The European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2026 (EGU26) was held between 3-8 May in Vienna, Austria. The conference welcomed over 20 000 participants from 125 countries, while an additional over 2 000 attendees joined virtually from 107 countries worldwide. The event provided a dynamic platform for scientific exchange, collaboration, and the presentation of cutting-edge research addressing global environmental challenges.

Several CONCERTO partners actively contributed to this year’s programme. Researchers from Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and Imperial College London (ICL) participated in the Assembly by delivering both poster and oral presentations, showcasing ongoing work and scientific advances connected to the CONCERTO project.

Through their participation, CONCERTO partners engaged with the wider scientific community, exchanged knowledge with international experts, and strengthened opportunities for future collaboration across disciplines related to climate, ecosystems, and environmental research.

The EGU General Assembly continues to serve as a key meeting point for scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders working towards a better understanding of Earth system processes and sustainable solutions for environmental challenges.

The next edition of the conference, EGU27, will take place once again at the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) and online from 4–9 April 2027.

A new scientific publication developed through the work of CONCERTO partners from CREAF has been published in the Science Advances journal, offering new insights into how soil microorganisms regulate carbon storage across ecosystems worldwide.

The study, titled “Productivity-driven decoupling of microbial carbon use efficiency and respiration across global soils”, investigates the relationship between microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) and soil respiration - two key processes that influence the global carbon cycle and climate regulation.

Soil microorganisms play a central role in determining whether carbon is stored in soils or released back into the atmosphere. However, understanding how efficiently microbes use carbon, and how this relates to long-term soil carbon storage, has remained a major scientific challenge.

To address this, the researchers applied a stoichiometry-based approach that considers how microbial communities adapt to resource availability and environmental constraints over time. By analysing 1,094 paired observations across natural ecosystems worldwide, the study identified a nonlinear relationship between microbial carbon use efficiency and soil respiration rates.

The findings reveal clear differences between ecosystems. In low-productivity environments such as arid and cold regions, microbial carbon use efficiency decreases as respiration increases. In contrast, highly productive tropical and temperate ecosystems show a stabilisation of microbial efficiency at relatively low levels, even when respiration rates continue to rise.

According to the study, this pattern reflects a trade-off between microbial growth and the maintenance of internal nutrient balance, leading to a decoupling between microbial growth and respiration processes. As a result, productive ecosystems may have a more limited capacity to store additional soil carbon than previously assumed.

These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of global soil carbon dynamics and provide valuable knowledge for improving climate and ecosystem models. The publication further highlights the important scientific contribution of CONCERTO partners from CREAF in advancing research on ecosystem functioning, biogeochemical cycles, and climate change interactions.

A new scientific publication developed through the work of CONCERTO partners from CREAF has been published in Nature Communications journal, providing important new insights into how terrestrial plants respond to water stress under changing climate conditions.

The study, titled “Global distribution and changes of leaf-level intrinsic water use efficiency and their responses to water stress”, explores the global patterns and long-term changes in intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE) — a key indicator of how efficiently plants use water during photosynthesis. Understanding these dynamics is essential for improving climate predictions and assessing ecosystem resilience in a warming world.

Using machine-learning models combined with carbon isotope observations in C3 plant foliage, the researchers analysed global patterns of leaf-level iWUE between 2001 and 2020. The findings reveal that plants in colder and drier regions tend to use water more efficiently, while lower efficiency is observed in warm and humid environments.

The study also shows that global iWUE has steadily increased over the past two decades, although significant differences exist between ecosystems. Grasslands displayed the highest average iWUE values but experienced the slowest rate of increase, while evergreen broadleaf forests showed lower average efficiency yet the fastest growth over time.

Importantly, the research demonstrates that plant water-use efficiency increases under greater water stress, although this response weakens as stress intensifies. The analysis further identifies vapor pressure deficit, a measure linked to atmospheric dryness, as a more influential driver of iWUE changes than soil moisture.