Featured
-
-
Correspondence |
Scientists — counter lobbyists to shape environment policy
- Ralf Buckley
- & Aila Keto
-
Correspondence |
Integrate strategies to save biodiversity and groundwater
- Johannes A. C. Barth
- , Jürgen Geist
- & John Cherry
-
Nature Video |
Drowning in seaweed: How to stop invasive Sargassum
Around the world countries are battling the unassuming brown seaweed taking over their beaches.
- Zan Barberton
-
Correspondence |
Implementing a blueprint for greener and more efficient ports
- Karen A. Alexander
- & Lauren H. McWhinnie
-
News & Views |
How to feed the world while reducing nitrogen pollution
An analysis of more than 1,500 field observations has identified a collection of agricultural practices that can improve the use of nitrogen fertilizers — boosting crop yields while reducing environmental pollution.
- Longlong Xia
- & Xiaoyuan Yan
-
Correspondence |
Pandemic treaty: incorporate a One Health framework
- David T. S. Hayman
- & Katie Woolaston
-
-
Matters Arising |
Climate versus tectonics as controls on river profiles
- Hansjörg Seybold
- , Wouter R. Berghuijs
- & James W. Kirchner
-
Nature Video |
Ant milk: The mysterious fluid that helps them thrive
The liquid secreted by ant pupae appears to be key to colony health.
- Nick Petrić Howe
-
Career Column |
Keep talking to make fieldwork a true team effort
Communication is important across science, but special steps are needed when taking part in research away from the lab, says Anna Osiecka.
- Anna Osiecka
-
Article |
Plastic futures and their CO2 emissions
Three alternative CO2 emission-mitigation pathways were analysed for the global plastics sector, covering their production to waste management. A circular bioeconomy strategy could achieve negative emissions in the long term, while at the same time allowing landfilling to be phased out and reducing resource consumption.
- Paul Stegmann
- , Vassilis Daioglou
- & Martin Junginger
-
Research Briefing |
Observations refute the idea that warming strongly reduces cloudiness
The response of cumulus clouds in trade-wind regions to warming is a large uncertainty in climate projections. Observations now indicate that the mechanism leading to the strongest cloud reductions in models does not occur in nature, suggesting that extreme sensitivity of Earth’s temperatures to climate change is less likely than previously thought.
-
Research Briefing |
Charted changes in salt-marsh areas and related carbon emissions
Changes in salt-marsh areas around the world between 2000 and 2019 were quantified using satellite records, and the effects of these changes — collectively representing a slowing net global loss — on carbon emissions were estimated. Storm events were found to be key drivers of salt-marsh loss in the United States.
-
Article
| Open AccessGlobal hotspots of salt marsh change and carbon emissions
Analysis of Landsat imagery from the past two decades allows quantification of the changes in salt marsh ecosystems, as well as associated carbon emissions resulting from net global losses.
- Anthony D. Campbell
- , Lola Fatoyinbo
- & David Lagomasino
-
News Explainer |
Plastic pollution: Three problems that a global treaty could solve
Specialists discuss strategies that could help stop plastics contaminating the environment.
- Tosin Thompson
-
Correspondence |
Root out threats to Amazonian forests and Indigenous peoples
- Jaime Paneque-Gálvez
- , Naomi Millner
- & Nicolas Kosoy
-
News Feature |
Plastics tsunami: Can a landmark treaty stop waste from choking the oceans?
As nations meet this week to negotiate an agreement on plastics pollution, researchers warn that a lack of information will make it hard to enforce any agreement.
- Meera Subramanian
-
Outlook |
Building a circular economy
Sustainability requires conserving the planet’s resources so that waste products from one process become the input for another.
- Herb Brody
-
Outlook |
Beware the false hope of recycling
Reusing plastics and other materials is not enough. To achieving a circular economy, we must make less stuff to begin with.
- Kristian Syberg
-
Outlook |
Smarter ways with water
People need to find better and more productive ways to become allies with water — which might mean giving it space for its processes.
- Erica Gies
-
Outlook |
How to make plastic less of an environmental burden
Plastic has long been an ecological problem. But emerging technologies and more awareness could make the ubiquitous material part of a circular economy.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
-
Outlook |
How to rescue biofuels from a sustainable dead end
An environmentally friendly path forwards for liquid fuel derived from plants will depend on smarter agriculture and smarter regulation.
- Peter Fairley
-
Research Briefing |
Deep-inland thinning of the northeast Greenland glacier predicts fast sea-level rise
The glacier in Greenland’s largest drainage basin is thinning and its flow is accelerating. Updated simulations suggest that sea-level rise will be up to fivefold higher than previously expected.
-
Correspondence |
Global plastics treaty must be strict and binding
- Justine Ammendolia
- & Tony R. Walker
-
News Feature |
GDP is getting a makeover — what it means for economies, health and the planet
Pressure is mounting to downgrade GDP or improve it so economic growth is not the only game in town.
- Ehsan Masood
-
Comment |
Avert Bangladesh’s looming water crisis through open science and better data
Intensive irrigation and climate change are depleting groundwater reserves in this fast-developing nation. To improve its water security, researchers need more information on water use, quality, flows and forecasts.
- Augusto Getirana
- , Nishan Kumar Biswas
- & Robin Kumar Biswas
-
-
Editorial |
There’s only one choice in Brazil’s election — for the country and the world
A second term for Jair Bolsonaro would represent a threat to science, democracy and the environment.
-
Where I Work |
Making tap water in Kenya and Bangladesh safe to drink
Amy Pickering helped create a purification device that runs without electricity and removes contaminants that can enter leaky pipes.
- Frances Gatta
-
Book Review |
Old trees have much to teach us
An expansive global history explores humanity’s vexed relationship with venerable plants.
- Josie Glausiusz
-
News |
Nord Stream blasts spark concern over chemical-weapons contamination
Researchers are scrambling to assess the extent and potential toxicity of pollution after the gas pipelines ruptured.
- Katharine Sanderson
-
Article |
From planetary to regional boundaries for agricultural nitrogen pollution
Modelling of regional and planetary boundaries for agricultural nitrogen pollution finds that the global nitrogen surplus boundary is lower than the current nitrogen surplus.
- L. F. Schulte-Uebbing
- , A. H. W. Beusen
- & W. de Vries
-
Article |
Global trends of cropland phosphorus use and sustainability challenges
The historical and spatial patterns of the phosphorus budget and phosphorus use efficiency by country and crop type are reported, and used to determine phosphorus pollution and scarcity challenges.
- T. Zou
- , X. Zhang
- & E. A. Davidson
-
Editorial |
A big chance for science at the heart of global policymaking
The UN’s top leadership is reaching out to the scientific community to help inform decision making — a welcome move in a highly uncertain world.
-
News & Views |
Seasonal peak in Arctic Ocean acidity could shift to the summer
The acidity of the Arctic Ocean currently peaks in winter. A modelling study suggests that this peak could shift to the summer in the future — this is bad news for ecosystem functions, food webs and Indigenous communities.
- Victoria Qutuuq Buschman
- & Claudine Hauri
-
News Feature |
Saving the Amazon: how science is helping Indigenous people protect their homelands
Drug runners, gold miners and loggers are rapidly invading the remote Peruvian Amazon, home to isolated people and a wealth of biodiversity. Nature met the researchers and Indigenous communities fighting to stop the destruction.
- Jeff Tollefson
-
News |
Gun research gap, birds in lockdown — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key graphics from the week in science and research.
-
News |
How a COVID lockdown changed bird behaviour
In the United Kingdom, some common bird species were frequent visitors to gardens and parks, whereas others gave those places a wide berth.
- Freda Kreier
-
News Feature |
Bolsonaro’s troubled legacy for science, health and the environment
Brazilians will choose their new president on 2 October and Jair Bolsonaro is running for a second term. Critics say he has damaged the country’s science, people’s well-being and its threatened ecosystems.
- Meghie Rodrigues
-
News |
Troubled biodiversity plan gets billion-dollar funding boost
But urgent progress is needed to secure the global deal to save the environment.
- Natasha Gilbert
-
Article |
Continuous air purification by aqueous interface filtration and absorption
An air purification strategy is presented that moves air in the form of bubbles through an ion-doped conjugated polymer-coated matrix, which captures larger particulate matter, infiltrated with a selected functional liquid, which captures smaller particulate matter.
- Yunmao Zhang
- , Yuhang Han
- & Xu Hou
-
Correspondence |
Forests: collect social as well as ecological data
- Rose Pritchard
- , Geoff Wells
- & Casey M. Ryan
-
News |
Sea turtles swim easier as poaching declines
An estimated 1.1 million sea turtles were illegally harvested from 1990 to 2020 — but today poaching poses less of a threat to these endangered reptiles.
- Freda Kreier
-
Comment |
How to stop cities and companies causing planetary harm
Researchers must help to define science-based targets for water, nutrients, carbon emissions and more to avoid cascading effects and stave off tipping points in Earth’s systems.
- Xuemei Bai
- , Anders Bjørn
- & Johan Rockström
-
News Q&A |
Pakistan’s floods have displaced 32 million people — here’s how researchers are helping
Staff members at one university are providing urgent medical care, particularly to pregnant people and newborn babies.
- Smriti Mallapaty
-
Matters Arising |
The risks of overstating the climate benefits of ecosystem restoration
- Jonathan C. Doelman
- & Elke Stehfest
-
Matters Arising |
Reply to: The risks of overstating the climate benefits of ecosystem restoration
- Bernardo B. N. Strassburg
- , Alvaro Iribarrem
- & Piero Visconti
-
Article |
Delayed use of bioenergy crops might threaten climate and food security
Simulations of historical and future periods of climate change showed that delayed mitigation to limit global warming might reduce the capacity of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and threaten climate stability and food security.
- Siqing Xu
- , Rong Wang
- & Renhe Zhang
-
Article
| Open AccessComprehensive evidence implies a higher social cost of CO2
Coupling advances in socioeconomic projections, climate models, damage functions and discounting methods yields an estimate of the social cost of carbon of US$185 per tonne of CO2—triple the widely used value published by the US government.
- Kevin Rennert
- , Frank Errickson
- & David Anthoff