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When the substrate for ecological interactions is the river network, the emerging universality of form is reflected in its function as ecological corridor, with implications.
Solar desalination has the potential to contribute to the solutions regarding global water scarcity. This Review discusses the road and challenges towards the industrialization of solar desalination plants.
Earth system model projections of vegetation–climate feedback frequently depend on inaccurate values of evaporation sensitivity to vegetation changes, potentially resulting in misleading conclusions. A promising avenue involves improving the transpiration partitioning parameterizations and incorporating groundwater connections to refine the modelled sensitivity.
Self-supervised learning offers a promising way of downscaling the total water storage anomaly data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, contributing to a better understanding of the impact of natural climate variability and human activities at basin scales.
This study introduces a self-supervised data assimilation model with a specifically designed loss function to generate a global total water storage anomalies (TWSA) product at a 0.5° spatial resolution, combining hydrological simulations with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite measurements.
A robust and sustainable membrane anti-biofouling approach is needed to ensure long-term continuous and efficient water treatment. A dynamic membrane with sufficient and reliable active sites to load anti-biofouling agents in the membraneʼs internal structure and reload them after the release process is proposed with the goal of sustainable membrane biofouling control.
Although the contribution of microplastic fibres to pollution is well documented, less is known about the chemical composition of nanoplastics. The observation of plastic residues from textile washing shows the important contribution of water-insoluble oligomer particles to plastic pollution.
This study presents the probability of drought occurrence in various regions globally and demonstrates the pivotal role of moisture transport deficit. Assessing the contribution deficit of the dominant global moisture source to regional precipitation enhances drought predictability.
Climate model simulations and aridity indices suggest decreasing summertime surface soil moisture in the continental USA due to anthropogenic climate change, but observations from 2011 to 2020 reveal positive trends across 57% of the region. Using a two-layer land surface model, this study attributes short-term soil moisture changes mainly to internal precipitation variability, and long-term trends to uncertain precipitation alterations.
A solid methodology that enables the facile manufacturing of large-scale metal–organic framework membranes sets the foundation for their potential commercialization and widespread industrial application.
Metal–organic framework (MOF)-based membranes hold great potential for water purification but are not used in practical applications due to challenges in scaling them up. The nanoreactor-confined crystallization strategy enables rapid and roll-to-roll fabrication of high-performance ultra-thin (∼25 nm) MOF hybrid membranes (0.33 m × 35 m) that show high performance in separating close-size solutes present in aqueous solutions.
The proactive approach to economically and safely extracting microalgae shows potential for efficiently controlling and preventing water blooms. A circular strategy mediated by a customized adsorber for electrostatic microalgae capture coupled with flexible magnetic collection demonstrates remarkable microalgae harvesting and recovery efficiency.
Using three prototypical scenarios of water contamination from legacy pollutants at contaminated sites, agricultural use of pesticides and abatement of pharmaceuticals and disinfection by-products in water treatment systems, this Review illustrates success stories of compound-specific isotope analyses and ongoing developments for future applications.
Transformation narratives in water and sanitation emphasize public health and gender equality, yet miss a critical foundational perspective: planetary sustainability.