Research articles

Little is known about the actual effects of electrification policies on carbon emissions. This study shows that, under current carbon intensities of electricity generation, electric cars and heat pumps are less emission intensive than fossil-fuel-based alternatives in 53 of 59 world regions.

A comparison of the recommended dietary guidelines in France from 2001 and 2017 finds that the updated guidelines perform better in terms of health (nutrition) and the environment (food production), albeit with a small increase in cost.

Hydropower is important in Brazil, but climate change and deforestation are changing river flows. This study finds that future conditions will worsen a mismatch between seasonal electricity supply and peak demand.

Cattle are replacing wildlife in many African savannas. This field study finds that wild megaherbivores, such as elephants, increased soil carbon and nitrogen, and hence soil fertility, normally lost when only cattle are present.

A dynamic macrosimulation study of three scenarios finds that policies for social prosperity and low-carbon emissions are economically and politically feasible.

The production of lithium requires the purification of lithium chloride, which is expensive and unsustainable. A new method allows the production of high-purity electrolytic lithium from low-purity lithium chloride using solid-state electrolyte, with substantial reductions in costs and environmental impacts.

Water use in river basins is an age-old resource-management question, but it is rare to quantify consumption by specific sectors. The Colorado River is being overused for beef and dairy production, endangering the entire river ecosystem.

Inequality—wealth concentration among few people—stimulates direct foreign investment in agriculture, leading to flex-crop expansion and associated deforestation in Latin America and Southeast Asia, as found in this econometric study.

Physicochemical treatments of heavy-metal pollution in waste water have several environmental and structural disadvantages. This Article shows that sulfide-producing yeasts are able to remove mercury, lead and copper from real-world water samples and offer a platform for metal re-extraction.

Two-dimensional lamellar membranes for water purification are promising but suffer from swelling that reduces their ion sieving performance in water. This study reports easy-to-fabricate, non-swelling MXene membranes prepared by the intercalation of Al³⁺ ions that could be scalable.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon affects both older (primary) and younger (secondary) forests. This study finds that most forest loss over the period 2008–2014 was from secondary forests and that the almost 190% rise in deforestation buffered losses from primary forests.

Modern land management often assumes that past human activity shaped iconic landscapes. This study finds that climate, rather than indigenous activity, controlled fire severity in New England, with open landscapes developing after deforestation for European agriculture.

Agriculture transforms the Earth and risks crossing thresholds for a healthy planet. This study finds almost half of current food production crosses such boundaries, as for freshwater use, but that transformation towards more sustainable production and consumption could support 10.2 billion people.

Recent policies to address wildfires mainly addressed risk-related challenges to conduct prescribed fires, but barriers related to resources and regulations need further action, according to a mixed-methods study.

Urbanization and economic development fuel demand for sand, used for concrete. This study finds that sediment loads are insufficient to replace the sand mined from the Mekong River delta, with mining rates high enough to make river banks unstable.

Natural resource management involves complex relationships that are affected by data and knowledge limitations. Mental modelling can harness the wisdom of a crowd of stakeholders.

Double cropping can increase production from a given area of land. This study finds that maize ethanol produced from a second crop with soybeans in west central Brazil can reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared with gasoline and also have economic and employment benefits.

An international arrangement of transferable fishing rights and biomass-based allocation can incentivize establishing Marine Protected Areas while promoting the economy.

By passively evaporating water from waste streams, evaporation ponds work with different waste streams but need large areas due to low evaporation rates. This study shows that a photo-thermal device converting sunlight into mid-infrared radiation could enhance evaporation and reduce land needs.