Research articles

An environmentally friendly behaviour is more likely to motivate a second such behaviour when both actions are similar and when the first behaviour is intrinsically motivated, according to a review of the literature.

Machine learning and satellite images are used to identify intensive animal agricultural facilities in the United States, which are otherwise difficult to track. This can facilitate monitoring their compliance with environmental law.

Agriculture sustains a large and growing human population, but generates widespread impacts. This study assesses the health effects of air pollution caused by maize production. Reduced air quality leads to 4,300 premature deaths annually in the United States, akin to US$39 billion in damages, and climate change damages of US$4.9 billion.

The movement of goods links consumers and producers of natural resources in a web of interactions. This study finds that the resilience of a food trade network depends on interconnectedness and that the increasing connectivity of global food trade is making it less resilient, including to supply shocks.

Investing in infrastructure systems will lock-in patterns of development for future generations. This study finds that infrastructure either directly or indirectly influences the attainment of all of the Sustainable Development Goals, including 72% of the targets.

Drylands cover over 40% of Earth’s surface and will probably expand with warming climates. This study found that metallic micronutrients, essential for life, are low in dryland soils globally and are affected negatively by aridity, a threat to ecosystems and food production going forward.

‘Eating organic’ requires farming differently. Organic agriculture manages crop varieties and rotations to manage pests and nutrients. This study analyses different scenarios of organic conversion, finding that a smaller area worldwide planted with wheat, rice and maize must be offset by more nitrogen-fixing crops, such as beans, alfalfa and clover. Even then, caloric energy would fall by about 27% from current production.

Large-scale offshore wind turbines require rare-earth metals with a limited natural supply. This study addresses the neodymium material requirements needed to meet substantial electric generating capacity in the United States and estimates how much could be reused from decommissioned turbines.

Shipments of natural resources and goods connect distant regions but sometimes move more than their intended cargo. This study models the growth of the global shipping network and the implications for spreading invasive species in a changing climate, forecasting substantial increases in ship movements and a 3- to 20-fold increase in invasion risk in coming decades.

Pollinators are integral to ecosystem functions and human wellbeing, yet conservation approaches often ignore indigenous and biocultural perspectives and practices. This Analysis uses the IPBES framework to categorize biocultural practices and identify policies to support their roles in pollinator conservation.

Honey can be used as a biomonitor to determine the source and fate of heavy metal pollutants in cities. This study analyses lead isotopes and trace element concentrations in honey from six geographical sectors in Vancouver, Canada. It finds that hives in the downtown sector of the city, near the Port of Vancouver, produced honey with elevated trace element concentrations and less radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions.

An estimate of the network of interactions relating to achieving the SDGs finds that tackling poverty and inequality will have positive effects on achieving all other goals.

Despite Antarctica’s reputation for being pristine, the construction and footprint of research stations and activities favours its relatively small regions without ice. This study uses GIS mapping of satellite imagery to quantify the extent of these impacts and finds that they impact more than half of all large coastal ice-free areas.

Water-use efficiency in the production of food must not only take into account quantities and yields, but also the nutrients and dietary impacts. Animal and plant foods show little difference in this demand efficiency, and best serve as complimentary rather than substitutable foods.

Biodiversity enhances the resilience of ecosystems to environmental change. This study uses an agent-based model seeded with data from Swiss mountain-farming communities to show that the diversity of actors, such as farmers, enhances the resilience of social-environmental systems to economic and climate change.

Water constraints can affect plans to expand electricity capacity. This study shows that in the United States such constraints can increase the cost of electricity generation with slightly reduced electrification of end-use sectors, and can incentivize early retirement of water-intensive technologies.

Air pollution harms human and ecosystem health and challenges sustainable development accompanying industrial activity. Winter air pollution in Delhi is extreme, and most assume that this megacity and others create their own pollution. This study uses new methods to fingerprint this pollution, finding that rural crop and wood burning contribute substantially to Delhi’s winter haze.

Indigenous agroecosystems often balance food production with environmental concerns better than industrial approaches, but they are rarely considered for meeting modern food needs. This study uses spatial models and climate scenarios to find indigenous production in Hawaiʻi’s past could meet significant population demands then and, potentially, now, but with lower capacity in the warmest end-of-century scenario.

Since the early 1980s, remotely sensed data has shown the Earth to be slowly greening. Climate change, CO₂ fertilization and land-use change are competing explanations. Using satellite data from 2000–2017, this study finds striking greening of both China and India, driven primarily by land-use change, with forest growth and cropland intensification more important in China and cropland more important in India.

Water utilities worldwide are diversifying their portfolios of water supplies to smooth growing variation in water availability. This simulation finds that the option of engaging in an open water-trading scheme in the San Francisco Bay Area could promote regional resiliency and lowers costs.