Research articles

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  • Rapid urbanization affects both local food and ecological systems in Africa. This study integrates the effects of land-use displacement and dietary shifts associated with urbanization in scenarios of future food demand to understand the impact of future urbanization on the African environment.

    • Koen De Vos
    • Charlotte Janssens
    • Gerard Govers
    ArticleOpen Access
  • Paired electrosynthesis is an efficient green process that minimizes resource and energy consumption as well as waste generation. The authors demonstrate an electrolysis system that pairs CO2 reduction to CO at the cathode with allyl alcohol oxidation to acrolein at the anode.

    • Xue Wang
    • Peihao Li
    • Edward H. Sargent
    Article
  • Ion exchange membranes play an essential role in a range of technologies critical to sustainability. Here the authors show a membrane design that features a favourable combination of good stability, high ionic conductivity and processability with demonstrated application in flow batteries.

    • Huaqing Zhang
    • Wei Xu
    • Tongwen Xu
    Article
  • Nanofiltration membranes play a crucial role in water purification, but it remains challenging to combine high water permeance and solute removal selectivity due to their inherent pore heterogeneity. Here the authors introduce a cinnamate-mediated polymerization method to resolve such a challenge, enabling energetically efficient water purification.

    • Junhui Huang
    • Yanqiu Zhang
    • Huanting Wang
    Article
  • Indigenous peoples’ lands (IPLs) are important reservoirs of biodiversity; however, the extent to which these lands are affected by the growing number of biological invasions worldwide is still unknown. This study evaluates whether IPLs harbour fewer alien species compared with other lands globally.

    • Hanno Seebens
    • Aidin Niamir
    • Laura A. Meyerson
    Article
  • Cities are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, but the potential of urban rivers to such emissions is not well understood. A study now quantifies the greenhouse gas concentrations, fluxes and emissions from urban rivers globally.

    • Wenhao Xu
    • Gongqin Wang
    • Xinghui Xia
    Analysis
  • This study presents a film design that can maximize radiative cooling, transmit photosynthetically efficient light and reflect remaining sunlight in favour of photosynthsis and plant growth.

    • Jinlei Li
    • Yi Jiang
    • Jia Zhu
    Article
  • Agroforestry practices represent important natural climate solutions, in addition to providing a variety of socioecological benefits. This study evaluates spatiotemporal agroforestry patterns in India by tracking the fate of large farmland trees over the past decade.

    • Martin Brandt
    • Dimitri Gominski
    • Rasmus Fensholt
    ArticleOpen Access
  • Industrial and agricultural activities, such as mining, smelting and farming practices, have led to widespread arsenic pollution in Chinese soils and may threaten the viability of future rice production. Ambitious mitigation measures beyond those already undertaken by the Chinese government are needed to reverse these increasing impacts.

    • Shuyou Zhang
    • Jiangjiang Zhang
    • Yijun Yao
    Article
  • The rapid expansion of low-carbon technologies in Brazil has multiple socio-economic impacts on rural populations by further fuelling competition for land and intensifying large-scale land deals. This study traces how global ownership of, and investment in, wind and solar photovoltaic installations has evolved over time, driving substantial privatization of public and common lands.

    • Michael Klingler
    • Nadia Ameli
    • Johannes Schmidt
    Article
  • Stricter regulations on ship-induced air pollution have triggered the installation of ship exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers), but these scrubbers pollute the seas. A study shows that the private economic benefits of installing scrubbers come at the expense of marine environmental damage and that the scrubber systems are paid off in only a few years.

    • Anna Lunde Hermansson
    • Ida-Maja Hassellöv
    • Erik Ytreberg
    AnalysisOpen Access
  • Malaria remains a major public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa. This study examines the use of a long-acting endectocide formulation given to livestock as a measure to control mosquito vector populations that transmit the malaria-causing parasite in Burkina Faso.

    • Andre Patrick Heinrich
    • Sié Hermann Pooda
    • Karine Mouline
    ArticleOpen Access
  • Flood-risk management strategies are increasingly incorporating equity considerations, but measuring equity poses challenges. This study maps observed equity indicators to a taxonomy to help analysts develop robust evidence about equity when managing uneven exposure to environmental harms.

    • Adam B. Pollack
    • Casey Helgeson
    • Klaus Keller
    Analysis
  • Assessing the resilience of groundwater resources can be challenging in data-sparse regions. Tritium observations and machine learning can be employed to fill gaps where traditional monitoring is insufficient and provide insight into aquifer vulnerability to pollution.

    • Joel Podgorski
    • Oliver Kracht
    • Michael Berg
    ArticleOpen Access
  • Humans rely heavily on non-renewable groundwater, especially to support agricultural production. Like other depletable resources, groundwater extraction is expected to peak and subsequently decline during the twenty-first century, highlighting imminent transformations in the availability and use of water globally.

    • Hassan Niazi
    • Thomas B. Wild
    • Mengqi Zhao
    Article
  • Ecosystem services provided by coral reefs to coastal communities can depend on upstream land-use change activities such as forest restoration. This study assessed the social and ecological benefits provided by different watershed interventions designed at regional and national scales in Mesoamerica.

    • Jade M. S. Delevaux
    • Jess M. Silver
    • Katie K. Arkema
    Article