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Kimberlites are rare volcanic rocks with unusually deep origins. This Review explores the origin and evolution of kimberlite melts and their insights into mantle composition and dynamics.
An article in Atmos. Chem. Phys. found that reductions in maritime sulfur emissions led to less reflective clouds above a major shipping corridor, with potential implications for regional warming.
Rice paddies account for a large proportion of total agricultural methane and nitrous oxide emissions. This Review outlines the characteristics, changes and mitigation options for these emissions, highlighting the benefits of water and organic matter management.
Infrastructure development and biodiversity conservation are often planned and executed in isolation. However, outcomes from these efforts are interlinked, with coordinated actions required to jointly address sustainability challenges. Natural infrastructure — encompassing a spectrum of natural to conventional solutions — is key to the infrastructure–biodiversity connection and should be brought into large-scale application.
An article in Science Advances models the noise reduction potential of slowing down marine vessels and how this can mitigate impacts on marine mammals.
Maintaining good water quality is vital for healthy ecosystems and human water use, yet water quality responses to hydroclimatic extremes and changing climate are poorly understood. This Review explores river water quality under climate change and extremes.
Cotton is a water-intensive crop with many environmental impacts before and after it is processed into consumer goods. This Review summarizes the environmental impacts across the life cycle of cotton, compares the impacts to alternative fibres and discusses options for mitigation.
Reports of stark declines in invertebrate biomass prompted attention-grabbing news headlines about an ‘insect apocalypse’, fuelling public and scientific interest in the insect biodiversity crisis. However, substantial discussion has ensued regarding the magnitude and generality of these losses. In this Viewpoint, five researchers offer their views on the insect decline debate.
An article in Science Advances uses Si and O isotopes of Earth’s oldest rocks to identify the onset of crustal recycling, with potential implications for the onset of subduction-like tectonics.
The mantle of the Earth influences many dynamic processes such as crust formation, recycling and mantle convection. This Review describes modern isotopic methods used to characterize plume-derived basalts and gain insight into the composition of the mantle.
Coupled Fe–C cycles are important considerations for carbon sequestration, soil fertility and ecosystem functions. This Review explores the role of Fe minerals in stabilizing and degrading organic matter and the role of organic matter in enhancing reactivity of Fe minerals under different conditions.
Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key process connecting the land to the atmosphere. This Review details the characteristics and drivers of ET changes since the 1980s, noting a positive and accelerating ET trend arising from global greening.
Biogeochemistry is controlled by a small set of microbial-encoded proteins containing redox-sensitive transition metals as their core catalytic centre. Understanding how the environmental distribution and availability of these metals influences microbial functional diversity will unlock fundamental knowledge into Earth and life coevolution.
Seafloor turbidity currents form Earth’s largest sediment accumulations, deepest canyons and longest channels, but their destructive nature makes them notoriously difficult to measure in action. This Review explores how insights from detailed direct measurements have advanced understanding of turbidity currents.
The rapid emergence of deep learning is attracting growing private interest in the traditionally public enterprise of numerical weather and climate prediction. A public–private partnership would be a pioneering step to bridge between physics- and data-based methods, and necessary to effectively address future societal challenges.
