Increasing plant productivity resilience to drought plays an important role in ecosystem services, and while soil organic matter (SOM) promotes plant growth, its role in mitigating aboveground biomass (AGB) loss as a result of drought in alpine grasslands is unclear. This study by Zhao et al., 2023 examined 209 alpine grassland sites on the Tibetan Plateau and revealed that AGB decreases with increasing aridity (above 0.37), and a stronger positive relationship between AGB and SOM is observed in more arid conditions, suggesting the significance of soil carbon sequestration strategies for biomass production and climate change mitigation in arid areas.