From 1960s since today, the use of nitrogen to fertilize wheat crops has multiplied by 10 in the world, because it improves soil yield. This practice may be directly linked to the high prevalence of celiac disease, a human autoimmune condition.
A study involving three CREAF researchers has found that plants with low nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in their leaves do not reproduce every year to enable them to reproduce on a huge scale in years in which conditions are right. Oaks, holm oaks and beeches are examples of trees that behave in such a way.
Published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), a study to which the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and CREAF have contributed has revealed that the time for which forests retain carbon has fallen by between 0.2% and 0.3% every year in recent decades. Plant mortality is rising due to higher carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and, in particular, warming and droughts.
Recently published in the journal Nature Plants, a pioneering international study led by CREAF-based CSIC researcher Josep Peñuelas has used L-band passive microwave observations to measure carbon stocks and fluxes in the planet’s tropical forests more reliably than ever before.
A study involving CREAF's Josep Peñuelas has identified the optimal temperatures of terrestrial plant ecosystems throughout the world and indicates the size of their margin for adaptation to warming. Outside that margin, ecosystem growth slows sharply.
According to an article published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the authors of which include CREAF postdoctoral researchers Sara Marañón and Rossella Guerrieri (Marie Sklodowska Curie grant holders), the concentration of nitrogen in plant leaves has been in general decline throughout the world for the last 40 years.
Which plant species grow where, alongside which others - and why? In a new study, an international research team presents the world's first global vegetation database which contains over 1.1 million complete lists of plant species for all terrestrial ecosystems.
Aude Valade, CREAF researcher, and the international team behind the study published in Nature recommends that forests be managed with a view to preserving the ecological, social and cultural ecosystem services they provide, rather than to cooling the planet as envisaged in the Paris Agreement.
Until now, the Arctic tundra has been the domain of low-growing grasses and dwarf shrubs. But new, taller plant species have been slowly taking over this chilly neighborhood, report an international group with the participation of researchers from CSIC-CREAF.
The ecologist will receive the 2018 Marsh Award for Climate Change Research at a prizegiving ceremony in Birmingham in December.
