Research articles

This study examines productivity and workforce dynamics in the world’s fisheries over six decades, finding that the natural limits of fish stocks combined with technological advances have led to diminishing returns per fisher.

Facilities that store the waste and tailings of mining operations pose a salient threat to biodiversity. Despite international consensus to mitigate mining impacts on local ecosystems, globally, nearly 10% of facilities are located within protected areas and another 20% can be found within 5 km of their boundaries.

Water consumption in line with natural water supply ensures sustainable and equitable access to freshwater resources worldwide. This study assesses whether renewable surface water is enough to meet people’s basic needs and, where it is not, estimates how much groundwater would be required.

As political institutions debate environmental policies, this paper reveals how some members of the European Parliament think about underlying principles of degrowth versus more traditional ‘green’ and economic growth platforms.

Theories of change have been a staple of sustainability research, but how to connect such overarching concepts to actionable items can be a struggle. This study uses coastal wetlands to demonstrate a potential framework for integrating indicators of conservation enabling conditions into theories of change.

The agricultural production of food comes with substantial greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on the environment. Dietary fats, a staple of human diet, might be produced chemosynthetically with a fraction of the detrimental effects on the environment.

While most conservation efforts rightfully focus on the percentage of protected land, this paper analyses how the size and complexity of protected area boundaries affects the remoteness of internal areas and the contiguity of protected natural ecosystems

Gold mining has a substantial impact on the surrounding environment, especially in terms of mercury release and high energy consumption. Retorts have reduced the magnitude of mercury emissions in the Brazilian Tapajós River basin, but gold mining still releases 16,000 kg of CO₂ equivalent per kilogram of gold.

Water resource development can have important downstream impacts on ecological functioning and affect socio-economic outcomes associated with marine fisheries. This study modelled the catchment-to-coast effects of reductions in freshwater flowing to estuaries in Australia.

Pairing a cobalt-free cathode with an Earth-abundant SiO_x anode is favourable from a sustainability perspective. Here the electrolyte design allows for such a combination as well as exciting battery performance.

Solar-driven biomanufacturing using semiconductor biohybrids has the potential to achieve sustainable chemical production, but it is challenging to scale up. Here, the authors present a strategy to achieve scalable solar-driven waste-to-chemical conversion using wastewater-derived biohybrids.

Tools to promote more environmentally friendly behaviours increasingly include nudges but evidence about their effectiveness is mixed. Using an online experiment, this study tests whether reflective strategies increase the effectiveness of nudges in promoting more sustainable diets.

Biodiversity protection indicators are important to assess progress towards sustainable development goals. Using mountain ecosystems as an example, this study compared two biodiversity protection reporting metrics varying in their underlying methods and applied at different spatial scales.

Climate change-induced sea-level rise and coastal extremes pose serious threats to Small Island Developing States (SIDS). This study provides a coastal flood risk assessment for SIDS globally and reveals the need for timely adaptation.

Catalytic upcycling of waste plastics has multiple benefits from a sustainability perspective, but available processes struggle with chlorine-containing feedstocks. Here the authors propose a strategy capable to upcycle chlorine-containing plastic wastes to valuable chemicals.

Environmental impact assessments are often blamed for delays in resource management, but this analysis finds that EIAs contribute a small fraction of time to implement forest management relative to other parts of the process.

Rural coastal communities depend on natural ecosystems, such as mangrove forests and wetlands, for protection against local sea level rise. Mangroves prove relatively resilient to sea level rise; however, landward shoreline retreat persists, forcing rural communities from coastal settlements.

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the need to transform governance for the world to develop sustainably. Using a mixed method approach, this study presents 13 principles for transformative ocean governance that can help turn ocean-use practices into more sustainable ones.