We also observed a significant decrease in K, and calcium (Ca), but magnesium (Mg) and chlorine (Cl) were more abundant at low K supply in both Lebanese and Continental cucumber varieties. Continental cucumbers grown in low K fertigation showed greater weight loss at storage temperature of 7 °C, which was associated with significantly lower firmness values. Furthermore, increased K supply reduced water and energy use intensities per kilogram of yield compared to low K treatment, improving cucumber production efficiency. Carbon footprint analysis revealed that combining high K fertigation with renewable energy scenarios could reduce emissions by approximately 95 %, highlighting a strong synergy between fertigation management and decarbonisation strategies in protected cropping systems.

The increasing pressure of global energy shortage demands a better understanding of energy efficiency of current greenhouse food production systems to future climate changes. This study investigates the seasonal dynamics of energy and resource use efficiency for multi-year capsicum production in a high-tech glasshouse under current and future climate conditions. The analysis revealed that heating and cooling energy under the pad-fan energy system varies by over an order of magnitude across seasons, driving significant variation in total energy efficiency in the four capsicum trials. Skipping winter (Scenario 4) achieved the highest total energy efficiency (70.8 kg·GJ−1), achieving 14.1 million USD net present value (NPV) over a 25-year projected greenhouse lifespan in a modelled commercial scale glasshouse. Comparatively, year-round production (Scenario 5) has the shortest break-even period of 6.45 years. Forecasting energy demand under IPCC climate pathways demonstrated that energy efficiency improves over time, particularly under mild warming (SSP126) due to reduced winter heating. Therefore, we conclude that implementing smart seasonally adapted cropping and energy strategies will enhance the sustainability and resilience of vegetable production in pad-fan greenhouses in a warmer future climate.

While many studies have investigated plant thermal acclimation to short-term warming, the effects of long-term warming remain poorly understood. We conducted a 10-year field experiment in a subtropical forest in southern China by translocating the seedlings of two native tree species (Machilas breviflora and Schima superba) from a cooler higher elevation site (600 m) to a warmer lower elevation site (30 m). Translocated treatment significantly promoted the growth of S. superba but inhibited growth of M. breviflora. Over a two-week period in the summer growing season of the 10th year of the translocated treatment, it had no effects on the net photosynthetic rate (Anet), maximum rate of carboxylation of Rubisco (Vcmax), maximum electron transport rate for RuBP regeneration (Jmax) and their optimum temperatures (ToptA, ToptV and ToptJ) for M. breviflora and S. superba. Translocated treatment significantly increased respiration at 25 degrees C (R25) for M. breviflora but did not alter R25 of S. superba. These results indicated that both species displayed limited photosynthetic and respiratory thermal acclimation. M. breviflora and S. superba under translocated treatment had higher photosynthetic thermal tolerances and wider thermal safety margins, suggesting an increased thermal threshold of photosystem II to translocated treatment. Although these tree species exhibited limited capacity for thermal acclimation of carbon metabolism, trans-located treatment was found to be beneficial for the growth of S. superba but not for M. breviflora. This study advanced our knowledge of the adaptive capacity of subtropical trees to future climate change that may inform global vegetation models.

Although protected cropping achieves high efficiency to maximise the yield of vegetables, growers tend to overuse fertilisers in greenhouses. This study evaluated the effects of fertigation levels [electrical conductivity (EC) 1.0, 2.5, and 3.5 of nutrient solutions] on the leaf gas exchange, postharvest quality, and nutrition of capsicum to determine the fertigation efficiency for two capsicum cultivars in a high-tech glasshouse. In addition, we extend the agronomic perspective to encompass an economic analysis, assessing the cost-effectiveness of adopting advanced fertigation strategies for greenhouse capsicum. Our results showed that High EC treatment did not improve mophorlogical and post-harvest parameters but decreased the nutritional quality, particularly Ca2+ and Mg2+, of capsicum leaves and fruits. Similarly, the postharvest quality traits did not improve with high nutrient supply. The highest net present value (NPV) and benefit/cost ratio were recorded in the EC 2.5 scenarios, reaching 529.6 USD·m−2 and 3.35 in Australia, and 60.4 USD·m−2 and 2.53 in India, respectively. The modelled commercial-scale capsicum business in Australia was expected to break even after 5.73 to 7.11 years; comparatively, the payback period in India takes slightly longer 5.96–8.31 years. Sensitivity analysis revealed that a 10

Understanding the response of soil fungal communities to climate change is crucial for predicting ecosystem resistance and optimizing agricultural management. Here, we combined a meta-analysis of 4968 peer-reviewed publications with a controlled microcosm experiment involving 600 pots to assess how warming and increased moisture affect soil fungal diversity and community composition in natural and agricultural ecosystems. Our results revealed that warming and increased moisture generally enhanced soil fungal alpha diversity in natural ecosystems, particularly in forests and grasslands. Conversely, monoculture farmlands exhibited significant reductions in fungal diversity under warming or increased moisture, while crop rotation systems mitigated soil fungal diversity loss under these conditions. Additionally, fungal communities in monoculture systems experienced lower species turnover and composition differentiation under warming and wetting, while crop rotation systems displayed higher resistance. Network analysis further demonstrated that crop rotation systems supported more complex and stable fungal co-occurrence networks, suggesting enhanced adaptability to climate stress. Lastly, structural equation modeling identified network complexity, driven by trophic guild diversity and beta diversity, as a crucial factor influencing fungal alpha diversity in rotation systems. These findings highlight the importance of diversifying cropping systems to enhance fungal community stability and resistance under climate change, providing practical insights for sustainable agriculture.

The sensitivity of physiological and metabolic processes in subtropical trees to temperature remains uncertain, limiting our ability to predict how subtropical forests will acclimate to future climates. In particular, our understanding of gas exchange and metabolic activity responses to warming and heat shocks is quite limited. Here, we exposed Pinus massoniana seedlings to three daytime growth temperatures (25°C, 3°C, and 35°C) for 65 days, followed by a heat shock up to 40°C, then immediately reduced to 25°C, to investigate physiological and metabolic responses. The optimal temperature of photosynthesis (ToptA) did not exhibit a significant shift with warming. Metabolism acclimated to rising growth temperature, resulting in enriched levels of key metabolites (tryptophan, indole, indoleacetate, and o-Phospho-L-serine) and key pathways (tryptophan metabolism). At 25°C, leaf dark respiration (Rd) decreased in warm-grown seedlings. At 40°C (heat shock period), warming reduced Rd, accumulated flavonoid metabolites, and upregulated tryptophan metabolism. After recovery to 25°C, higher growth temperatures decreased the net photosynthetic rate (Asat), accumulated prenol lipid metabolites, and led to enrichment in tryptophan metabolism, flavone, and flavonol biosynthesis pathways. Our findings suggest that photosynthesis in P. massoniana seedlings exhibits limited thermal acclimation, while respiration and metabolism can acclimate under short-term warming. However, acclimation to warming altered both physiological and metabolic responses to heat shock and during the subsequent recovery phase in seedlings.

Afforestation is considered an effective strategy to mitigate a changing climate. However, it remains unclear how ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) changes under long-term afforestation and the role of soil and litter microbiomes in this process. To address this, we studied a well-characterised 60-year-old plantation and analysed soil and litter microbial communities influencing EMF variations. We found that long-term plantations significantly enhance forest EMF, largely due to the joint contributions of soil and litter microbial communities. In older stands (60 years), the stability of microbial interaction networks increased, while the α (Shannon) diversity of soil bacteria and litter fungi significantly decreased during succession. This transition suggests that microbial communities shifted towards more stable interactions rather than increased diversity, a strategic adaptation that potentially allows microbes to effectively utilize the continuously increasing resource supply, ultimately enhancing forest EMF. Structural equation modelling revealed that biotic factors, including composition of soil and litter microbial communities and their network stability, coupled with abiotic factors such as soil and litter physicochemical properties, jointly explained 98 % of EMF variation. This study highlighted the role of both soil and litter microbes in enhancing EMF in long-term plantation forests, offering new insights into the ecosystem service functions of plantations.

The phyllosphere is a complex microbial ecosystem residing on plant leaves, hosting microbes that influence plant growth and fitness. The phyllosphere is sensitive to temperature and moisture, so understanding its response to climate warming and variable moisture associated with changes in seasons is crucial for predicting ecosystem function. We conducted a 12-year warming experiment in a sub-tropical forest by transplanting a natural ecosystem from higher to lower elevations. We sampled phyllosphere microbial communities across wet and dry seasons for three consecutive years (years 10-12) to assess potential adaptation strategies to warming. Phyllosphere microbial community structure and diversity varied seasonally, with higher bacterial richness in the dry season; however, warming reduced bacterial richness across seasons. Co-occurrence networks revealed stronger microbial interactions in the dry season, which exhibited reduced connectivity under warming. Community assembly was largely stochastic, with warming enhancing species turnover and dispersal. Notably, plant probiotics, enriched in the wetter season with greater environmental disturbances, played a key role in adaptation to seasonal changes and warming. Seasonal shifts in microbial function were observed: wet-season bacteria were enriched in carbohydrate and energy metabolism, while dry-season bacteria showed elevated sulfur metabolism, reflecting adaptive metabolic strategies to environmental conditions. Our study enhances the understanding of the seasonal patterns of phyllosphere microbial communities and the impact of climate warming, offering new insights into plant-microbial adaptation strategies in response to climate change.

Although soil carbon accumulates during subtropical forest succession, changes in microbial communities and their carbon fixation capacity remain unclear. Using an integrative approach that combines field experimentation, extensive global metagenomic data, and isotope labelling, we analysed 84 soil microbiomes from a long-term successional site and 755 global metagenomes to investigate microbial community dynamics and their role in carbon fixation. Based on field data, bacteria, fungi, and protists had synchronous succession with vegetation; however, the relative abundance of carbon fixation genes declined significantly in later successional stages. To further investigate this outcome, we analysed global data from planted and mature natural forests and found significantly higher carbon fixation potential in planted forests, predominantly driven by Pseudomonadota and Actinomycota members. Field-based 13C labelling results further confirmed a significant decline in microbial CO₂ fixation rates with forest succession. These findings underscore the ecological importance of microbial carbon fixation in early forest succession, emphasizing its foundational role in initiating soil carbon accumulation and shaping long-term carbon cycling trajectories.

IntroductionElevated atmospheric carbon dioxide [CO2] increases peanut carbon assimilation and productivity. However, the molecular basis of such responses is not well understood. We tested the hypothesis that maintaining high photosynthesis under long-term elevated [CO2] is associated with the shift in C metabolism gene expression regulation.MethodsWe used a field CO2 enrichment system to examine the effects of elevated [CO2] (ambient + 250 ppm) across different soil water availability and plant developmental stages on the molecular responses in a peanut runner-type genotype. Plants under both [CO2] treatments were grown in semiarid conditions. We evaluated a comparative leaf transcriptomic profile across three periodic water deficit/re-hydration (well-watered/recovery) cycles throughout the growing season using RNAseq analysis.ResultsOur results showed that the transcriptome responses were influenced by [CO2], water availability, and developmental stages. The traditional Mercator annotation analysis based on percentage total revealed that lipid metabolism, hormone biosynthesis, secondary metabolism, amino acid biosynthesis, and transport were the most regulated biological processes. However, our new approach based on the comparative relative percentage change per individual category across stages revealed new insights into the gene expression patterns of biological functional groups, highlighting the relevance of the C-related pathways regulated by elevated [CO2].DiscussionThe photosynthesis analysis showed that 1) The light reaction was the most upregulated pathway by elevated [CO2] during water stress, 2) Photorespiration was downregulated across all stages, 3) Sucrose synthesis genes were upregulated by elevated [CO2] before stress, 4) Starch synthesis genes were upregulated by elevated [CO2] under drought periods, and 5) CO2 regulation of sucrose and starch degradation was critical under drought periods. Our findings provide valuable insights into the molecular basis underlying the photosynthetic acclimation response to elevated [CO2] in peanuts.

Plantations are an important component of global forest coverage, but their performance is increasingly affected by water limitation due to climate change. Employing a rainfall exclusion facility, we report on the impacts of reduced rainfall on leaf water relations and organ morphological traits, in six Populus varieties commonly used for afforestation across North China. We exposed trees to 2 years of 50% rainfall exclusion and found that leaf hydraulic traits conferring drought resistance, including water potential thresholds triggering xylem embolism, leaf pressure-volume characteristics and metrics quantifying the risk of hydraulic dysfunction (i.e., hydraulic safety margin), were not improved, despite slightly but significantly decreased predawn leaf water potential and growth rate. Interspecific variation in response to rainfall exclusion was observed for some morphological traits, yet the adjustments were unlikely to benefit drought resistance. Overall, our results demonstrate an overall lack of physiological adaptive adjustments for leaves in response to rainfall reduction at early growth stage for these trees. If this response persists as trees age, the function of these trees will be potentially reduced due to increased risk of hydraulic failure, if the drying trend continues in their planting region.

Understanding the implications of global warming on the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factor genes (VFGs) within soil ecosystems is crucial for safeguarding human well-being and sustaining ecosystem health. However, there is currently a lack of large-scale, systematic underpinning data needed to examine this issue. Here, using an integrative approach that combines field experiments, extensive global metagenomic data and microbial culturing, we show that warming enriches bacteria with ARGs and VFGs, increases metabolic complexity and adaptability in bacteria, and accelerates genetic alterations related to ARG and VFGs development. Our validation experiments confirm that the warming effect is more pronounced in colder regions. Machine learning predictions further suggest that warming will increase the soil ARG abundance, especially in some areas that rely heavily on fossil fuels. These results suggest another major negative consequence of global warming, highlighting the importance of developing and implementing sustainability policies that simultaneously combat climate change and antibiotic resistance.

Plant hydraulic traits primarily define the water regulation strategy, thus enabling a better understanding of vegetation structure, function and dynamics under varying hydro‐environments. Despite being intensively documented in woody species, the variation and correlation of hydraulic traits across herbaceous species remain largely understudied. Here, we report on the leaf hydraulics of nine herbs with contrasting growth forms (graminoid and forb). Traits quantifying drought resistance, including leaf water potential thresholds triggering xylem embolism (P x ), stomatal closure (P gs ) or leaf turgor loss point (P tlp ), and minimum conductance (g min ), together with leaf gas exchange, morphological traits and biomass allocation, were measured on pot‐grown plants. In addition, an in situ dry‐down was imposed on four representative species, with leaf gas exchange, water potential and level of xylem embolism being continuously monitored during dehydration to determine the dynamics of stomatal closure and leaf xylem embolism. We found that the studied graminoids tended to be more drought tolerant than forbs, although the difference in hydraulic safety margin for stomatal closure (HSM st ) did not differ significantly between these growth forms. Across species, P x was coordinated with P gs and P tlp , but was decoupled from gas exchange traits, including maximum photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance. Furthermore, no correlations were found between hydraulic traits and specific leaf area or the ratio of aboveground to belowground biomass. For plants that experienced in situ dehydration, stomatal closure always preceded the onset of xylem embolism in leaves. Moreover, species exhibited a distinct stomatal regulation strategy during the dehydration despite belonging to the same growth form. Our findings contribute to the understanding of herb hydraulics, which will inform prediction on the dynamics of grassy ecosystems by providing traits data and guiding the classification of plant functional types in ‘grassy’ ecosystems. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Fertigation systems in high-tech greenhouses improve crop performance by optimising water and nutrient use, which is critical for sustainable food production. Electrical conductivity (EC), an indicator of nutrient content in fertigation solutions, reflects the electrolyte concentrations and significantly influences plant growth and resource use efficiency. This study evaluated the productivity and quality of two cucumber varieties, Lebanese and Continental, grown under three EC levels (1.0, 2.5, and 3.5 dS/m) in high-tech greenhouses. The EC 2.5 fertigation led to the highest cucumber yields, enhanced water use efficiency (WUE) and fruit quality. Key physiological responses, such as net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and transpiration rates, remained stable across EC levels, while electron transport rates were highest at EC 2.5. Highlighting the potential benefits of maintained fertigation in glasshouse the study revealed that EC 2.5 performed better in maintaining the shelf life of fruits at 2 degrees C and 7 degrees C. The study also showed significant differential expression of potassium transporter genes, which correlated with yield and WUE, highlighting the molecular link between fertigation management and plant responses. A comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the three fertigation levels in Qatar and Australia revealed that the greenhouse cucumber business in Australia can break even in 3-5 years. The highest net present value was recorded in EC 2.5, with Australia achieving 31.3 USD m- 2 & sdot;year- 1 and Qatar 13.1 USD m- 2 & sdot;year- 1. These findings suggest that optimised fertigation levels could enhance resource sustainability, crop performance, and economic viability in greenhouse cucumber production, particularly in water-scarce and extreme climate regions.

Leaf photosynthesis and respiration are two of the largest carbon fluxes between the atmosphere and biosphere. Although experiments examining the warming effects on photosynthetic and respiratory thermal acclimation have been widely conducted, the sensitivity of various ecosystem and vegetation types to warming remains uncertain. Here we conducted a meta-analysis on experimental observations of thermal acclimation worldwide. We found that the optimum temperature for photosynthetic rate (Topt) and the maximum rate of carboxylation of Rubisco (ToptV) in tropical forest plants increased by 0.51°C and 2.12°C per 1°C of warming, respectively. Similarly, Topt and the optimum temperature for maximum electron transport rate for RuBP regeneration (ToptJ) in temperate forest plants increased by 0.91°C and 0.15°C per 1°C of warming, respectively. However, reduced photosynthetic rates at optimum temperature (Aopt) were observed in tropical forest (17.2%) and grassland (16.5%) plants, indicating that they exhibited limited photosynthetic thermal acclimation to warming. Warming reduced respiration rate (R25) in boreal forest plants by 6.2%, suggesting that respiration can acclimate to warming. Photosynthesis and respiration of broadleaved deciduous trees may adapt to warming, as indicated by higher Aopt (7.5%) and Topt (1.08°C per 1°C of warming), but lower R25 (7.7%). We found limited photosynthetic thermal acclimation in needleleaved evergreen trees (-14.1%) and herbs (-16.3%), both associated with reduced Aopt. Respiration of needleleaved deciduous trees acclimated to warming (reduced R25 and temperature sensitivity of respiration (Q10)); however, broadleaved evergreen trees did not acclimate (increased R25). Plants in grasslands and herbaceous species displayed the weakest photosynthetic acclimation to warming, primarily due to the significant reductions in Aopt. Our global synthesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the divergent effects of warming on thermal acclimation across ecosystem and vegetation types, and provides a framework for modeling responses of vegetation carbon cycling to warming.

Foraging in soil nutrient-rich patches is a key nutrient acquisition strategy for plants. However, how arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) trees integrate root and mycorrhizal fungal responses in exploring different nutrient patches is poorly understood, especially in generally phosphorus-limited subtropical forests. We established five nutrient patch treatments (control; nitrogen addition; phosphorus addition; nitrogen + phosphorus addition; and organic residue addition) using ingrowth root bags in monoculture plantations of four subtropical tree species (two AM and two EM (Castanopsis)) to investigate the foraging responses of absorptive roots and mycorrhizal fungi. Compared to control patches, neither roots nor mycorrhizal fungi of AM and EM trees showed significant proliferative responses in nitrogen addition patches. In phosphorus addition and nitrogen + phosphorus addition patches, AM trees showed significant proliferation for mycorrhizal fungi only, while EM trees showed significant proliferation for roots only. In organic residue addition patches, however, AM trees showed significant proliferation only for roots, while EM trees showed significant proliferation only for mycorrhizal fungi. Our results highlight that foraging strategies of roots and mycorrhizal fungi are complementary among nutrient patch types and between AM and EM trees. Predicting belowground nutrient foraging strategies requires integrating information on mycorrhizal and nutrient patch types, including potential limiting nutrients.