Europe’s grasslands are much more than a source of feed for livestock. They support food production and rural livelihoods while providing essential ecosystem services, from carbon sequestration and wa...

The conservation value of agroforests is closely linked to their economic performance, as low productivity can drive further forest conversion and biodiversity loss23. To identify win-win scenarios for biodiversity and farmer livelihoods, we surveyed birds, bats, ants, butterflies, spiders, Hemiptera species, and beetles in 28 organic cacao agroforests in the northern Peruvian Amazon (see “Methods” section). By participating in multiple ecosystem services and disservices, such as biological pest control and crop damage, the selected taxa serve as valuable ecological indicators of agroforest multifunctionality36,37,38. Additionally, we monitored the annual yield of 128 cacao trees across 16 of the sampled agroforests. Half of the trees were enclosed in bamboo-and-fishing net cages that excluded birds and bats but allowed arthropod access (exclusion trees, four per agroforest), while the other half were untreated (control trees, four per agroforest—following ref. 39). We used mixed-effects models to test the single and combined effects of agroforest shade-tree structure and landscape complexity on taxon-specific richness and agroforest multidiversity (i.e., the averaged standardized richness of the seven taxa). Shade-tree structure was represented by four different variables: shade-tree cover, cover heterogeneity (i.e., shade-tree cover standard deviation [sd]), mean height, and height heterogeneity (i.e., shade-tree height sd). Landscape complexity in the...

Amazonian cacao agroforests can jointly sustain biodiversity and yields when shade-tree structure and surrounding tree cover are optimized, with vertebrate-mediated pest control doubling yields, based...

Agroforestry is a sustainable agricultural land-use practice that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon, among other ecosystem services. However, there is a lack of scientific data on some aspects of its multifunctionality in semi-arid West African production landscapes, especially in Ghana. Hence, this study examined the impact of agroforestry parklands on tree diversity, conservation, carbon stock, and ecological importance value across a landscape gradient in the northern savanna of Ghana.

Temperate alley-cropping agroforestry with short-rotation coppice is gaining interest due to its multifunctionality in agroecosystems; however, yield uncertainties from potential tree-crop competition...

Ponds are hotspots of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. This study of 206 European ponds across multiple taxonomic groups finds that aquatic biodiversity greatly enhances pond ecosystem multifunct...

Ponds are hotspots of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. This study of 206 European ponds across multiple taxonomic groups finds that aquatic biodiversity greatly enhances pond ecosystem multifunct...

Ponds are hotspots of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. This study of 206 European ponds across multiple taxonomic groups finds that aquatic biodiversity greatly enhances pond ecosystem multifunct...

Schuldt, A. et al. Biodiversity across trophic levels drives multifunctionality in highly diverse forests. Nat. Commun. 9, 2989 (2018). Hector, A., Joshi, J., Lawler, S., Spehn, E. M. & Wilby, A. Conservation implications of the link between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Oecologia 129, 624–628 (2001). Loreau, M. et al. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: current knowledge and future challenges. Science 294, 804–808 (2001). Tilman, D., Isbell, F. & Cowles, J. M. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 45, 471–493 (2014). Hong, P. et al. Biodiversity promotes ecosystem functioning despite environmental change. Ecol. Lett. 25, 555–569 (2022). Hooper, D. U. et al. A global synthesis reveals biodiversity loss as a major driver of ecosystem change. Nature 486, 105–108 (2012). Oliver, T. H. et al. Biodiversity and resilience of ecosystem functions. Trends Ecol. Evol. 30, 673–684 (2015). van der Plas, F. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in naturally assembled communities. Biol. Rev. Camb. Philos. Soc. 94, 1220–1245 (2019). Thompson, P. L., Isbell, F., Loreau, M., O’Connor, M. I. & Gonzalez, A. The strength of the biodiversity–ecosystem function relationship depends on spatial scale. Proc. Biol. Sci. 285, 20180038 (2018). Meyer, S. T. et al. Biodiversity–multifunctionality relationships depend on identity and number of...

Ponds are hotspots of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. This study of 206 European ponds across multiple taxonomic groups finds that aquatic biodiversity greatly enhances pond ecosystem multifunct...

arXiv abstract link

Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 02 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41579-026-01380-1Urban soils must move from providing single, engineered functions to supporting multifunctionality. Managing their microbiomes could simultaneously strengthen climate regulation, water retention, pollutant removal, biodiversity and human health, but only if biological restoration is coupled to risk assessment, long-term monitoring and equitable access.