Researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators revealed that plant community turnover and nematode body width play fundamental roles in shaping soil nematode diversity across different spatial scales. Their findings highlight that protecting the variety of plant species is essential for preserving nematode diversity and that a nematode's body width largely determines how it spreads across the environment.

The Bezos Earth Fund is granting $18 million for ROOTS, a three-year Salk project to test deeper-rooted, more resilient crops that can store more carbon in soil. The project builds on six years of work through Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative, which has identified 347 gene candidates and advanced 37 projects across genes and crops. The grant brings the Bezos Earth Fund’s total support for Salk to $48 million.

India is the most populated country in the world and regularly experiences extreme heatwaves in the spring and summer. A recent study suggests that both natural and man-made aerosols in the atmosphere, combined with cloud cover, have mitigated the surface warming of the area compared to other landmasses.

New research reveals that natural soil minerals critically control the fate of lead locked into chloropyromorphite—a stable mineral formed during phosphorus-based lead remediation. Negatively charged clay minerals enhance its mobility, while positively charged iron minerals promote rapid settling, highlighting the need for site-specific risk assessments.

A new study in Macao reveals that stormwater drains carry significant microplastic pollution into coastal waters. Concentrations reached over 53 particles per litre, with hazardous polymers like PVC posing high ecological risks. The research highlights how land use and rainfall drive this pollution pathway in subtropical coastal cities.