Analysis of plant‐wax biomarkers from sedimentary sequences can enable past environmental and hydrological reconstruction and provide insights into past hominin adaptations. However, biomarker preservation in desert contexts has been considered unlikely given the sparse nature of the vegetation within the landscape. Here we evaluate the preservation of n ‐alkanes and fatty acids collected from four depositional sequences assoc...

Globally, soils store two to three times as much carbon as currently resides in the atmosphere, and it is critical to understand how soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and uptake will respond to ongoing climate change. In particular, the soil‐to‐atmosphere CO 2 flux, commonly though imprecisely termed soil respiration ( R S ), is one of the largest carbon fluxes in the Earth system. An increasing number of high‐frequency R S...

Coastal marshes are highly valued for ecosystem services such as protecting inland habitats from storms, sequestering carbon, removing nutrients and other pollutants from surface water, and providing habitat for fish, shellfish, and birds. Because plants largely determine the structure and function of coastal marshes, quantifying plant biomass is essential for evaluating these ecosystem services, understanding the biogeochemic...

Identifying drivers of infectious disease patterns and impacts at the broadest scales of organisation is one of the most crucial challenges for modern science, yet answers to many fundamental questions remain elusive. These include what factors commonly facilitate transmission of pathogens to novel host species, what drives variation in immune investment among host species, and more generally what drives global patterns of par...

At small spatial and temporal scales, genetic differentiation is largely controlled by constraints on gene flow, while genetic diversity across a species' distribution is shaped on longer temporal and spatial scales. We assess the hypothesis that oceanographic transport and other seascape features explain different scales of genetic structure of giant kelp, M acrocystis pyrifera . We followed a hierarchical approach to perform...

Successful recruitment of marine fishes depends on survival during early life‐history stages, which is influenced by oceanic advection due to its impact on coastal trophodynamics and transport processes. Here we evaluate the influence of ocean circulation on the dispersal of rockfish ( Sebastes spp.) larvae along the central California coast using an implementation of the Regional Ocean Modeling System, driven at the surface b...

We examined the effects of elevated atmospheric CO 2 on soil carbon decomposition in an experimental anaerobic wetland system. Pots containing either bare C 4 ‐derived soil or the C 3 sedge Scirpus olneyi planted in C 4 ‐derived soil were incubated in greenhouse chambers at either ambient or twice‐ambient atmospheric CO 2 . We measured CO 2 flux from each pot, quantified soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization using δ 13 C, a...

Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations ([CO 2 ]) generally increase plant photosynthesis in C 3 species, but not in C 4 species, and reduce stomatal conductance in both C 3 and C 4 plants. In addition, tissue nitrogen concentration ([N]) often fails to keep pace with enhanced carbon gain under elevated CO 2 , particularly in C 3 species. While these responses are well documented in many species, implications for pl...