Scientific community and society articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • 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

  • Editorial |

    From January 2021, authors will now have the option to publish their research open access.

  • Article |

    Intensive irrigation in India cools the land surface, but increases the moist heat stress in South Asia, according to an analysis of observational datasets and meteorological models.

    • Vimal Mishra
    • , Anukesh Krishnankutty Ambika
    •  & Matthew Huber

  • Comment |

    Land-use and land-cover changes are accelerating. Such changes can homogenize the water cycle and undermine planetary resilience. Policymakers and practitioners must consider water–vegetation interactions in their land-management decisions.

    • Delphis F. Levia
    • , Irena F. Creed
    •  & Michael Bruen

  • Editorial |

    We look at changes in authorship and cross-institutional links in the papers we publish. Both are increasing as the geosciences continue to become more collaborative.

  • Comment |

    It is commonly thought that old groundwater cannot be pumped sustainably, and that recently recharged groundwater is inherently sustainable. We argue that both old and young groundwaters can be used in physically sustainable or unsustainable ways.

    • Grant Ferguson
    • , Mark O. Cuthbert
    •  & Jennifer C. McIntosh

  • Editorial |

    Nature Geoscience aims to publish important science, but the journal also strives to offer a platform to voices driving change within the geoscience community. We welcome submissions on community issues that encourage reader engagement and inspire action.

  • News & Views |

    Large-scale land acquisitions accelerate tropical deforestation, suggests an analysis of two decades of land-deal and forest-cover data. Such exploitation will threaten the future of these globally crucial carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots.

    • Andreas Neef

  • Article |

    Tropical deforestation rates are linked to large-scale land investments, according to georeferenced land deal records and remote sensing of forest loss over the past two decades.

    • Kyle Frankel Davis
    • , Heejin Irene Koo
    •  & Mokganedi Tatlhego

  • Editorial |

    As the COVID-19 pandemic halts many research cruise activities, exploration of the oceans by autonomous vehicles continues, highlighting the strengths of robotic research, but also the limitations.

  • Article |

    An artificial intelligence-based method may infill gaps in historical temperature data more effectively than conventional techniques. Application of this method reveals a stronger global warming trend between 1850 and 2018 than estimated previously.

    • Christopher Kadow
    • , David Matthew Hall
    •  & Uwe Ulbrich

  • Editorial |

    The ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic highlights the very human effort that is peer review. We will continue to do all we can to keep the papers flowing and thank our reviewers and authors for their help and understanding under these difficult circumstances.

  • Article |

    The interface between riverbed and aquifer is a biogeochemical reaction hotspot for arsenic release from river sediments, according to numerical simulations of groundwater flow and biogeochemical reaction processes.

    • Ilka Wallis
    • , Henning Prommer
    •  & Rolf Kipfer

  • Editorial |

    Social distancing in response to COVID-19 need not mean social or scientific isolation. Adaption to technology now could lead to more innovative, sustainable and inclusive communication in the future.

  • Comment |

    Geoscientists in the United States are predominantly White. Progress towards diversification can only come with a concerted shift in mindsets and a deeper understanding of the complexities of race.

    • Kuheli Dutt

  • Comment |

    Governments disagree even on the current state of climate change engineering governance, as became clear at the 2019 United Nations Environment Assembly negotiations. They must develop mechanisms to provide policy-relevant knowledge, clarify uncertainties and head off potential distributional impacts.

    • Sikina Jinnah
    •  & Simon Nicholson

  • Comment |

    Scientists and policymakers must acknowledge that carbon dioxide removal can be small in scale and still be relevant for climate policy, that it will primarily emerge ‘bottom up’, and that different methods have different governance needs.

    • Rob Bellamy
    •  & Oliver Geden

  • News & Views |

    Wet rice cultivation in the Palu Valley, Indonesia, prepared the ground for the devastating liquefaction-induced landslides that were triggered by the Mw 7.5 earthquake in 2018, suggest two studies of the spatial relationship between landslide morphology and irrigation.

    • Phil R. Cummins

  • Article |

    Glaciers in the Andes have lost about 23 Gt of mass per year between 2000 and 2018, with the fastest loss in Patagonia, according to time series of digital elevation models that are based on ASTER stereo images.

    • I. Dussaillant
    • , E. Berthier
    •  & L. Ruiz

  • Editorial |

    Scrutiny from every angle, by a diverse set of reviewers, improves the peer review process and the papers that we publish.

  • Perspective |

    Recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer above Antarctica has not been straightforward, as a result of human activities and climate change. The recovery process might be delayed by up to decades if further mitigation actions are not taken.

    • Xuekun Fang
    • , John A. Pyle
    •  & Ronald G. Prinn

  • Comment |

    Social media is increasingly being used to share near-real-time analysis of emergent and sometimes hazardous geological events. Such open discussion can drive new research directions and collaborations for geoscientists.

    • Stephen P. Hicks

  • Article |

    Tropical deforestation induces the loss and transport of old and biolabile soil organic carbon into rivers, suggest analyses of dissolved organic matter in deforested and pristine catchments in the Congo Basin. The mobilized soil carbon is likely to turn into a carbon source.

    • Travis W. Drake
    • , Kristof Van Oost
    •  & Robert G. M. Spencer

  • Article |

    Only about 15% of water cycle diagrams include human interaction with water, although human freshwater appropriation amounts to about half of global river discharge, according to an analysis of 464 water cycle diagrams and a synthesis of the global water cycle.

    • Benjamin W. Abbott
    • , Kevin Bishop
    •  & Gilles Pinay

  • Editorial |

    Near-Earth asteroid Bennu is one of a range of bodies in the Solar System to have been reached by space missions in the past months. Crowd-sourcing technologies can help with the exploration of its surface.

  • News & Views |

    Atmospheric levels of chloroform, an ozone-depleting substance not part of the Montreal Protocol, have risen. The increase may be attributable to industrial emissions in Eastern China.

    • Susann Tegtmeier

  • Editorial |

    Machine learning allows geoscientists to embrace data at scales greater than ever before. We are excited to see what this innovative tool can teach us.

  • Correspondence |

    • Fabian B. Wadsworth
    • , Edward W. Llewellin
    •  & Cate Watkinson

  • Editorial |

    Fifty years of international ocean drilling have brought enormous insights into the workings of our planet. Incorporating young investigators’ ideas, cooperating internationally and sharing data and samples have been key to this success.

  • Editorial |

    Increasing numbers of geoscientists are nurturing an online presence. Nature Geoscience explores the potential benefits of taking your professional life online.

  • News & Views |

    Ice buried deep within the ice sheet on Antarctica preserves clues to past climatic change dating back more than a million years. A recent workshop discussed the challenges — and hopes — of drilling to these buried treasures.

    • Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

  • News & Views |

    The Laurentide Ice Sheet sapped the strength of the North American monsoon during the last ice age, but the ice sheet’s grip on the monsoon weakened as it retreated northwards.

    • Sarah E. Metcalfe

  • Editorial |

    As Peer Review Week approaches, Nature Geoscience takes the opportunity to thank its peer reviewers and contemplate how their vital work can be better supported.

  • Comment |

    Field work is an important and valued part of geoscience research, but can also serve as a source of stress. Careful planning can help support the mental health and wellness of participants at all career stages.

    • Cédric Michaël John
    •  & Saira Bano Khan

  • Editorial |

    A high percentage of international collaborations in a country’s research output can be a sign of excellent networks, or of a reliance on know-how imports. Caution is needed in the latter case, but international collaborations make research more powerful.

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