Environmental sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Robust estimates of either urban expansion worldwide or the effects of such phenomenon on terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) are lacking. Here the authors used the new dataset of global land use to show that the global urban areas expanded largely between 2000 and 2010, which in turn reduced terrestrial NPP globally.

    • Xiaoping Liu
    • , Fengsong Pei
    •  & Zhu Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithium use in electronics has increased dramatically, but the environmental impacts are poorly understood. Here the authors show lithium in river and tap water in South Korea is coincident with population density, and that waste water treatment is ineffective at scrubbing this potential toxin.

    • Hye-Bin Choi
    • , Jong-Sik Ryu
    •  & Nathalie Vigier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Air pollution can affect people’s emotional status and well-being. Here, the authors simulate fixed-scene images to show that under the atmospheric conditions in Beijing, negative emotions occur when air quality index of PM2.5 increases to approximately 150.

    • Yuan Li
    • , Dabo Guan
    •  & Shu Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Snow cover can affect the Arctic sea-ice system in different ways. Here authors study the relationship between cyclone activity and the seasonal build-up of snow on Arctic sea ice at a multi-decadal and basin-wide scale and find that 44% of the variability in monthly snow accumulation was controlled by cyclone snowfall and 29% by sea-ice freeze-up with strong spatio-temporal differences.

    • M. A. Webster
    • , C. Parker
    •  & R. Kwok

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There lacks a consistent and holistic evaluation of co-benefits of different mitigation pathways in studies on Integrated Assessment Models. Here the authors quantify environmental co-benefits and adverse side-effects of a portfolio of alternative power sector decarbonisation pathways and show that the scale of co-benefits as well as profiles of adverse side-effects depend strongly on technology choice.

    • Gunnar Luderer
    • , Michaja Pehl
    •  & Edgar G. Hertwich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fish consumption is considered to be the only significant dietary source of MeHg. Here the authors show that rice could also be a significant global dietary source, especially in South and Southeast Asia. International rice trade and joint ingestion of fish and rice could aggravate the MeHg exposure levels in many areas.

    • Maodian Liu
    • , Qianru Zhang
    •  & Xuejun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global soil carbon dynamics are regulated by the modification of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition by plant carbon input (priming effect). Here, the authors collect soil data along a 2200 km grassland transect on the Tibetan Plateau and find that SOM stability is the major control on priming effect.

    • Leiyi Chen
    • , Li Liu
    •  & Yuanhe Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rivers are thought to be the largest source of the recalcitrant and abundant black carbon in the ocean. Here, Wagner and colleagues find distinct pools of black carbon between rivers and the open ocean, challenging the long-held assumption that marine black carbon is of terrestrial origin.

    • Sasha Wagner
    • , Jay Brandes
    •  & Aron Stubbins

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest soil is known to be a source of the greenhouse gas N2O, but the impact of what is planted in that soil has long been overlooked. Here Machacova and colleagues quantify seasonal N2O fluxes from common boreal tree species in Finland, finding that all trees are net sources of this gas.

    • Katerina Machacova
    • , Elisa Vainio
    •  & Mari Pihlatie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current projections on rice production do not consider the coupled stresses of impending climate change and the toxin arsenic in paddy soils. Here, the authors examined potential compounding impacts of soil arsenic and a changing climate on rice production and show that climate-induced changes in soil arsenic behaviour and plant response will lead to currently unforeseen losses in paddy rice grain productivity and quality.

    • E. Marie Muehe
    • , Tianmei Wang
    •  & Scott Fendorf

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution are often assessed on a national or regional level, but little is known about the role of trade structures. Here, a combination of models shows that trade restrictions can lead to massive reduction of gross domestic product in most countries, but also to a reduction of emissions and pollution.

    • Jintai Lin
    • , Mingxi Du
    •  & Klaus Hubacek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There still lacks a forecast system that inform end-users regarding the drought impacts, which will be however important for drought management. Here the authors assess the feasibility of forecasting drought impacts using machine-learning and confirm that models, which were built with sufficient amount of reported drought impacts in a certain sector, are able to forecast drought impacts a few months ahead.

    • Samuel J. Sutanto
    • , Melati van der Weert
    •  & Henny A. J. Van Lanen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Membrane use as a cathode is a common measure to retard fouling in anaerobic electrochemical membrane bioreactors, but this cannot avoid the fouling growth. Here the authors report on using membranes as anodes to create equilibrium between fouling and oxidation to maintain stable operation.

    • Qilin Yu
    •  & Yaobin Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of organic methods is poorly understood. Here, the authors assess the GHG impact of a 100% shift to organic food production in England and Wales and find that direct GHG emissions are reduced with organic farming, but when increased land use abroad to allow for production shortfalls is factored in, GHG emissions are elevated well-above the baseline.

    • Laurence G. Smith
    • , Guy J. D. Kirk
    •  & Adrian G. Williams

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Swarms of crustaceans called krill dominate Antarctic ecosystems, yet their influence on biogeochemical cycles remains a mystery. Here Cavan and colleagues review the role of krill in the Southern Ocean, and the impact of the krill fishery on ocean fertilisation and the carbon sink.

    • E. L. Cavan
    • , A. Belcher
    •  & P. W. Boyd

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ocean emits the greenhouse gas methane, but its vastness renders estimations challenging. Here the authors use machine learning to map global ocean methane fluxes, finding a disproportionate contribution from shallow coastal waters, and a link between primary production and methane cycling.

    • Thomas Weber
    • , Nicola A. Wiseman
    •  & Annette Kock

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Existing approaches to research impact assessment fail to include a range of soft impacts. The authors present a 3-part impact mapping approach and apply it to an environmental initiative. They highlight that support for realising research impact is vital, and call on researchers to be open to new ideas and avenues for creating impact from their work.

    • Kirstie A. Fryirs
    • , Gary J. Brierley
    •  & Thom Dixon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Policies aiming to preserve vegetated coastal ecosystems (VCE) to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions require national assessments of blue carbon resources. Here the authors assessed organic carbon storage in VCE across Australian and the potential annual CO2 emission benefits of VCE conservation and find that Australia contributes substantially the carbon stored in VCE globally.

    • Oscar Serrano
    • , Catherine E. Lovelock
    •  & Carlos M. Duarte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Condensation of organic vapors is a main factor controlling the growth of atmospheric particles. Here the authors identify a distribution of organic vapors in a forested environment able to explain nanoparticle growth at the same location, contributing to understanding aerosol climate effects.

    • Claudia Mohr
    • , Joel A. Thornton
    •  & Taina Yli-Juuti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Considering air pollution-induced health risks from a consumption perspective is important. Here the authors evaluated the premature deaths resulting from household consumption across 30 Chinese provinces and find that rural households can cause a similar number of pollution-induced deaths as urban households despite a larger and wealthier urban population, due to the combustion of solid fuel.

    • Hongyan Zhao
    • , Guannan Geng
    •  & Kebin He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forests emit compounds into the atmosphere that are oxidized into highly oxygenated molecules that serve as precursors for cloud condensation nuclei–a process that impacts the climate, but is poorly represented in models. Here the authors create a new model that accurately depicts highly oxygenated molecule and climate dynamics over Boreal forests.

    • Pontus Roldin
    • , Mikael Ehn
    •  & Michael Boy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some dams produce large amounts of GHGs and it is important to see whether future dams will satisfy sustainable energy goals. Here the authors estimate the range of GHG emission intensities expected for 351 proposed and 158 existing Amazon dams and find that existing Amazon hydropower reservoirs collectively emit 14 Tg CO2eq per year, and that if all proposed Amazon dams are built, annual emissions would increase 5-fold.

    • Rafael M. Almeida
    • , Qinru Shi
    •  & Alexander S. Flecker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrathin membranes have demonstrated great promise for water purification technologies owing to their high permeance. Here the authors fabricate sub-10 nm, defect-free, robust membranes for dye remediation from water through the coordination-driven assembly of metal-organophosphates.

    • Xinda You
    • , Hong Wu
    •  & Zhongyi Jiang

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The health of the city depends on how well all the elements of this system are interconnected and operating in harmony. Here the authors introduced the concept of urbanome which is analogous to the human genome that can be used to characterise the form and functioning of cities.

    • Lidia Morawska
    • , Wendy Miller
    •  & Marie Thynell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanisms that determine the composition of nitrogen gas emissions from soil remain unclear. A biocrust mechanistic model was developed to resolve puzzling dynamics of nitrous acid and ammonia emissions from drying soil pointing to previously unknown microscale pH zonation in thinning water films that affect soil biogeochemical fluxes.

    • Minsu Kim
    •  & Dani Or

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Assessments of sea level rise risks depend on elevation data. Here, the authors present a new dataset on the Mekong Delta which shows it to have a much lower elevation (0.82 m above sea level) than previously thought – underlying principles may also imply major elevation uncertainties in other deltas.

    • P. S. J. Minderhoud
    • , L. Coumou
    •  & E. Stouthamer

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    While the crisis of statistics has made it to the headlines, that of mathematical modelling hasn’t. Something can be learned comparing the two, and looking at other instances of production of numbers.Sociology of quantification and post-normal science can help.

    • Andrea Saltelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silver nanoparticles are known environmental contaminants, however it is unclear whether they arise in soils through natural processes, anthropogenic processes, or both. Here Huang and colleagues offer fresh insight into the natural formation of these contaminants by soil particulate organic matter exposed to solar irradiation.

    • Ying-Nan Huang
    • , Ting-Ting Qian
    •  & Dong-Mei Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Air pollution has become a major health risk in China. Here Zhang et al. report that maternal and neonatal exposure to particulate matter increases the risk of neonatal jaundice based on the study of 25,782 newborns born in China between 2014 and 2017.

    • Liqiang Zhang
    • , Weiwei Liu
    •  & Yanhong Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How the water use efficiency of trees changes with atmospheric CO2 variations has mostly been studied on short time scales. Here, a newly compiled data set covering 1915 to 1995 shows how rates of change in water use efficiency vary with location and rainfall over the global tropics on a decadal scale.

    • Mark A. Adams
    • , Thomas N. Buckley
    •  & Tarryn L. Turnbull

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global average, geographical distribution and temporal variations of the 13C isotopic signature of enteric fermentation emissions are not well understood. Here the authors established a global dataset and show a larger emission increase between the two periods (2002–2006 and 2008–2012) than previous studies.

    • Jinfeng Chang
    • , Shushi Peng
    •  & Philippe Bousquet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Residential solid fuel use constitutes a large amount of air pollution but has been gradually replaced by other cleaner energy during the past three decades. Here the authors investigated the contribution of rural residential sector to ambient PM2.5 pollution and the resulting climate forcing and health impacts, and find that the remaining large quantities of solid fuels used in rural households are still a major contributor to ambient air pollution despite of decrease in its pollutant emissions and relative contribution to PM2.5 due to the clean energy transition.

    • Guofeng Shen
    • , Muye Ru
    •  & Shu Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing studies on the economic feasibility of energy storage are system-specific without considering the decarbonisation of electricity production or impacts of GHG taxes. Here the authors applied an optimization model to investigate the economic viability of nice selected energy storage technologies in California and found that renewable curtailment and GHG reductions highly depend on capital costs of energy storage.

    • Maryam Arbabzadeh
    • , Ramteen Sioshansi
    •  & Gregory A. Keoleian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To trace the sources of Black Carbon being transported into the Tibetan Plateau is crucial for guiding an effective mitigation strategy. Here the authors utilized the adjoint of the Goddard Earth Observing System-Chem model and find that international trade aggravates the BC pollution over the HTP glacier regions and may cause significant climate change.

    • Kan Yi
    • , Jing Meng
    •  & Shu Tao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The processes driving soil carbon accretion remain to be poorly understood. Here the authors combined X-ray micro-tomography and zymography to demonstrate that plant-stimulated soil pore formation is a major, hitherto unrecognized, determinant of whether new C inputs are stored or lost to the atmosphere.

    • A. N. Kravchenko
    • , A. K. Guber
    •  & Y. Kuzyakov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The impact of nitrogen availability on carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems under climate change is understudied. Here the authors project that increases in N availability over the 21st century associated with warmer soils and the legacy of past N fertiliser use on abandoned croplands will be the primary drivers of a 21st century net carbon sink in Northern Eurasia.

    • David W. Kicklighter
    • , Jerry M. Melillo
    •  & Qianlai Zhuang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The increase in needs for agricultural commodities is projected to outpace the growth of farmland production globally, leading to high pressure on farming systems in the next decades. Here, the authors investigate the future impact of cropland expansion and intensification on agricultural markets and biodiversity, and suggest the need for balancing agricultural production with conservation goals.

    • Florian Zabel
    • , Ruth Delzeit
    •  & Tomáš Václavík

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Risk estimates are important measures for the study and practice of conservation ecology. Here, the authors show that such estimates can be substantially biased, and propose an approach to improve accuracy.

    • Kotaro Ono
    • , Øystein Langangen
    •  & Nils Chr. Stenseth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Human disturbance of peatland environments due to geological exploration activities can significantly alter peatland greenhouse gas exchange. Here, the authors study peatland disturbance in Alberta, Canada, and estimate that induced methane emissions are approximately 4.4–5.1 kt higher per year than in undisturbed conditions.

    • Maria Strack
    • , Shari Hayne
    •  & Bin Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Subglacial lakes can influence basal hydrology and ice flow in Antarctica, but are poorly constrained in Greenland. Here the authors provide the first ice sheet-wide inventory of subglacial lakes beneath GrIS, including 54 uncharted lakes.

    • J. S. Bowling
    • , S. J. Livingstone
    •  & W. Chu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spatial distribution has been rarely studied in global disaster risk models. Here the authors address damaged networked infrastructure at the asset level for a wider range of hazards and reveal a global Expected Annual Damages ranging from $3.1 to 22 billion with a particular vulnerability of transport infrastructure in Small Island Developing States.

    • E. E. Koks
    • , J. Rozenberg
    •  & S. Hallegatte

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Questions of causality are ubiquitous in Earth system sciences and beyond, yet correlation techniques still prevail. This Perspective provides an overview of causal inference methods, identifies promising applications and methodological challenges, and initiates a causality benchmark platform.

    • Jakob Runge
    • , Sebastian Bathiany
    •  & Jakob Zscheischler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphite is a promising anode material for sodium-ion batteries but suffers from the high co-intercalation potential. Here, the authors examine the factors influencing this potential and tailor the stability of graphite intercalation compound, realizing high energy and power densities.

    • Zheng-Long Xu
    • , Gabin Yoon
    •  & Kisuk Kang

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