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Abstract Reforestation of degraded riparian areas provides climate mitigation benefits through increased carbon (C) storage. However, the magnitude of this potential natural climate solution (NCS) remains uncertain across ecoregions. Few studies have evaluated riparian planting C sequestration and storage, particularly in highly productive wet riparian ecosystems. In recent decades, riparian reforestation has accelerated in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States, primarily aiming to restore ecosystem functions and associated benefits. Using these plantings as a ‘natural experiment’, we assessed C storage in woody vegetation (trees and shrubs) and soils across a chronosequence of PNW riparian reforestation sites. Our study evaluated changes in C storage with planting age and identified key covariates affecting C storage in plants and soils and their relationship with planting age across a ∼430 km latitudinal gradient in western Oregon, USA. We found that woody and soil C stocks increase with planting age, averaging 24% and 1% per year, respectively. Increases in tree C were strongly driven by increasing planting age and tree stem density. Understory C was weakly related to stand characteristics and geomorphic properties, and strongly related to planting age. Soil C gains were positively driven by precipitation. We find that riparian reforestation can result in increased C storage, with woody vegetation comprising most of the increase. Our results highlight the importance of including both trees and shrubs in plantings to realize C accumulation gains in the earlier years. Because C accumulation is gradual, yet compounding (i.e. 10+ and 15+ years for total C stocks to increase by 1.95, and 19.2 Mg C ha⁻¹, respectively), riparian reforestation projects implemented today could take over a decade to deliver high NCS benefits, emphasizing the urgency to implement these projects to limit the worst of climate change impacts. 

Abstract The Virgo Filament Survey (VFS) is a comprehensive study of galaxies that reside in the extended filamentary structures surrounding the Virgo Cluster, out to 12 virial radii. The primary goal is to characterize all of the dominant baryonic components within galaxies and to understand whether and how they are affected by the filament environment. A key constituent of VFS is a narrowband Hαimaging survey of over 600 galaxies, VFS-Hα. The Hαimages reveal detailed, resolved maps of the ionized gas and massive star formation. This imaging is particularly powerful as a probe of environmentally induced quenching because different physical processes affect the spatial distribution of star formation in different ways. In this paper, we present the first results from the VFS-Hαfor the NGC 5364 group, a low-mass ( ${\log }_{10}(M_{\mathrm{dyn}}/M_{\odot })<13$) system located at the western edge of the Virgo III filament. We combine Hαimaging with resolved Hiobservations from MeerKAT for eight group members. These galaxies exhibit peculiar morphologies, including strong distortions in the stars and the gas, truncated Hiand Hαdisks, H itails, extraplanar Hαemission, and off-center Hαemission. These signatures are suggestive of environmental processing such as tidal interactions, ram pressure stripping, and starvation. We quantify the role of ram pressure stripping expected in this group, and find that it can explain the cases of Hitails and truncated Hαfor all but one of the disk-dominated galaxies. Our observations indicate that multiple physical mechanisms are disrupting the baryon cycle in these group galaxies. 

Fungi in the familyEntomophthoraceaeare prevalent pathogens of aphids. Facultative symbiotic bacteria harbored by aphids, includingSpiroplasma sp. andRegiella insecticola, have been shown to make their hosts more resistant to infection with the fungal pathogenPandora neoaphidis. How far this protection extends against other species of fungi in the familyEntomophthoraceaeis unknown. Here we isolated a strain of the fungal pathogenBatkoa apiculatainfecting a natural population of pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) and confirmed its identity by sequencing the 28S rRNA gene. We then infected a panel of aphids each harboring a different species or strain of endosymbiotic bacteria to test whether aphid symbionts protect againstB.apiculata. We found no evidence of symbiont-mediated protection against this pathogen, and our data suggest that some symbionts make aphids more susceptible to infection. This finding is relevant to our understanding of this important model of host-microbe interactions, and we discuss our results in the context of aphid-microbe ecological and evolutionary dynamics. 

Abstract The brain is composed of networks of interacting brain regions that support higher-order cognition. Among these, a core network of regions has been associated with recollection and other forms of episodic construction. Past research has focused largely on the roles of individual brain regions in recollection or on their mutual engagement as part of an integrated network. However, the relationship between these region- and network-level contributions remains poorly understood. Here, we applied multilevel structural equation modeling to examine the functional organization of the posterior medial (PM) network and its relationship to episodic memory outcomes. We evaluated two aspects of functional heterogeneity in the PM network: first, the organization of individual regions into subnetworks, and second, the presence of regionally specific contributions while accounting for network-level effects. Our results suggest that the PM network is composed of ventral and dorsal subnetworks, with the ventral subnetwork making a unique contribution to recollection, especially to recollection of spatial information, and that memory-related activity in individual regions is well accounted for by these network-level effects. These findings highlight the importance of considering the functions of individual brain regions within the context of their affiliated networks. 

ABSTRACT We investigate the role of dense environments in suppressing star formation by studying $$\rm \log _{10}(M_\star /M_\odot) \gt 9.7$$ star-forming galaxies in nine clusters from the Local Cluster Survey (0.0137 < z < 0.0433) and a large comparison field sample drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We compare the star formation rate (SFR) with stellar mass relation as a function of environment and morphology. After carefully controlling for mass, we find that in all environments, the degree of SFR suppression increases with increasing bulge-to-total (B/T) ratio. In addition, the SFRs of cluster and infall galaxies at a fixed mass are more suppressed than their field counterparts at all values of B/T. These results suggest a quenching mechanism that is linked to bulge growth that operates in all environments and an additional mechanism that further reduces the SFRs of galaxies in dense environments. We limit the sample to B/T ≤ 0.3 galaxies to control for the trends with morphology and find that the excess population of cluster galaxies with suppressed SFRs persists. We model the time-scale associated with the decline of SFRs in dense environments and find that the observed SFRs of the cluster core galaxies are consistent with a range of models including a mechanism that acts slowly and continuously over a long (2–5 Gyr) time-scale, and a more rapid (<1 Gyr) quenching event that occurs after a delay period of 1–6 Gyr. Quenching may therefore start immediately after galaxies enter clusters. 

The field of plant science has grown dramatically in the past two decades, but global disparities and systemic inequalities persist. Here, we analyzed ~300,000 papers published over the past two decades to quantify disparities across nations, genders, and taxonomy in the plant science literature. Our analyses reveal striking geographical biases—affluent nations dominate the publishing landscape and vast areas of the globe have virtually no footprint in the literature. Authors in Northern America are cited nearly twice as many times as authors based in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, despite publishing in journals with similar impact factors. Gender imbalances are similarly stark and show remarkably little improvement over time. Some of the most affluent nations have extremely male biased publication records, despite supposed improvements in gender equality. In addition, we find that most studies focus on economically important crop and model species, and a wealth of biodiversity is underrepresented in the literature. Taken together, our analyses reveal a problematic system of publication, with persistent imbalances that poorly capture the global wealth of scientific knowledge and biological diversity. We conclude by highlighting disparities that can be addressed immediately and offer suggestions for long-term solutions to improve equity in the plant sciences.