Volume 2 Issue 10, October 2019

Precision farming enabled by big data and gene-editing technologies are accelerating progress toward increasing nitrogen-use efficiency. However, farmer engagement, public–private partnerships and sound public policies are critical to harness the potential of such technologies to reduce hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dominant research modes are not enough to guide the societal transformations necessary to achieve the 2030 Agenda. Researchers, practitioners, decision makers, funders and civil society should work together to achieve universally accessible and mutually beneficial sustainability science.

The terms sustainability, resilience and others group under the heading of ‘stability’. Their ubiquity speaks to a vital need to characterize changes in complex social and environmental systems. In a bewildering array of terms, practical measurements are essential to permit comparisons and so untangle underlying relationships.

Resilience scholarship continues to inspire opaque discourse and competing frameworks often inconsistent with the complexity inherent in social–ecological systems. We contend that competing conceptualizations of resilience are reconcilable, and that the core theory is useful for navigating sustainability challenges.

Lack of good-quality monitoring and evaluation data is a key barrier to large-scale uptake of agriculture interventions. Data from low-cost microsatellites have a strong potential to bridge this gap and promote sustainable intensification targets.

Fisheries conservation requires restricting access to countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs), which is costly to monitor and enforce. A new analysis shows that unauthorized foreign fishing is indeed substantially lower just inside the EEZ boundary compared with just outside.

Researchers and decision-makers lack a shared understanding of resilience. Here, the authors define social-ecological resilience as including three characteristics of social-ecological systems — resistance, recovery and robustness — and show how this framework can help resilience management.

This Perspective suggests how a systems perspective on artificial drainage can promote sustainable intensification, limiting nutrient losses and greenhouse-gas emissions and increasing nitrogen-use efficiency.

Data from conventional sources cannot fully measure progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here the authors present a roadmap describing how citizen-science data can integrate traditional data and make a significant contribution in support of the SDGs agenda.

Reducing agriculture’s impacts while increasing outputs is challenging. This study, of an Indian smallholder system, shows that microsatellite data can detect yield gains from a low-cost fertilizer intervention.

This study explores the patterns and speed of diffusion and adoption of 22 area-based conservation initiatives worldwide. Most have limited uptake, and some take a long time before they are widely adopted.

Carbon taxes can increase the cost of basic goods. This modelling study finds that using one-third of carbon tax revenues for cash transfers to the poor can compensate such regressive impacts.

Seafood farming in the ocean has developed over decades following innovation diffusion S-shaped curves. Some countries have underdeveloped potential and, in others, current overproduction can become more sustainable.

Social responses to changes can trigger further crises. This study uses historical data and finds society’s failures to respond to climate change in China’s Hexi Corridor amplified problems.

Wide adoption of electric vehicles can contribute to mitigate climate change and air pollution. Here the authors develop various fleet electrification scenarios in China to evaluate the associated air quality and health impacts to inform sound policies.

Diffusion of renewable energy technologies can be constrained by alternative land uses. Here the authors propose the idea of ‘aglectric’ farming and show with modelling how to use agricultural land sustainably for food and energy co-production.

A global study of fishing near Exclusive Economic Zone boundaries shows that these property rights indeed deter unauthorized fishing.