Greening immediately after etiolated- seedling's emergence from the soil is critical for plants to initiate their autotrophic life cycle through photosynthesis. The greening process relies on a complex transcriptional network that fine- tunes the biosynthesis of chlorophyll and prevents premature development of chloroplasts. In this study, we identified the Arabidopsis HOOKLESS1 (HLS1) as a key regulator of light- induced cotyledon greening. Our results demonstrated that HLS1 is essential for the proper expression of greening- related genes controlling chlorophyll biosynthesis and chloroplast development. Loss of HLS1 severely disrupts the Pchlide- to- Chlide transition and impairs reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging in etiolated seedlings upon light exposure, leading to catastrophic ROS burst and even photobleaching. Biochemical assays revealed that HLS1 is a histone acetyltransferase mediating the deposition of H3K9ac and H3K27ac marks at multiple greening- related genes, thereby promoting their transcriptional activation. Genetic analysis further confirmed that HLS1's promotive effect on the greening process is fully dependent on its histone acetyltransferase activity. Moreover, the loss of HLS1 also interrupts the promotive effect of ethylene signaling on the greening process by reducing the binding of ETHYLENE- INSENSITIVE 3 to the promoter region of POR genes, thus inhibiting the activation effect of ethylene signaling on the expression of PORs. Collectively, our study reveals that HLS1 acetylates histones to activate greening- related genes, optimizing chlorophyll biosynthesis and chloroplast development during dark- to- light transition in seedlings.

Germinating seeds undergo elaborate de-etiolation developmental transitions upon initial soil emergence. As central transcription factors promoting cotyledon greening, the abundance of ETHYLENE-INSENSITIVE 3 (EIN3) and PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 3 (PIF3) are strictly controlled by physically associating themselves with the EIN3-BINDING F BOX PROTEINS 1 and 2 (EBF1/2) for ubiquitination. Here, we report that the B-box zinc-finger protein BBX32, as a positive regulator during seedling de-etiolation. BBX32 is robustly elevated during the dark-to-light transitions. Constitutively expressing BBX32 ultimately protects against severe photobleaching damage by synchronizing the accumulation of protochlorophyllide (Pchlide) and the differentiation of etioplast-chloroplast apparatus in buried seedlings. Specifically, BBX32 directly interacts with EIN3, PIF3 and EBF1/2. These associations disrupt the assembly of the SCFEBF1/2-EIN3/PIF3 E3 ligation protein complexes, thus dampening E3 ligase activity and robustly controlling EIN3/PIF3 stability. Under soil conditions, BBX32-ox largely rescues the greening deficiency of EBF1ox, and all EIN3ox/bbx32 seedlings override the bbx32 mutant defect and successfully turn green. Both biochemical findings and genetic evidence reveal a novel regulatory paradigm by which the B-box protein dampens the E3 ligase binding activity to achieve green seedlings upon changes in light or soil environmental conditions.

The production of citrus, a dominant fruit crop globally, is declining due to biotic constraints such as Huanglongbing (HLB) and abiotic stresses such as low or high soil pH. This study aimed to investigate the influence of soil pH on citrus root morphology, nutrient uptake dynamics, and overall root health. Forty 'Valencia' sweet orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck] trees grafted on Swingle citrumelo rootstock [C. paradisis x Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf] were divided into four groups by pH treatment (n = 10). Trees planted in rhizotron boxes were irrigated three days a week with four different water pH levels: 5.5, 6.5, 7.5, and 8.5. Soil acidity and alkalinity were routinely monitored with pH probes. The concentration of essential macronutrients and micronutrients from the soil, plant tissue, and leachates was also analyzed monthly to evaluate nutrient uptake efficiency. Parameters such as root length, root surface area, and root diameter were measured to assess the morphological changes in citrus tree roots under different pH treatments. After irrigation, soil pH on treatment with pH = 5.5 decreased drastically since sandy soils acidify more quickly. Soil pH levels for treatments irrigated with solutions at pH 6.5 and 7.5 consistently maintained near-neutral levels, with the former gradually decreasing soil pH over time and then later increasing the soil pH to alkaline levels. The soil P and S concentrations were high at pH = 5.5, contrary to the Mg and Ca concentrations, which were low at the same pH level. Soil pH showed a significant and negative correlation with S, P, and Fe, indicating a decrease in these soil nutrients as soil pH decreased and a nonsignificant positive correlation with Cu. At pH = 5.5, there was significantly higher root growth, which indicates that acidic soils (similar to pH = 5.5) can enhance root growth in citrus trees. Acidic soils stimulate root growth, particularly around a pH of 5.5; citrus roots exhibit remarkable resilience and internal compensation mechanisms in response to pH changes. Optimizing soil pH and nutrient management can mitigate the impacts of HLB and promote the resilience of citrus trees. Trees irrigated at pH of 8.5 showed a trend of fewer living roots and lower cumulative root growth, emphasizing the possibility of root damage due to high soil pH.

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) has undergone significant warming, wetting, and greening (WWG) over decades, alongside substantial alterations in hydrological regimes. These changes present great challenges for safeguarding water resources and ecosystems downstream. However, the lack of field observation and systematic research has obscured our understanding of how hydrological processes respond to the combined influences of climate-permafrost-vegetation. This study focuses on the source regions of the Yangtze River, one of the highest permafrost-covered basins on the QTP, and employs a process-based hydrological model to quantify the effects of WWG on hydrological processes. We show that the increasing precipitation dominates subsurface runoff changes while rising temperature primarily affects surface runoff changes by reducing the frozen duration (-52 days/century) and thickening the active layer (+2.4 cm/year). Greening vegetation primarily affects transpiration and interception evaporation. Warming, wetting, and greening will cause a transition in runoff dynamics from surface runoff dominance to subsurface runoff dominance in permafrost basins, and reduce the risk of both flooding and water shortage indicated by the decreased maximum low flow duration and maximum high flow duration of 11.0 and 5.0 days/year, respectively. Moreover, cold permafrost regions exhibit a greater propensity for generating runoff, as indicated by a higher annual increase in runoff coefficient (0.005/year) and total runoff (4.81 mm/year), compared to warm permafrost regions (with increase of 0.001/year and 1.20 mm/year, respectively). These findings enhance the understanding of hydrological changes due to WWG and provide insights for water resources management in permafrost regions under climate change.

Substrate is the key material of soilless culture. The physical and chemical properties of the solidified cultivation medium are good and relatively stable, and there is no need to use plastic cultivation containers in the cultivation process, which has a broad application prospect in three-dimensional greening and fruit and vegetable planting. We have developed a novel substrate solidified process with high-frequency electromagnetic heating, which significantly reduces energy consumption compared to the traditional curing process with steam heating. In this study, the effects of three modification methods (alkali modification, APTES modification, and alkali + APTES combined modification) on the physicochemical properties of jute were studied, and the strengthening effects of different modified jute fibers on solidification substrate were investigated. The results showed that the addition of jute fiber could improve the mechanical properties of the solidification substrate. Compared with the control group, the modified jute fiber could increase the breaking tension by 13.1 similar to 24.2 N, the impact toughness by 0.85 similar to 2.09 KJ/m(2), and the hardness by 21.6 similar to 35.6 HA. Moreover, the addition of a small amount of jute fiber can effectively improve the mechanical properties and will not affect the growth of plant roots.

Understanding the effects of landscape greening pest control modes (LGPCMs) on carbon storage and soil physicochemical properties is crucial for promoting the sustainable development of urban landscape greening. Climate change and green development have led to increased landscape pest occurrences. However, the impacts of different LGPCMs on carbon storage and soil properties remain unclear. We examined six typical LGPCMs employed in Beijing, China: chemical control (HXFZ), enclosure (WH), light trapping (DGYS), biological agent application (SWYJ), natural enemy release (SFTD), and trap hanging (XGYBQ). Field surveys and laboratory experiments were conducted to analyze their effects on carbon storage and soil physicochemical properties, and their interrelationships. The main results were as follows: (1) Different LGPCMs significantly affected carbon storage in the tree and soil layers (p 0.05). Carbon storage composition across all modes followed the following order: tree layer (64.19%-93.52%) > soil layer > shrub layer > herb layer. HXFZ exhibited the highest tree layer carbon storage (95.82 t/hm(2)) but the lowest soil layer carbon storage (6.48 t/hm(2)), while DGYS performed best in the soil, herb, and shrub layers. (2) LGPCMs significantly influenced soil bulk density (SBD), clay (SC), silt particle (SSP), sand (SS), pH, organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), and heavy metal content (lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg)). WH had the highest TN (1.37 g/kg), TP (0.84 g/kg), SC (10.71%) and SSP (42.14%); HXFZ had the highest Cd (8.98 mg/kg), but lowest OC and Pb. DGYS had the highest OC and Hg, and the lowest Cd, SC, and TP. Under different LGPCMs, the heavy metal content in soil ranked as follows: Pb > Cd > Hg. (3) There were significant differences in the relationship between carbon storage and soil physicochemical properties under different LGPCMs. A significant positive correlation was observed between the soil layer carbon storage, TN, and OC, while significant negative correlations were noted between SS and SC as well as SSP. Under SFTD, the tree layer carbon storage showed a negative correlation with Cd, while under DGYS, it correlated negatively with pH and Hg. In summary, While HXFZ increased the short-term tree layer carbon storage, it reduced carbon storage in the other layers and damaged soil structure. Conversely, WH and DGYS better supported carbon sequestration and soil protection, offering more sustainable control strategies. We recommend developing integrated pest management focusing on green control methods, optimizing tree species selection, and enhancing plant and soil conservation management. These research results can provide scientific guidance for collaborative implementation of pest control and carbon sequestration in sustainable landscaping.

Satellite observations have shown widespread greening during the last few decades over the northern permafrost region, but the impact of vegetation greening on permafrost thermal dynamics remains poorly understood, hindering the understanding of permafrost-vegetation-climate feedbacks. Summer surface offset (SSO), defined as the difference between surface soil temperature and near-surface air temperature in summer (June-August), is often predicted as a function of surface thermal characteristics for permafrost modeling. Here we examined the impact of leaf area index (LAI), detected by satellite as a proxy to permafrost vegetation dynamics, on SSO variations from 2003 to 2021 across the northern permafrost region. We observed latitude- and biome-dependent patterns of SSO changes, with a pronounced increase in Siberian shrublands and a decrease in Tibetan grasslands. Based on partial correlation and sensitivity analyses, we found a strong LAI signal (similar to 30% of climatic signal) on SSO with varying elevation- and canopy height-dependent patterns. Positive correlations or sensitivities, that is, increases in LAI lead to higher SSO, were distributed in relatively cold and wet areas. Biophysical effects of permafrost greening on surface albedo, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture (SM) could link the connection between LAI and SSO. Increased LAI substantially reduced surface albedo and enhanced evapotranspiration, influenced energy redistribution, and further controlled interannual variability of SSO. We also found contrasting effects of LAI on surface SM, consequently leading to divergent impacts on SSO. The results offer a fresh perspective on how greening affects the thermal balance and dynamics of permafrost, which is enlightening for improved permafrost projections. Climate change has caused substantial vegetation growth that was detected by satellite observations (greening) over northern permafrost regions. However, the consequences or feedbacks of vegetation greening remain largely unknown, hindering the understanding of near-surface thermal dynamics and bringing considerable uncertainty in model projections. Here we aimed to decipher the biophysical impact of permafrost greening on the summer surface offset (SSO), which is an indicator of permafrost degradation. We found latitude- and biome-dependent patterns of SSO changes and divergent responses of SSO to greening. Increases in satellite-observed leaf area index lead to higher SSO in relatively cold and wet areas but lower SSO in warm-dry regions. Biophysical mechanisms associated with surface albedo, evapotranspiration, and SM can help explain various effects of greening on SSO. Our results highlight greening feedbacks on the thermal dynamics of permafrost with climate warming, calling for the improvement of current projections. Vegetation greening impacts the thermal dynamics of permafrost surface Biophysical effects of greening on surface offset could be related to surface albedo, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture

Study region: The Tibetan Plateau Study focus: Evapotranspiration (ET) plays a critical role in the water balance, energy budget, and carbon cycle. However, the variations, trends, and controls of ET on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are poorly understood because of uncertainties in ET estimates and sparse observations. In this study, the variations in ET and its components and their drivers and controls in the TP were analyzed at seasonal and annual scales during 1982-2015. New hydrological insights for the region: Spatially, the multiyear mean annual ET decreased from the southeastern to northwestern TP. Canopy transpiration (Ec) was the main component of ET (52.7%), followed by soil evaporation (Es) (34.4%) and interception (Ei) (10.7%). Regionally, the averaged ET and its components increased significantly at the seasonal and annual scales. Spatially, the controlling factor for ET changed from water to energy as the climatic zones transferred from aridity to humidity. The annual ET was controlled by soil moisture (SM) in arid and semi-arid zones, whereas Ta was the dominant factor in the other regions. The increased annual Es and Ei were primarily caused by SM, while the annual Ec was determined by Ta. In addition, NDVI played a certain role in regulating the annual Ec and Ei variations. This study improves our understanding of hydrological processes and water resource management under global climate change.

In recent years, the rapid development of the world's economy has led to the large-scale development and utilization of ecological resources on the earth, due to which the ecological environment has been continuously and seriously damaged, resulting in the waste of resources, soil erosion, land desertification, etc. To avoid further damage to the ecological environment and ecological resources, improve the utilization rate of ecological resources, and ensure the sustainable development of human society, it is necessary to evaluate the ecological environment. In this study, we collected the required data using the Delphi method and remote sensing technology. Secondly, the green Olympic building evaluation system (which refers to the CASBEE method in Japan) was used to evaluate the impact of green roofs on architectural design and the urban ecological environment. Third, a deep learning (DL)-based hybrid model, which consists of a convolutional neural network (CNN) and long-short-term memory (SLSTM), known as CNN-LSTM, was used to evaluate the impact of green roofs on urban ecology and building architectural design. The influence of thermal comfort on the indoor environment of green roof buildings was studied. For experimentation, six samples of Shanghai Thumb Plaza, Splendid Tesco Point, Chaoshan Yuan Hotel, Green Management Office, Huangpu District Domestic Waste Transfer Station, and Changning District Fuxin Slaughterhouse were selected as evaluation objects, and the effect of green roofs on building design and urban ecology was evaluated from six levels: ecological, ornamental, safety, functional, social, and economic. Both the CASBEE and DL-based methods, CNN-LSTM, performed well and increased the evaluation results to some extent. The CNN-LSTM model increased the accuracy of the system by 3.55%, precision by 3.50%, recall by 4.46%, and F1-score by 3.30%. Overall, this study summarizes the existing problems of green rooftop buildings in Shanghai at this stage, which is conducive to formulating optimization strategies to improve the ecological benefits of green roof buildings and has important practical significance for realizing the sustainable development of human society.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) has a fragile ecosystem that is sensitive to climate change. Due to the amplifying effect of climate change, the QTP has experienced rapid warming and shifting precipitation in recent decades, profoundly impacting the local ecosystem. However, the specific details of how vegetation responds to these changes were unclear, and the corresponding contributions were poorly quantified. Here, we employed an elastic net regression model to investigate the sensitivity of vegetation to climate factors across multiple time scales and various seasons. The vegetation activity was represented by the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), while climate change was represented by temperature, precipitation, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), and soil moisture fraction (SMF). During 2000-2020, approximately 50 % of the QTP area showed greening, mainly concentrated in the northern region. Climate change explained approximately 70 % of the variation in vegetation during the growing season, 39 % in spring and 66 % in autumn. Grasslands exhibited the highest sensitive to climate change, with a relative contribution of 83 %, followed by mixed forests (70 %), forests (53 %) and deserts (52 %). Both temperature and precipitation significantly affected vegetation, with relative contributions of 29 % and 22 %, respectively, during the growing season. PAR and SMF had less impact on vegetation, with relative contributions of 8 % and 12 %, respectively. In the greening region, precipitation (26 %) was more important for vegetation growth compared to temperature (25 %). These findings emphasize the importance of precipitation on vegetation on the QTP, providing valuable insights for improving regional ecosystem assessment model and promoting the restoration of fragile ecosystems.