Global Ecosystem Analysis: The relationship between species richness and the functional properties of their ecosystems has often been studied at small scales in experimental plots.Maestreet al.(p.214; see the Perspective byMidgley) performed field measurements at 224 dryland sites from six continents and assessed 14 ecosystem functions related to carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling. Positive relationships were observed between perennial plant species richness and ecosystem functionality. The relative importance of biodiversity was found to be as large as, or larger than, many key abiotic variables. Thus, preservation of plant biodiversity is important to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands, which collectively cover 41% of Earth's land surface and support over 38% of the human population.

• In alpine habitats, positive interactions among plants tend to increase with elevation as a result of altitudinal increase in environmental harshness. However, in mountains located in arid zones, lower elevations are also stressful because of scarce availability of water, suggesting that positive interactions may not necessarily increase with elevation. • Here we analysed the spatial association of plant species with the nurse cushion plant Laretia acaulis at two contrasting elevations, and monitored the survival of seedlings of two species experimentally planted within and outside cushions in the semiarid Andes of central Chile. • Positive spatial associations with cushions were more frequent at lower elevations. Species growing at the two elevations changed the nature of their association with cushions from neutral or negative at higher elevations to positive at lower elevations. Survival of seedlings was higher within cushions, particularly at lower elevations. • The increased facilitation by cushions at lower elevations seems to be related to provision of moisture. This result suggests that cushion plants play a critical role in structuring alpine plant communities at lower elevations, and that climatic changes in rainfall could be very relevant for persistence of plant communities.

Forest fire activity has increased in recent years in central and south‐central Chile. Drought conditions have been associated with the increase of large wildfires, area burned and longer fire seasons. This study examines the influence of drought on fire regimes and discusses landscape management opportunities to decrease fire hazard. Specifically, we investigate the effect of the 2010–2015 Megadrought (MD) compared to 1990–2009 period on fire activity (fire‐season length, number of fires and burned area across months, fire sizes, regions and vegetation cover types, simultaneity, and duration of fires) in central and south‐central Chile (32°–39° S), using contemporary fire statistics derived from the Chilean Forest Service. For large fire events (>200 ha) the average season length increased by 67 d (44%), comparing 2010–2015 to 1990–2009. Earlier and later ignition dates resulted in extended fire seasons in MD years. During the MD, the number, area burned, simultaneity, and duration of large fires increased significantly compared to the control period, including the unprecedented occurrence of large fires during winter. The burned area in large fires increased in all vegetation types, during the MD compared to the control period, especially in the exotic plantation cover type. The regions that were most affected by fire (i.e., total area burned) during the MD were Maule, Bío‐Bío, and Araucanía (35–39° S) that concentrate >75% of forest plantations in Chile. Although both maximum temperatures and precipitation are drivers of fire activity, a simple attribution analysis indicates that the sustained rainfall deficit during 2010–2015 was the most critical factor in the enhanced fire activity. Future climate change predictions indicate more recurrent, intense, and temporally extended droughts for central and south‐central Chile. Under this scenario, land‐use planning and fire and forest management strategies must promote a more diverse and less flammable landscape mosaic limiting high load, homogenous, and continuous exotic plantations.