Focus 

Alexander von Humboldt Anniversary

September 14th 2019 marks 250 years since the birth of explorer-naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. This collection celebrates his life and legacy by bringing together articles on ecology, global change, and geoscience from across six Nature journals.

Organised into four of the major scientific themes of his life, and with a particular focus on Latin America where many of his pioneering ideas were first forged, this collection serves to highlight the highly interdisciplinary nature of his legacy.

An accompanying Editorial highlights how his view of the world as an interconnected system of biological and physical processes changed the way subsequent generations would understand the natural world, and discusses how his influence still lives on in contemporary science.

Biogeography and mountain biodiversity

Interconnected systems and keystone species

Land-use and climate change

Volcanoes and geomagnetism