Polystyrene nanoparticles stimulate the growth and microcystin synthesis of Microcystis aeruginosa.

Host proteins and symbiotic bacteria mediate the thermal response differences of the two color phenotypes of Porites lutea to extreme marine heatwaves in Weizhou Island.

Advancing fine-scale ecological restoration in human-impacted mountain foothills through vegetation-informed biotope mapping and Habitat Quality modeling

Diverse impacts of different green landscapes on soil biogeochemistry and multifunctionality in an urban watershed.

Mechanism of salt tolerance in Phyla nodiflora: Insights for coastal vegetation restoration.

A novel framework for quantifying ecosystem quality by coupling urban morphology.

Water scarcity in arid and desert regions critically threatens agricultural sustainability. We report a cellulose-based superabsorbent hydrogel achieving an ultrahigh water absorption ratio exceeding 20,000 wt %, the highest among all reported cellulose hydrogel systems. It retains ∼82% of its swelling capacity after five wet-dry cycles, demonstrating outstanding recyclability. In desert sand at 40 °C, just 3 wt % hydrogel sustained over 10% residual moisture for 48 h without irrigation. Swelling followed a quasi-second-order model with dual-phase diffusion, enabling rapid hydration and controlled water release. Hydrogel-amended sand markedly enhanced Triticum aestivum seedling drought resilience, extending wilting time by 5-7 days. Biodegradable and recyclable, this hydrogel simultaneously boosts soil moisture retention, respiration rate, microbial activity, and crop stress tolerance, offering a powerful, sustainable strategy for agriculture and ecological restoration in water-limited regions.

Spatiotemporal distribution of soil heavy metals and source-specific probabilistic risk assessment in arid gold mining cluster areas of northwest China.

Sown wildflower patches are key elements of agri-environment schemes, designed to deliver rapid biodiversity and ecosystem service benefits. With longer-term maintenance, they may also be involved in habitat restoration by supporting ecological processes. However, successional trajectories of sown communities remain insufficiently understood, particularly regarding the role of spontaneous colonisation. To assess the succession of sown and spontaneous species, we established native, diverse wildflower patches in an agricultural region of Hungary. Patches were placed in homogeneous or heterogeneous landscapes and arranged as one large or three smaller patches. Plant communities were surveyed in early summer for five years, recording cover, species richness and diversity. Spontaneous colonisation strongly complemented sown assemblages: 240 species emerged from the soil seed bank during the study. The two species groups showed distinct temporal patterns. Spontaneous species dominated cover initially, but sown species surpassed them by the third year. However, spontaneous species’ richness remained higher for five years. Community composition shifted steadily. Sown species formed a more consistent component of the community, whereas spontaneous species showed higher temporal variability. Landscape context and spatial configuration had only weak effects on structural and compositional attributes, indicating that local processes and the soil seed bank primarily shaped early succession. These results demonstrate that, in species-rich novel habitats, spontaneous colonisation and sown species jointly drive early successional dynamics, highlighting the value of integrating natural assembly processes with targeted sowing in agri-environment schemes. • Spontaneous colonisation strongly complemented sown species in wildflower patches. • Spontaneous species remained richer than sown taxa over five years. • Community composition shifted directionally during succession. • Sown plant species formed the structural bone of the established novel community. • Landscape context and spatial configuration had only weak effects.

Turtles and tortoises are highly threatened yet understudied, particularly regarding reproductive traits and early life stages. In long-lived species, reliance on adult census data can mask reproductive failure for decades before population declines become apparent. This knowledge gap is evident in the Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea), despite its widespread use in conservation translocations and ecosystem restoration. We present preliminary data on fertilisation success, early embryo survival and hatching success, across one natural and five translocated populations in the Seychelles. Of 317 eggs from 24 clutches, only 16% successfully hatched. Most failed eggs (97%) were undeveloped. Using recently developed microscopic methods to assess egg fertility, we provide the first population-level comparisons of fertilisation and hatching outcomes for this species. Although sample sizes are limited, our results indicate low and variable hatching success, driven primarily by embryo mortality. Complete clutch failure was common (67%), and embryo mortality was prevalent even among clutches that had some degree of hatching success. Hatching rates were markedly reduced in translocated populations (0%-26%) compared to a natural Aldabra Atoll population (46%) and all fell below historical estimates from ~50 years ago (60%-80%). We also found a negative association between hatching success and a Human Modification Index, although interpretation of this result should be cautious considering the small sample size. These findings provide the first reproductive success data for translocated Aldabra giant tortoise populations and the first for the species in the last five decades. We argue that incorporating productivity metrics into monitoring frameworks is essential to improve vulnerability predictions and inform effective conservation management.

Moderately intensive selective fish removal enhances biodiversity and promotes ecosystem restoration: a whole-lake experiment.

In its early years, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration has mobilized unprecedented global commitments. Yet, measuring restoration success remains contested, particularly in megadiverse countries where the absence of standardized indicators and assessment protocols often leads to subjective decisions by environmental agencies. Here, we present a core set of leading indicators developed through a pioneering Brazil-led science-policy collaboration between environmental agencies and research institutions. The indicators capture early vegetation recovery within four years and whether restoration trajectories are sustained or at risk of reversal. The initiative also establishes a framework that bridges science and policy to deliver practical monitoring tools. It offers a model for other megadiverse countries with complex governance, showing how simple, standardized indicators can translate restoration pledges into measurable results for the UN Decade.

Biomass prediction and invasion assessment of Spartina alterniflora driven by remote sensing big data.

The Three-River Source Region (TRSR), a critical natural carbon sink in China, lacks a holistic characterization of its vegetation net ecosystem productivity (NEP) dynamics. This study investigated NEP spatiotemporal patterns and their responses to climate and land-use changes from 2000 to 2022, using an optimized Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) model, trend analysis and time-lagged correlation methods. Furthermore, scenario simulation was used to isolate and quantify the respective contributions of climate change and land-use change to NEP variations. The results revealed a statistically significant upward trend in annual NEP (1.51 gC·m−²·yr−¹, p < 0.01), with the significantly improving area (33.05%) substantially exceeding the area in decline. NEP exhibited prevalent time-lagged responses to precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation, with the highest sensitivity observed for solar radiation. Moreover, land-use change induced a net increase of 70.61 Tg C in regional NEP, which was primarily attributable to the conversion of cropland to woodland. In contrast, construction land and unused land were identified as weak carbon sinks. Collectively, these findings highlight that ecological restoration initiatives (a key driver of land-use change), coupled with climate variability, have jointly and significantly enhanced the carbon sink function of the TRSR.

Prioritising actions over space and time in multi-habitat ecological restoration: Insights from indicator species in coastal seascapes

Using microorganisms to improve and repair soil and assist plant growth is an effective ecological restoration method. The compound microbial inoculant prepared by mixing several microorganisms with different functions is one of the hot spots in the current research of agricultural green development and food security. In this study, four treatments were set up: no microbial agent (CK), Trichoderma harzianum agent (H), Bacillus subtilis agent (K), and compound microbial agent (K + H). The effects of single and compound microbial agents on tomato growth, rhizosphere soil physical and chemical properties, enzyme activity and microbial community structure and function were investigated, and the correlation between soil nutrients and microbial community was analyzed. The results showed that the application of microbial agents significantly promoted the growth of tomato, and the effect of K + H treatment was the best. The fresh weight, dry weight, plant height and stem diameter of tomato were 25.06%, 17.61%, 3.05% and 16.62% higher than CK, respectively. Microbial agents changed the physical and chemical properties and enzyme activities of rhizosphere soil, significantly increased the content of alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen and significantly decreased the activity of catalase, and the activity of alkaline phosphatase increased the most under K treatment. High-throughput sequencing showed that microbial agents had a significant effect on the diversity and structure of microbial community in rhizosphere soil. In terms of microbial community diversity, K + H treatment significantly increased the Simpson index of bacteria, and significantly reduced the Chao1, ACE richness index and Shannon, Simpson diversity index of fungi. In the microbial community structure, the dominant phylum of the bacterial community is Proteobacteria, Gemmatimonadota, Actinobacteriota and Acidobacteriota, and the fungi are Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. After microbial inoculant treatment, the relative abundance of Gemmatimonadota, Acidobacteriota, Chloroflexi and Ascomycota increased significantly, while the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota, Olpidiomycota and Chytridiomycota decreased. At the genus level, the abundance of KD4-96, SC-I-84, Penicillium and Trichoderma spp. changed significantly. Microbial agents also regulated microbial functions, and bacterial amino acid transport and metabolic functions were the most active. K + H treatment increased the relative abundance of fungal saprophytic nutrients to 52.37%, which was the highest in each treatment. Redundancy analysis showed that soil alkaline phosphatase, catalase and alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen were the key environmental factors affecting microbial community structure, which were significantly correlated with the dominant genera of bacteria and fungi. This study confirmed that Bacillus subtilis and Trichoderma harzianum compound inoculants had a good synergistic effect in promoting tomato growth and improving soil microecology, which provided theoretical and practical basis for the development and application of microbial inoculants in tomato production.

Fe-S interactions and geological background shape phosphorus bioavailability in mangrove sediments.

Assessing the interkingdom response of soil prokaryotes, fungi and protists to prairie restoration on retired agricultural lands

Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are on the frontline of climate-induced coastal risks, where rising sea levels and intensifying storm surges converge with concentrated socioeconomic exposure. The inherent spatial constraints, economic dependency on tourism, and infrastructure clustering in coastal zones exacerbate systemic vulnerability. This study establishes an integrated high-resolution compound coastal risk framework by coupling hydrodynamic storm surge simulations with sea level projections and socioeconomic exposure data. The framework evaluates systemic risks across diverse return periods and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways including SSP1-1.9, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5, utilizing a modified static inundation model to integrate sea level rise and surge extremes for generating spatially explicit vulnerability assessments. Results revealed spatial heterogeneity and a distinctive ‘high-exposure–high-density–high-sensitivity’ configuration across several SIDS. Under SSP5–8.5, annual economic losses exceed USD 300 million in Jamaica and Cuba, and over 30,000 people may be affected in Dominica. Mitigation pathways consistent with a 1.5 °C warming limit (SSP1–1.9) reduce potential losses by 30–50%, while adaptation strategies, such as coastal ecosystem restoration and early-warning systems, deliver up to 40% carbon co-benefits. Beyond risk quantification, this framework supports climate-resilient infrastructure planning. By correlating spatial risks with adaptation finance, this research supports the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ecosystem services benefits of coral reefs along a biological condition gradient to inform local management.