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Abstract Understanding the impact of altitude on leaf hydraulic, gas exchange, and economic traits is crucial for comprehending vegetation properties and ecosystem functioning. This knowledge also helps to elucidate species' functional strategies regarding their vulnerability or resilience to global change effects in alpine environments. Here, we conducted a global study of dataset encompassing leaf hydraulic, gas exchange, and economic traits for 3391 woody species. The results showed that high‐altitude species possessed greater hydraulic safety (K_leafP₅₀), higher water use efficiency (WUE_i) and conservative resource use strategy such as higher leaf mass per area, longer leaf lifespan, lower area‐based leaf nitrogen and phosphorus contents, and lower rates of photosynthesis and dark respiration. Conversely, species at lower altitudes exhibited lower hydraulic safety (K_leafP₅₀), lower water use efficiency (WUE_i) and an acquisitive resource use strategy. These global patterns of leaf traits in relation to altitude reveal the strategies that alpine plants employ for hydraulic safety, water use efficiency, and resource, which have important implications for predicting forest productivity and acclimation to rapid climate change. 

Abstract A central role for nature-based solution is to identify optimal management practices to address environmental challenges, including carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation. Inorganic fertilization increases plant aboveground biomass but often causes a tradeoff with plant diversity loss. It remains unclear, however, whether organic fertilization, as a potential nature-based solution, could alter this tradeoff by increasing aboveground biomass without plant diversity loss. Here we compile data from 537 experiments on organic and inorganic fertilization across grasslands and croplands worldwide to evaluate the responses of aboveground biomass, plant diversity, and soil organic carbon (SOC). Both organic and inorganic fertilization increase aboveground biomass by 56% and 42% relative to ambient, respectively. However, only inorganic fertilization decreases plant diversity, while organic fertilization increases plant diversity in grasslands with greater soil water content. Moreover, organic fertilization increases SOC in grasslands by 19% and 15% relative to ambient and inorganic fertilization, respectively. The positive effect of organic fertilization on SOC increases with increasing mean annual temperature in grasslands, a pattern not observed in croplands. Collectively, our findings highlight organic fertilization as a potential nature-based solution that can increase two ecosystem services of grasslands, forage production, and soil carbon storage, without a tradeoff in plant diversity loss. 

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-enclosed nanometer-scale particles that transport biological materials such as RNAs, proteins, and metabolites. EVs have been discovered in nearly all kingdoms of life as a form of cellular communication across different cells and between interacting organisms. EV research has primarily focused on EV-mediated intra-organismal transport in mammals, which has led to the characterization of a plethora of EV contents from diverse cell types with distinct and impactful physiological effects. In contrast, research into EV-mediated transport in plants has focused on inter-organismal interactions between plants and interacting microbes. However, the overall molecular content and functions of plant and microbial EVs remain largely unknown. Recent studies into the plant-pathogen interface have demonstrated that plants produce and secrete EVs that transport small RNAs into pathogen cells to silence virulence-related genes. Plant-interacting microbes such as bacteria and fungi also secrete EVs which transport proteins, metabolites, and potentially RNAs into plant cells to enhance their virulence. This review will focus on recent advances in EV-mediated communications in plant-pathogen interactions compared to the current state of knowledge of mammalian EV capabilities and highlight the role of EVs in cross-kingdom RNA interference.