Environmental sciences articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Research Briefing |

    Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition is known to affect forest soil respiration, but it remains unclear how soil respiration responds to nitrogen deposition over time. Monitoring of CO2 emissions over 9–13 years of nitrogen-addition treatments in three tropical forests in southern China reveals a three-phase pattern of soil respiration.

  • News & Views |

    Greening of the planet has increased global surface water availability, but vegetation changes can have diverse local and remote impacts across different regions.

    • Arie Staal

  • Brief Communication
    | Open Access

    Iodine chemistry plays a more important role than bromine chemistry in tropospheric ozone losses in the Arctic, according to ship-based observations of halogen oxides from March to October 2020.

    • Nuria Benavent
    • , Anoop S. Mahajan
    •  & Alfonso Saiz-Lopez

  • All Minerals Considered |

    Bruce Fouke explores the biomineralization of calcium oxalate and apatite kidney stones and the opportunities that lie at the intersection of geology, biology and medicine; a transdisciplinary effort traced back some 350 years.

    • Bruce W. Fouke

  • News & Views |

    Shrubs act as thermal bridges to conduct heat through the tundra snowpack, fostering heat loss from the ground in winter and heat gain in the spring.

    • Michael M. Loranty

  • News & Views |

    For decades, ozone pollution mitigation efforts relied on two chemical regimes. A global modelling analysis has revealed a third regime involving aerosols that would help with the concurrent control of both ozone and particulate pollution.

    • Audrey Gaudel

  • Research Briefing |

    This study shows that by stabilizing the soil, biological soil crusts reduce global atmospheric dust emissions by 60%, corresponding to ~700 Tg of dust per year. According to models of biocrust cover loss, this effect will be reduced in the future, leading to increases in not only dust emissions but also global radiative cooling.

  • Research Briefing |

    Tree restoration is a popular approach to mitigating climate change, but its hydrological impacts are often overlooked. Tree restoration increases evaporation, as well as increasing downwind precipitation due to enhanced moisture recycling. Our study shows that these combined effects can affect regions’ wetness or dryness, streamflow and water availability.

  • Perspective |

    Agricultural nitrogen legacies are delaying improvements to water quality. Comprehensive management strategies that address legacy issues are needed to ensure better environmental outcomes.

    • Nandita B. Basu
    • , Kimberly J. Van Meter
    •  & Søren Bøye Olsen

  • Comment |

    A more comprehensive understanding of the role of irrigation in coupled natural–human systems is needed to minimize the negative consequences for climate, ecosystems and public health.

    • Sonali Shukla McDermid
    • , Rezaul Mahmood
    •  & Zoe Lieberman

  • Article |

    The release of carbon dioxide during oxidative weathering of sedimentary rocks acts as a positive feedback to warming, according to 2.5 years of CO2 flux measurements from the Draix-Bléone Critical Zone Observatory, France.

    • Guillaume Soulet
    • , Robert G. Hilton
    •  & Caroline Le Bouteiller

  • Article |

    Central European multidecadal climate variability was subdued during cold stadials through the last glacial cycle due to atmospheric and oceanic circulation shifts, according to almost annual-resolution terrestrial climate proxy records from varved maar lakes in Germany.

    • Frank Sirocko
    • , Alfredo Martínez-García
    •  & Gerald H. Haug

  • Editorial |

    An update to our policy on reporting requirements for geological and palaeontological materials aims to tackle ethical issues surrounding the collection, traceability and archiving of field samples.

  • Article |

    Emission controls avoided some 870,000 deaths in China between 2002 and 2017 but further air quality improvements need energy-climate policies and changed economic structure, according to index decomposition analysis and chemical transport models.

    • Guannan Geng
    • , Yixuan Zheng
    •  & Steven J. Davis

  • Article |

    Rivers transport about 1,000 Mg mercury annually to coastal oceans, which is threefold greater than the amount delivered by atmospheric deposition, according to a global analysis of mercury measurements in rivers.

    • Maodian Liu
    • , Qianru Zhang
    •  & Peter A. Raymond

  • Comment |

    Globally, land- and fire-management policies have counterproductively caused cascading ecosystem changes that exacerbate, rather than mitigate, wildfires. Given rapidly changing climate and land-use conditions that amplify wildfire risk, a policy shift to adaptive management of fire regimes is urgently needed.

    • Mark A. Cochrane
    •  & David M. J. S. Bowman

  • News & Views |

    Reforestation of agricultural lands in Europe increases local and downwind summer rainfall, according to a new analysis of rain-gauge measurements from across the continent. Realistic levels of tree planting could therefore mitigate future droughts expected with climate change.

    • Jessica C. A. Baker

  • Comment |

    Geoscientists will play key roles in the grand challenges of the twenty-first century, but this requires our field to address its past when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Considering the bleak picture of racial diversity in the UK, we put forward steps institutions can take to break down barriers and make the geosciences equitable.

    • Natasha Dowey
    • , Jenni Barclay
    •  & Rebecca Williams

  • Article |

    Reduction of ammonia emissions may be effective in reducing the nitrate component of fine particulate matter air pollution across the North China Plain, according to the simulation of nitrate trends using the GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model.

    • Shixian Zhai
    • , Daniel J. Jacob
    •  & Hong Liao

  • News & Views |

    Pesticide pollution is a widespread issue. A global risk assessment of 92 active pesticide ingredients suggests 2.5 billion hectares of agricultural land are at risk of pollution by more than one active ingredient.

    • Rupert Lloyd Hough

  • Article |

    Pesticide pollution is a risk for two-thirds of agriculture land. A third of high-risk areas are in high-biodiversity regions and a fifth are in low- and lower-middle-income areas, according to environmental modelling combined with pesticide application data.

    • Fiona H. M. Tang
    • , Manfred Lenzen
    •  & Federico Maggi

  • Article |

    The presence of large rivers in North Africa critical for Quaternary human migrations were controlled by a combination of orbital forcing and Mediterranean storminess, according to terrestrial proxy records from a marine core off Libya integrated with paleoclimate modelling.

    • Cécile L. Blanchet
    • , Anne H. Osborne
    •  & Martin Frank

  • News & Views |

    Chloride-rich particulate matter has been identified as a major contributor to air-quality deterioration in cities across India. Identification and reduction of chloride emissions could therefore improve visibility and human health across the region.

    • Gufran Beig

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