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Global development has been heavily reliant on the overexploitation of natural resources since the Industrial Revolution. With the extensive use of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other forms of land-use change, anthropogenic activities have contributed to the ever-increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, causing global climate change. In response to the worsening global climate change, achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is the most pressing task on the planet. To this end, it is of utmost importance and a significant challenge to reform the current production systems to reduce GHG emissions and promote the capture of CO 2 from the atmosphere. Herein, we review innovative technologies that offer solutions achieving carbon (C) neutrality and sustainable development, including those for renewable energy production, food system transformation, waste valorization, C sink conservation, and C-negative manufacturing. The wealth of knowledge disseminated in this review could inspire the global community and drive the further development of innovative technologies to mitigate climate change and sustainably support human activities.

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Thiamine is required for both plant growth and development. Here, the involvement of a thiamine thiazole synthase, THI1, has been demonstrated in both guard cell abscisic acid (ABA) signaling and the drought response in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). THI1 overexpressors proved to be more sensitive to ABA than the wild type with respect to both the activation of guard cell slow type anion channels and stomatal closure; this effectively reduced the rate of water loss from the plant and thereby enhanced its level of drought tolerance. A yeast two-hybrid strategy was used to screen a cDNA library from epidermal strips of leaves for THI1 regulatory factors, and identified CPK33, a Ca 2+ -dependent protein kinase, as interactor with THI1 in a plasma membrane-delimited manner. Loss-of-function cpk33 mutants were hypersensitive to ABA activation of slow type anion channels and ABA-induced stomatal closure, while the CPK33 overexpression lines showed opposite phenotypes. CPK33 kinase activity was essential for ABA-induced stomatal closure. Consistent with their contrasting regulatory role over stomatal closure, THI1 suppressed CPK33 kinase activity in vitro. Together, our data reveal a novel regulatory role of thiamine thiazole synthase to kinase activity in guard cell signaling.

The annual dynamics of N 2 O emissions from a tea field in southern subtropical China was observed in situ weekly in 2010 using a static closed chamber -gas chromatography (GC) method for three treatments: non-fertilised (CK), conventional (CON) and rice straw mulching (SM). The annual N 2 O emissions for CK, CON and SM were 7.1, 17.2 and 16.7 kg N/ha/year, respectively. The N 2 O emission factors for the CON and SM treatments were estimated as 2.23% and 1.91% of the total fertiliser N applied, respectively. Rice straw mulching exhibited a potential to reduce the N 2 O emissions from the tea field, but not statistically significant (P = 0.82). The daily N 2 O fluxes were positively correlated with the air temperature. The cumulative precipitation of the previous five days was significantly correlated with the daily N 2 O fluxes of CON. The soil water contents were significantly correlated with the daily N 2 O fluxes in the three treatments. The N 2 O fluxes from CON had a more significant correlation with the soil NH 4 + -N contents than with the soil NO 3 --N contents, while the N 2 O fluxes from SM showed an inverse pattern. The N 2 O fluxes from CK did not show any significant relationship with the soil mineral N content.

Does the soil microbial biomass (SMB) in terrestrial ecosystems present well‐ constrained atomic carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus (C:N:P) ratios, analogous to the planktonic biomass in marine ecosystems? How do soil microbes respond to changes in the soil environment in terms of their elemental stoichiometry? Following up on the work of Cleveland and Liptzin (2007), we examined the stoichiometry of C, N and P in the soil and SMB and their relationships at both the landscape and land‐use levels in subtropical terrestrial ecosystems. 1,069 soil samples were collected at a depth of 0–20 cm from three typical landscapes (a karst mountain, a low hill and a lowland) in southern subtropical China. The landscapes presented various land‐use types (e.g., paddy field, upland, woodland, etc.) and intensities of anthropogenic activity. The samples were analyzed to determine soil organic C, total soil N and total soil P contents as well as SMB C, SMB N and SMB P. On average, atomic C:N:P ratios of 80:7.9:1 in the soil and 70.2:6:1 in the SMB were obtained for the region. A clear descending trend of the soil C:N:P ratios (not the SMB C:N:P ratios) was observed across the three landscapes in the order: karst mountain > low hill > lowland. Although significant variations primarily related to human activities were observed in the soil and SMB atomic C:N:P ratios across the landscapes and land‐use types, a significant correlation (r = 0.56,p< 0.001) was found between the soil and SMB C:P ratios in the entire data set; however, the correlation for the comparable N:P ratios was not evident. Significant correlations between the soil and SMB C:N, C:P and even N:P ratios (mainly in the woodland) were also observed variably at the finer level of the landscape or land‐use. The tendency for a C:N:P stoichiometric relationship to exist between microbes and the soil environment found in this study might suggest possible non‐homeostasis of elemental stoichiometry in the SMB of the terrestrial ecosystems in southern subtropical China.

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