Loss of Arctic sea ice, and greater sunlight penetration and temperature in shallow water, results in more degradation of settling organic matter, converting nitrate to gaseous forms that are volatilized. This nitrate loss leads to nitrogen limitation for phytoplankton, changing the plankton community and potentially affecting the entire food chain.
Summary: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1129774
Original paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-03569-x
The Biosphere Integrity Metric (BIM)
How healthy is our planet’s life support system? Shockingly, we lack a clear, real-time indicator. Current measures often tell us about extinctions after they happen. We need a “check engine” light for the biosphere. Our proposed Biosphere Integrity Metric (BIM) aims to be just that. It measures the flow of energy through life’s web and how human activities disrupt it. As a first step, we are developing a Satellite-Derived Primary Production Pressure Index (SPPPI) using global satellite data. This proxy metric will provide an urgently needed early warning of human pressure on the base of the food web. While not the full picture, it is a vital start. Read on to learn how this metric works and why developing the full BIM, integrating ground truth data, is our ultimate goal.
**Soil health is associated with higher primary productivity across Europe**
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02511-8
"positive association between the richness of Acidobacteria, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria and primary productivity"
"primary productivity in croplands and grasslands was positively related to nitrogen-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi and negatively related to plant pathogens"
Geographic patterns in plant growth are probably influenced by soil abiotic and biotic conditions. Here, the authors assess the relationship of a composite soil health index to primary productivity and the underlying environmental predictors across major land-use types in Europe.
The hard[est] thing about doing a weekly synopsis of #ClimateResearch: where does one draw the line?
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GB008029?af=R
Soil health is linked to primary productivity across Europe
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.29.564603v1
#SoilHealth #MicrobialBiomass #SoilNitrogen #CarbonContent #MicrobialDiversity #PrimaryProductivity #croplands #grasslands #LandManagement
RDN
GarryRogers Nature Conservation
Teresita Porter 🙋🏻♀️
Doug Bostrom