Background and aims In northern ecosystems, plants allocate biomass predominantly to roots, which are central to the transfer of recent photosynthate from plants to soil and thus soil carbon accumulation. Grazing typically modifies above-ground vegetation composition and structure. Yet, little is known about how root systems adjust structurally and functionally in the long-term after grazing abandonment in northern ecosystems....

Background and aims In mesic areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, grassland and soil degradation is widespread and accelerating through overgrazing, alien plant encroachment, and climate change. Selection of native plant species that help to regenerate soil fertility is needed. Here we used a plant functional trait-based approach to species selection aiming to identify traits of native grassland plants that may regenerate soil fertili...

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a vital process for introducing new N into natural ecosystems, and this process has been demonstrated to be suppressed by high N deposition. However, the net ecological effect and underlying mechanisms of BNF under chronic low‐level N deposition, characteristic of terrestrial ecosystems, remain highly uncertain. Given that climate warming is a key environmental change factor concurrent wit...

Drought can have long‐lasting legacy effects on terrestrial ecosystems via persistent shifts in soil microbial community structure and function. Yet, the role drought intensity plays in the formation of soil‐mediated drought legacies and in determining plant and microbial responses to subsequent droughts is unknown. Here, we evaluate how soil‐mediated drought legacies shaped by the intensity of an initial drought event influen...

Most plants extend their zone of interaction with surrounding soils and plants via mycorrhizal hyphae, which in some cases can form common mycorrhizal networks with hyphal continuity to other neighbouring plants. These interactions can impact plant health and ecosystem function, yet the role of these radial plants in mycorrhizal interactions and subsequent plant performance remains underexplored. Here we investigated the influ...

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of severe droughts, but it remains unclear whether soil biotic conditioning by plant communities with varying species richness or functional group diversity moderate plant–soil feedback (PSF)—an important ecosystem process driving plant community dynamics—under altered rainfall regimes. We conducted a two‐phase PSF experiment to test how plant diversity affects biotic PSF un...

Aims The allocation of recent plant photosynthates to soil via arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi is a critical process driving multiple ecosystem functions in grasslands. Yet, our understanding of how defoliation modifies below-ground allocation of recent plant photosynthate and its response to drought, which is becoming more intense and frequent, remains unresolved. Methods Here we undertook a 13 C pulse-labelling experiment...

The seasonal coupling of plant and soil microbial nutrient demands is crucial for efficient ecosystem nutrient cycling and plant production, especially in strongly seasonal alpine ecosystems. Yet, how these seasonal nutrient cycling processes are modified by climate change and what the consequences are for nutrient loss and retention in alpine ecosystems remain unclear. Here, we explored how two pervasive climate change factor...

Climate change is disproportionately impacting mountain ecosystems, leading to large reductions in winter snow cover, earlier spring snowmelt and widespread shrub expansion into alpine grasslands. Yet, the combined effects of shrub expansion and changing snow conditions on abiotic and biotic soil properties remains poorly understood. We used complementary field experiments to show that reduced snow cover and earlier snowmelt h...

We tested for fire‐induced (5–6 years post‐fire) changes in the structure and functioning of the soil food web along a 3000‐km north–south transect across European Russia, spanning all major forest types in the northern hemisphere outside the tropics. The total biomass of the detrital food web, including microbes and invertebrates, was not affected by fire. However, fire reduced the biomass of microfauna and mites, but had no...

Aim Cyanobacteria have shaped the history of life on Earth and continue to play important roles as carbon and nitrogen fixers in terrestrial ecosystems. However, their global distribution and ecological preferences remain poorly understood, particularly for two recently discovered non‐photosynthetic cyanobacterial classes (Sericytochromatia and Melainabacteria). Location Two hundred and thirty‐seven locations across six contin...

In contrast to the situation in plants inhabiting most of the world’s ecosystems, mycorrhizal fungi are usually absent from roots of the only two native vascular plant species of maritime Antarctica, Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis . Instead, a range of ascomycete fungi, termed dark septate endophytes (DSEs), frequently colonise the roots of these plant species. We demonstrate that colonisation of Antarctic va...