The overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture and medicine has caused a series of potential threats to public health. Macleaya cordata is a medicinal plant species from the Papaveraceae family, providing a safe resource for the manufacture of antimicrobial feed additive for livestock. The active constituents from M. cordata are known to include benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs) such as sanguinarine (SAN) and chelerythrine (CHE), but their metabolic pathways have yet to be studied in this non-model plant. The active biosynthesis of SAN and CHE in M. cordata was first examined and confirmed by feeding C-labeled tyrosine. To gain further insights, we de novo sequenced the whole genome of M. cordata, the first to be sequenced from the Papaveraceae family. The M. cordata genome covering 378 Mb encodes 22,328 predicted protein-coding genes with 43.5% being transposable elements. As a member of basal eudicot, M. cordata genome lacks the paleohexaploidy event that occurred in almost all eudicots. From the genomics data, a complete set of 16 metabolic genes for SAN and CHE biosynthesis was retrieved, and 14 of their biochemical activities were validated. These genomics and metabolic data show the conserved BIA metabolic pathways in M. cordata and provide the knowledge foundation for future productions of SAN and CHE by crop improvement or microbial pathway reconstruction.

Abstract. The dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems are shaped by the coupled cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and these cycles are strongly dependent on the availability of water and energy. These interactions shape future terrestrial biosphere responses to global change. Here, we present a new terrestrial ecosystem model, QUINCY (QUantifying Interactions between terrestrial Nutrient CYcles and the climate system), which has been designed from scratch to allow for a seamless integration of the fully coupled carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles with each other and also with processes affecting the energy and water balances in terrestrial ecosystems. This new model includes (i) a representation of plant growth which separates source (e.g. photosynthesis) and sink (growth rate of individual tissues, constrained by temperature and the availability of water and nutrients) processes; (ii) the acclimation of many ecophysiological processes to meteorological conditions and/or nutrient availability; (iii) an explicit representation of vertical soil processes to separate litter and soil organic matter dynamics; (iv) a range of new diagnostics (leaf chlorophyll content; 13C, 14C, and 15N isotope tracers) to allow for a more in-depth model evaluation. In this paper, we present the model structure and provide an assessment of its performance against a range of observations from global-scale ecosystem monitoring networks. We demonstrate that QUINCY v1.0 is capable of simulating ecosystem dynamics across a wide climate gradient, as well as across different plant functional types. We further provide an assessment of the sensitivity of key model predictions to the model's parameterisation. This work lays the ground for future studies to test individual process hypotheses using the QUINCY v1.0 framework in the light of ecosystem manipulation observations, as well as global applications to investigate the large-scale consequences of nutrient-cycle interactions for projections of terrestrial biosphere dynamics.

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Plant-soil interactions, such as the coupling of plants' below-ground biomass allocation with soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition, nutrient release and plant uptake, are essential to understand the response of carbon (C) cycling to global changes. However, these processes are poorly represented in the current terrestrial biosphere models owing to the simple first-order approach of SOM cycling and the ignorance of variations within a soil profile. While the emerging microbially explicit soil organic C models can better describe C formation and turnover, at present, they lack

The study presents a method to evaluate the response of forest ecosystems to increased biomass extraction based on the integrated ecosystem model ForSAFE. It evaluates the effects of residue removal, intensification of thinnings and a shorter rotation period on a forest site in Southern Sweden. The evaluation includes multiple ecosystem indicators for productivity, carbon storage, wood production, water use and water quality. Such integrated assessments can contribute to identify negative or positive impacts affecting ecosystem services provided by forests. Results show that increased biomass extraction reduces the carbon stored in the forests, but at the same time reduces the loss of nitrogen and carbon through leaching. Within one rotation, residue removal affects the carbon stock in the soil, but it does not affect forest productivity and therefore tree carbon stock. Contrarily, the intensification of thinnings and shorter rotation periods reduce carbon stored in trees. In all cases, the amount of wood available for products increases, but the additional harvest from increased thinnings and earlier clear cutting does not compensate for the loss of carbon in trees. A positive consequence of removing the decomposing material from the site is the reduced amount of nutrients lost with runoff. Both leached nitrogen and dissolved organic carbon decrease with intensification. In addition, a positive effect of increased thinnings and a shorter rotation period is a reduced evapotranspiration, i.e. reduced water use. The effect on acidification differed depending on the time frame considered and the applied management scenario, due to different dominating processes regulating acidity. To avoid acidification, management intensification should include measures to prevent loss of base cations in the soil. Overall, under the studied conditions, the risk for negative effects seems to be smaller for residue extraction than for management changes including additional tree harvest.