Scientific community and society articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Editorial |

    Economic development in a sustainable fashion is metals-intensive. If we cannot afford to ban mining, regulation must be more effective.

  • News & Views |

    Increasing groundwater extraction supports hundreds of millions of people across the Indo-Gangetic Basin. Data suggests that despite the increase in withdrawals, groundwater depletion is localized and the most widespread threat is contamination.

    • Scott Fendorf
    •  & Shawn G. Benner

  • Letter |

    Biomass turnover time is a key parameter in the global carbon cycle. An analysis of global land-use data reveals that biomass turnover is almost twice as fast when the land is used to enhance terrestrial ecosystem services.

    • Karl-Heinz Erb
    • , Tamara Fetzel
    •  & Helmut Haberl

  • Commentary |

    After more than a decade exploring Saturn and its moons, the Cassini mission is in its closing act. Cassini's last year is an encore performance stuffed with science, including a final plunge into Saturn's atmosphere.

    • Scott G. Edgington
    •  & Linda J. Spilker

  • Letter |

    Sulfur dioxide is a key air contaminant. A satellite-based emissions inventory reveals a number of hitherto unknown sources, with a cluster around the Persian Gulf, and identifies large discrepancies with conventional inventories in some regions.

    • Chris A. McLinden
    • , Vitali Fioletov
    •  & Joanna Joiner

  • Editorial |

    Investigations of sexual harassment are difficult and potentially destructive to all involved. It is imperative that they are carried out quickly, with high priority and acted upon decisively where misconduct is identified.

  • Commentary |

    The Paris Agreement introduced three mitigation targets. In the future, the main focus should not be on temperature targets such as 2 or 1.5 °C, but on the target with the greatest potential to effectively guide policy: net zero emissions.

    • Oliver Geden

  • Editorial |

    The review process is at the heart of scientific publishing. We would like to share with our readers some of the considerations that go into finding the best possible set of referees for each paper.

  • Commentary |

    The need to mitigate climate change opens up a key role for cities. Bristol's year as a Green Capital led to great strides forward, but it also revealed that a creative and determined partnership across cultural divides will be necessary.

    • Richard D. Pancost

  • Editorial |

    The Paris Agreement on climate change has shifted international focus to more stringent mitigation, and asked the scientific community to work out what that means on a tight timeline. The challenge is steep, but well worth a go.

  • Commentary |

    The adoption of the Paris Agreement is a historic milestone for the global response to the threat of climate change. Scientists are now being challenged to investigate a 1.5 °C world — which will require an accelerated effort from the geoscience community.

    • Joeri Rogelj
    •  & Reto Knutti

  • News & Views |

    The rise and fall of civilizations over the past two millennia was set against a backdrop of climate change. High-resolution climate records evince a link between societal change and a period of cooling in the sixth and seventh centuries.

    • John Haldon

  • Editorial |

    Groundwater flow meddles with hydrological, environmental and geological processes. As water scarcity issues mount for people living above ground, the vast stores of freshwater in the subsurface require research attention.

  • Commentary |

    Drought management is inefficient because feedbacks between drought and people are not fully understood. In this human-influenced era, we need to rethink the concept of drought to include the human role in mitigating and enhancing drought.

    • Anne F. Van Loon
    • , Tom Gleeson
    •  & Henny A. J. Van Lanen

  • News & Views |

    Humanity's nitrogen pollution footprint has increased by a factor of six since the 1930s. A global analysis reveals that a quarter of this nitrogen pollution is associated with the production of internationally traded products.

    • James N. Galloway
    •  & Allison M. Leach

  • Editorial |

    The restrictions and protocols surrounding the collection and storage of field samples in the Earth sciences are not always complied with. Offences must not be taken lightly.

  • Commentary |

    Despite legislation to protect natural sites, rock outcrops are being damaged in the name of science. Scientists, funders and publishers must push forward a stronger code of ethics.

    • Rob Butler

  • News & Views |

    In the United States, hurricanes have been causing more and more economic damage. A reanalysis of the disaster database using a statistical method that accounts for improvements in resilience opens the possibility that climate change has played a role.

    • Stéphane Hallegatte

  • Commentary |

    Delivery of palatable 2 °C mitigation scenarios depends on speculative negative emissions or changing the past. Scientists must make their assumptions transparent and defensible, however politically uncomfortable the conclusions.

    • Kevin Anderson

  • News & Views |

    Leases of land concessions in Cambodia have accelerated in the last ten years. An analysis using high-resolution maps and official documents shows that deforestation rates in the land concessions are higher than in other areas.

    • Tom Rudel

  • Editorial |

    The world has agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals, to be adopted this week. This is great progress towards acknowledging that the planet's finite resources need to be managed carefully in the face of humanity's unlimited aspirations.

  • Commentary |

    The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals emphasize the importance of evidence-based decision-making. This is a clarion call for Earth scientists to contribute directly to the health, prosperity and well-being of all people.

    • Jane Lubchenco
    • , Allison K. Barner
    •  & Jessica N. Reimer

  • Commentary |

    A truly global science community for the next generation of researchers will be essential if we are to tackle Earth system sustainability. Top-down support from funders should meet bottom-up initiatives — at a pace fast enough to meet that of early-career progress.

    • Florian Rauser
    • , Vera Schemann
    •  & Sebastian Sonntag

  • Commentary |

    Since 1999, China's Grain for Green project has greatly increased the vegetation cover on the Loess Plateau. Now that erosion levels have returned to historic values, vegetation should be maintained but not expanded further as planned.

    • Yiping Chen
    • , Kaibo Wang
    •  & Xinhua He

  • Editorial |

    Reforms in science teaching are building a stronger, more flexible student population ready to face the challenges of the future. We must remove the barriers that prevent these talented students from entering the geosciences.

  • Commentary |

    Increased efforts in recruiting minority students have not proven to be enough to address the lack of diversity in the geosciences. A collaborative mentoring culture is needed to permanently change the make-up of our field.

    • Rebecca Haacker

  • Commentary |

    The geosciences benefit from diverse student perspectives and backgrounds, but the field-based learning requirements pose barriers to students with disabilities. If carefully designed, fieldwork can be made accessible while still meeting expectations of academic rigour.

    • Brett Gilley
    • , Chris Atchison
    •  & Alison Stokes

  • News & Views |

    Anthropogenic climate change alters the risk of some extreme weather events. High-resolution computer simulations suggest that Black Sea warming made the devastating 2012 Krymsk flood possible — a virtually impossible event just 30 years ago.

    • Friederike E. L. Otto

  • Editorial |

    Developing countries lag far behind, in terms of scientific — including geoscience — output. Failing to spread the know-how means that the world is missing out on great intellectual potential.

  • Commentary |

    The history of attempts to spread scientific know-how beyond western centres of excellence is littered with failures. Capacity building needs long-term commitment, a critical mass of trainees, and a supportive home environment.

    • Bruce Hewitson

  • Editorial |

    Nature Geoscience introduces 3,000-word Methods sections that are integrated with the online paper.

  • Commentary |

    Natural landscapes are shaped by frequent moderate-sized events, except for the rare catastrophe. Human modifications to the Earth's surface are, compared with natural processes, increasingly catastrophic.

    • Richard Guthrie

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