Biomes

Biomes are large ecosystems that have similar precipitation and temperatures 

Additional Resources

• Prescribed burning helps store forest carbon in big fire-resistant Sierra Nevada trees (Phys.org 17Nov2025)

└Carbon costs of different pathways for reducing fire hazard in the Sierra Nevada (Zhu et al., 2025)

• Mixing tree species does not always make forests more drought-resilient (Phys.org 18Sep2025)

└Serrano‐León et al. (2025) Multiyear Drought Strengthens Positive and Negative Functional Diversity Effects on Tree Growth Response

• Using only genomics and a one-time tree count, a new model can accurately predict a forest's future (Phys.org 18Sep2025)

└O'Dwyer (2025) Genomic demography predicts community dynamics in a temperate montane forest

• Invasive plants are rapidly changing tropic ecosystems across three continents (Phys.org 11Sep2025)

└Mungi et al. (2025) Alien plants and novel ecosystems in the Greater Tropics 

• Biodiversity matters in every forest, but even more in wetter ones (Phys.org 4Aug2025)

└Zheng et al. (2025) Neighbourhood diversity increases tree growth in experimental forests more in wetter climates but not in wetter years

• Nitrogen in forests and grasslands overestimated, new global analysis shows (Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies 16Jul2025)

└Ely (2025) Global terrestrial nitrogen fixation and its modification by agriculture

• Resolving the debate over forest fragmentation's impact on ecosystem resilience (Phys.org 9Jul2025)

└Su et al. (2025) Pervasive but biome-dependent relationship between fragmentation and resilience in forests

• Most tree species face serious climate threat even under modest warming, study reveals (Phys.org 24Jun2025)

└Boonman et al. (2025) High tree diversity exposed to unprecedented macroclimatic conditions even under minimal anthropogenic climate change

• Tree rings reveal increasing rainfall seasonality in the Amazon (Phys.org 17Jun2025)

└Cintra et al. (2025) Tree ring isotopes reveal an intensification of the hydrological cycle in the Amazon

• Native forests sink more carbon than expected, inverse modeling reveals (Phys.org 17Jun2025)

└Bukosa et al. (2025) Inverse modelling of New Zealand's carbon dioxide balance estimates a larger than expected carbon sink

• Unexpectedly deep roots in plants unearth new questions about soil carbon storage (Phys.org 17Jun2025)

└Malhotra et al. (2025) Continental-scale relationships of fine root and soil carbon stocks hold in grasslands but not forests

• Colonization cleared 95% of these woodlands—Indigenous cultural burning is bringing it back (Phys.org 17Jun2025)

└Bowd et al. (2025) Plant Responses to a Re‐emergence of Cultural Burning in Long‐Unburnt, Threatened Temperate Woodlands

• Long-term study reveals native seeding controls annual—but not perennial—invasive plants in sand grassland restoration (Phys.org 17Jun2025)

└Sáradi et al. (2025) Restorative seeding controls annual invasive species, but perennials can thrive in the long term despite treatments in sand grassland restoration

• Grassland ecosystems show abrupt changes when nitrogen fertilization exceeds key threshold (Phys.org 16Jun2025)

└Bagousse-Pinguet et al. (2025) Thresholds of functional trait diversity driven by land use intensification

• Life from oceans to savannas explained with one single rule (Phys.org, 4Jun2025)

└Bernardo-Madrid et al. (2025) A general rule on the organization of biodiversity in Earth’s biogeographical regions

• Invasive South African Gazania poses huge risk in Australia (Phys.org 4Jun2025)

└Adnan et al. (2025) Seeds of success: seed biology and germination response of Gazania weed in Australia

• Research shows how solar arrays can aid grasslands during drought (ScienceDaily 2Jun2025)

└Sturchio & Knapp (2025) Evidence of photovoltaic aridity mitigation in semi-arid grasslands. 

• Extreme drought can disrupt grassland stability, weakening dominant grasses' influence (Phys.org 27May2025)

└Luo et al. (2025) Extreme Drought Increases the Temporal Variability of Grassland Productivity by Suppressing Dominant Grasses

• Faced with drought, fertilizer helps grasslands grow strong (Phys.org 19May2025)

└Bondaruk et al. (2025) Aridity modulates grassland biomass responses to combined drought and nutrient addition

• Nutrient additions amplify grassland response to rainfall, study finds (Phys.org 17 Apr2025)

└Fay et al. (2025) Interactions among nutrients govern the global grassland biomass–precipitation relationship

• A long wait for pollinators: Restored grasslands need 75+ years for full biodiversity recovery, study finds (Phys.org 13Mar2025)

└Hirayama et al. (2025) Long-term management is required for the recovery of pollination networks and function in restored grasslands

• Grasslands are responding to climate change almost in real time, according to research (Phys.org 16Oct2024)

└Zhu et al. (2024) Rapid shifts in grassland communities driven by climate change

• Grassland study shows that elevated levels of CO₂ nearly tripled species losses attributed to nitrogen pollution (Phys.org 16Oct2024)

└Reich et al. (2024) High CO2 dampens then amplifies N-induced diversity loss over 24 years

• A rare orchid survives on a few tracts of prairie (Phys.org 24Aug2024)

• Danish grasslands are behaving strangely and researchers don't know why (Phys.org 21Feb2024)

└ Damgaard (2024) Decline in large-seeded species in Danish grasslands over an eight-year period

• Plant diversity stabilizes soil temperature (Phys.org 6Dec2023)

└Huang et al. (2023) Enhanced stability of grassland soil temperature by plant diversity

• Afforestation carbon sequestration projects found to be less effective than grasses in tropical savannas (Phys.org 29Aug2023)

└Zhao et al. (2023) Soil carbon in tropical savannas is mostly derived from grasses 

• Where the bison could roam (New York Times 10Jan2023)

• Reintroducing bison on tallgrass prairie doubles plant diversity (Successful Farming 1Sep2022)

• Reconstructing Two Centuries of Midwest Prairie Fire History (In Defense of Plants 28Nov2021)