Trace concentrations of lead can be rapidly removed from water via biosorption at the cell wall of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, according to adsorption kinetic experiments, spectroscopic analyses and nanomechanical characterization.

A multi-year marine heat wave in the northeast Pacific warming pool, as the one that occurred from 2019 to 2021, would almost certainly not have occurred in the absence of anthropogenic global warming, according to a climate model-based attribution study.

Optimal Channel Networks create more accurate representations of topological and scaling features of river networks, and thus riverine metapopulation properties, than other synthetic network analogues, according to a systematic comparative analysis.

Rapid shoaling of the oxygen minimum zone in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific enabled transfer of carbon from the ocean to the atmosphere during the last deglaciation, suggests a foraminifera stable isotope record from the Panama Basin.

Natural forest growth does not decrease water yield and forest responses to human disturbances and management interventions vary with ecosystem complexity, according to a global meta-analysis that includes 496 watersheds and spans 25 years.

Improved air quality is projected to weaken Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation but the effects can be offset by methane reductions, according to air quality control simulations based on the Shared Socio-economic Pathways.

Heat resilience and tolerance of rice crops is enhanced by manure amendment and could improve yield stability under projected climate change, suggest a meta-analysis and long term manure amendment experiments.

The sedimentary signals of climatic and tectonic events are preserved in pristine condition by the hypersaline environment within brine pools discovered by remote observations, and core and brine sampling, in the Gulf of Aqaba, off the Saudi Arabian coast

Variation in global water scarcity is strongly dependent on the spatial distribution of population and economic conditions, according to a quantitative assessment of combined physical and economic water scarcity under multiple future emissions scenarios.

The floating ice shelves around Antarctica are key to buttressing land-based ice. Observations, simulations and analyses from around Antarctica now identify mechanisms that lead to basal melting of these vulnerable shelves.

A recent study dating Viking presence in America to a precise year was only possible thanks to long-term conservation of archaeological finds. It also arose from curiosity, interdisciplinarity and recognition of emerging techniques. These factors highlight the importance of archiving materials and asking the right questions in research on the entanglements of climate and history.

Having shed new light on an old mystery—how nine Russian mountaineers perished in the Urals in 1959—Alexander Puzrin and Johan Gaume got hooked. Three expeditions later it is clear that avalanches are not exceptional at Dyatlov Pass.

When an earthquake in southern France caused the ground to rupture—a phenomenon not known during the last 25 years in the region—the earthquake science community worked together to determine the implications for hazard assessment. Now we must maintain that spirit of co-operation for the future.

In 2021, 1348 reviewers wrote a peer review report for Communications Earth & Environment. We would like to express our thanks to all of them.

Authors from non-English speaking countries can feel disadvantaged if they are not fluent in English. At Communications Earth & Environment, we disregard language imperfections in our decisions, and ask our reviewers to do the same—as long as the science is clear.