TERRER LAB
In the news
Selected media coverage, interviews and recognition of the lab’s work.
COMIC
The Nature Conservancy turned the study into a comic
TNC illustrated our seed-dispersal findings for a general audience — how animals carry seeds into cleared land, what happens as wildlife disappears, and why natural regrowth stores far less carbon without them.
Published on Instagram by @nature_org. Swipe through the panels in the embed, or open the post →
On Fricke et al., PNAS (2025)
Coverage
From coral reefs to songbirds, the natural world is losing its colour
“Heat and drought raise the atmosphere’s ‘thirst,’ forcing plants to close their stomata. This shuts down photosynthesis, chlorophyll breaks down, canopies thin, and at large scales, forests lose their greenness — often an early warning sign of deeper ecological change.”
BBC Wildlife Magazine
Animals that spread seeds are critical for climate solutions
Mongabay
on Fricke et al., PNAS (2025)
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
Plant nutrient strategies could reshape carbon sink predictions
Plants have evolved these incredibly sophisticated strategies to acquire nutrients. But they’re largely absent from the models we use to predict our climate future.
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
on Cambron et al., Nature Climate Change (2025)
Climate mitigation depends on seed-dispersing wildlife
The Nature Conservancy — Cool Green Science
on Fricke et al., PNAS (2025)
MIT News
Why animals are a critical part of forest carbon absorption
Now we can understand where natural regrowth can happen effectively because there are animals planting the seeds for free.
MIT News
on Fricke et al., PNAS (2025)
3 Questions: Exploring the limits of carbon sequestration
Our experiments inside the Rincon de la Vieja National Park are particularly exciting because CO₂ concentrations in the areas near the volcano are four times higher than the global average.
MIT News
on Fieldwork at an active volcano in Costa Rica
Study finds lands used for grazing can worsen or help climate change
MIT News
on Ren et al., Nature Climate Change (2024)
Lands used for grazing can worsen or help climate change
Phys.org
on Ren et al., Nature Climate Change (2024)
MIT Climate Portal — Ask MIT Climate
How many new trees would we need to offset our carbon emissions?
Trees will need much more nitrogen and phosphorus to balance their diets as atmospheric CO₂ rises — if the soil does not have enough, that could curtail growth.
MIT Climate Portal — Ask MIT Climate
Faculty spotlight: César Terrer
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
MIT Climate Portal — Ask MIT Climate
How much human-produced carbon dioxide is taken up by faster plant growth around the world?
A little bit counterintuitive, right? To think about CO₂ doing something good.
MIT Climate Portal — Ask MIT Climate
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
Uncovering how biomes respond to climate change
What was always important to me was thinking about how to solve a problem and putting all the pieces together and building something from scratch.
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
Profile of Leila Mirzagholi, postdoc in the lab
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
Helena Vallicrosa: Postdoc Spotlight, Pride Month
Inclusion is not only about LGBTQIA+ communities… diversity enriches our capability to think and find better solutions as a group.
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
Profile of Helena Vallicrosa, postdoc in the lab
MIT News
3 Questions: Can disused croplands help mitigate climate change?
MIT News
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
Detailed images from space offer clearer picture of drought effects on plants
MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering
Greta Thunberg shared the study with her followers
“…people were suggesting planting trees in natural grasslands, savannah, and tundra. I think that would be a terrible mistake because, as our results imply, there is a very large potential to increase soil carbon storage in grasslands.” — quoting César in The Guardian
Greta Thunberg
on Terrer et al., Nature (2021)
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One of Earth’s giant carbon sinks may have been overestimated
The Guardian
on Terrer et al., Nature (2021)
One of Earth’s biggest carbon sinks has been overestimated
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
on Terrer et al., Nature (2021)
La conservación de los bosques y los ecosistemas naturales, la llave para combatir el cambio climático
La Sexta (Spain)
Climate models overestimate how much carbon forests can store
Earth.com
on Terrer et al., Nature (2021)
Nature-based Solutions Initiative
A trade-off between plant and soil carbon storage under elevated CO₂
Nature-based Solutions Initiative
on Terrer et al., Nature (2021)
There’s Something You Must Know About Trees And Their Role in Climate Change
ScienceAlert
on Terrer et al., Nature Climate Change (2019)
How Forests Pay Dividends
“In a new study, we found that by the end of the century, substantial plant growth could help sequester fossil-fuel emissions — if we protect our forests.”
Scientific American
Written by Rob Jackson & César Terrer
on Terrer et al., Nature Climate Change (2019)
La Verdad (Spain)
Más árboles para enfriar el planeta
La Verdad (Spain)
on Terrer et al., Nature Climate Change (2019)
EurekAlert! (AAAS) — Stanford
Stanford-led study gauges trees’ potential to slow global warming in the future
EurekAlert! (AAAS) — Stanford
on Terrer et al., Nature Climate Change (2019)
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Study: Fungus Helps Plants Soak Up Carbon Dioxide
KNAU Arizona Public Radio
on Terrer et al., Science (2016)
Plants’ ability to slow climate change depends on their fungi
Imperial College London
on Terrer et al., Science (2016)
Microbes, nitrogen and plant responses to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide
Phys.org
on Terrer et al., Science (2016)
EurekAlert! (AAAS) — Indiana University
Study finds that plant growth responses to high carbon dioxide depend on symbiotic fungi
EurekAlert! (AAAS) — Indiana University
on Terrer et al., Science (2016)
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IIASA
Root fungi affect rate of climate change
IIASA
on Terrer et al., Science (2016)
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Can fungi and trees, working together, slow climate change?
Yale Environment Review
on Terrer et al., Science (2016)
Atlas of Science
Nitrogen limitation of CO₂ fertilization: relief from fungal partners
Atlas of Science
on Terrer et al., Science (2016)
Writing about our work? Contact César Terrer — we are happy to talk to journalists.