A study of Scots pine plantations across Mediterranean Spain, temperate Romania and Northeast China found that climate constraints on growth vary by region. Soil moisture was the main limitation in dry Spanish sites, while temperature played a larger role in Romania and Northeast China. Spanish plantations showed sharper drought-related growth declines but stronger average recovery, although many did not recover within four years. The findings support region-specific forest management and improved models incorporating long-term drought, regional climate dynamics and local adaptation.

Growing demand for clean energy conversion has increased interest in protonic ceramic fuel cells, but sluggish proton-coupled oxygen reduction at the cathode remains a major barrier. A team led by Jie Hou at the University of South China addressed this challenge by coordinating d-band center regulation with Fe 3d-O 2p orbital alignment in K₂NiF₄-type La_0.5Sr_1.5FeO_4+δ. This strategy promotes oxygen-defect formation, proton incorporation and transport, and ORR kinetics. The optimized cathode achieved 2.2 W cm⁻² and 0.04 Ω cm² at 700 °C and operated stably for over 400 h, offering a promising route for advanced PCFC cathode design.

Researchers have shown that nonaqueous solvent molecules can serve as active interfacial ligands rather than passive transport media. At a layered cyano-bridged metal framework, outer-layer ligands accelerate lithium-ion solvation renewal, while interlayer ligands stabilize a low-curvature surface that strengthens anion anchoring. The cooperative interface raises lithium-ion conductivity and selectivity, and a molecular descriptor based on ligand polarity symmetry provides a route toward predictive solvent selection.

Underwater gliders can cruise for months and cover thousands of kilometres, but one glider can sample only a small slice of the ocean. A review in Ocean maps how researchers have turned these platforms into coordinated fleets for observing ocean phenomena and detecting underwater targets. It also charts the control, communication, and planning methods that could make such fleets self-healing and energy-aware.

A new study in Forest Ecosystems tracked a 300-year temperate forest succession and found that particulate organic carbon (POC) declined at all depths, while mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) increased by 55% in surface soils but declined deeper down. These patterns were linked to shifts in microbial life-history strategies: surface MAOC accumulation associated with extracellular processing, while deeper carbon dynamics tied to microbial growth and declining necromass under resource scarcity. The findings suggest that forest age alone cannot predict carbon storage, soil depth and microbial mechanisms matter.

A study in Forest Ecosystems shows that aquaculture wastewater may weaken carbon stabilization and alter nitrogen regulation in mangrove soils. In China’s Maowei Sea, heavily affected soils contained much less dissolved organic carbon and substantially less organic carbon associated with crystalline iron minerals. Nutrient enrichment appeared to stimulate microbial carbon consumption and more reducing soil conditions, weakening iron-organic carbon coupling. At the same time, nitrogen cycling shifted toward greater ammonium retention and recycling rather than permanent removal. These changes could reduce the capacity of mangrove soils to preserve carbon over the long term and remove excess nitrogen, highlighting the importance of managing aquaculture discharge and monitoring carbon–iron-microbial interactions.

Weak polarization electric field (PEF) III-nitride LEDs offer a promising route toward high-performance micro-LEDs. To realize this promise, researchers from Jilin University and KAUST demonstrate record-high efficiency weak-PEF LEDs on polar c-plane, enabled by optimized MOCVD pulse-growth mode. The devices achieve the highest peak EQE of their kind, great wavelength stability, and strong lateral carrier confinement. This work represents a meaningful step toward micro-LED applications where efficiency, wavelength stability, and lateral carrier confinement are critical.

A new study finds that socio-culturally responsive virtual reality (VR) training can strengthen English teachers’ pragmatic competence—the ability to use language appropriately across social and cultural contexts. Involving 122 EFL teachers, the 108-hour intervention used fully immersive simulations featuring AI-driven avatars. Participants showed statistically significant improvements in pragmalinguistic accuracy and sociopragmatic appropriateness. Focus-group findings highlighted immersive engagement, adaptive feedback, communicative confidence, metapragmatic awareness, and reflection as important contributors to the observed improvements.