Communications earth & environment
Featured
Strategic Forest Reserves can protect biodiversity in the western United States and mitigate climate change
Strategic forest reserves based on biodiversity and carbon storage can help to protect animal and tree species habitat, surface drinking water and carbon stocks and accumulation in the western US, suggests an assessment of current forest preservation.
- Beverly E. Law
- Logan T. Berner
- William J. Ripple
Geological evidence of an unreported historical Chilean tsunami reveals more frequent inundation
Sand sheet deposits in a tidal marsh at Chaihuín, Chile, suggest that a great earthquake in 1737 did produce a tsunami despite the lack of historical records for one. The area may be more prone to tsunami inundation than previously believed.
- Emma P. Hocking
- Ed Garrett
- Daniel Melnick
Planetary limits to soil degradation
Soils are essential to life on Earth but are rapidly degrading worldwide due to unsustainable human activities. We argue that soil degradation constitutes a key Earth system process that should be added to the planetary boundaries framework.
- Clarisse T. Kraamwinkel
- Anne Beaulieu
- Ruth A. Howison
Latest Research articles
Cryptogamic organisms are a substantial source and sink for volatile organic compounds in the Amazon region
Cryptogamic organisms such as bryophytes and lichens contribute substantially to emissions of secondary organic aerosol precursors as well as to the uptake of atmospheric oxidation products over the Amazon rainforest, suggest measurements at a remote Amazon rainforest site.
- Achim Edtbauer
- Eva Y. Pfannerstill
- Jonathan Williams
Sedimentary DNA and molecular evidence for early human occupation of the Faroe Islands
Humans may have settled the Faroe Islands and begun using the land for livestock grazing as early as 500 CE, around 300 years earlier than previously believed, according to sedimentary DNA and molecular fecal biomarkers from a lake sediment core.
- Lorelei Curtin
- William J. D’Andrea
- Jostein Bakke
Evolution of eastern Tibetan river systems is driven by the indentation of India
The evolution of river systems in the eastern Tibetan Plateau is controlled by the indentation of India at the large-scale but by fluvial self-organization at the scale of lower-order river networks, according to geomorphological analyses of river systems.
- Yi Chen
- Baosheng Wu
- Bingshuai Li
Slow-down in summer warming over Greenland in the past decade linked to central Pacific El Niño
A slow-down in warming and ice loss in Greenland over the past decade is linked to a shift in El Niño events towards the central Pacific through an atmospheric remote forcing, according to analyses of observations and simulations with an atmospheric circulation model.
- Shinji Matsumura
- Koji Yamazaki
- Kazuyoshi Suzuki
Spatial pattern of lake evaporation increases under global warming linked to regional hydroclimate change
Spatial patterns in lake evaporation increase with global warming are closely linked to regional hydroclimate drying through energetic and aerodynamic effects, according to analyses of ensemble projections of lake and climate models.
- Wenyu Zhou
- Linying Wang
- L. Ruby Leung
Strategic Forest Reserves can protect biodiversity in the western United States and mitigate climate change
Strategic forest reserves based on biodiversity and carbon storage can help to protect animal and tree species habitat, surface drinking water and carbon stocks and accumulation in the western US, suggests an assessment of current forest preservation.
- Beverly E. Law
- Logan T. Berner
- William J. Ripple
News & Comment
Planetary limits to soil degradation
Soils are essential to life on Earth but are rapidly degrading worldwide due to unsustainable human activities. We argue that soil degradation constitutes a key Earth system process that should be added to the planetary boundaries framework.
- Clarisse T. Kraamwinkel
- Anne Beaulieu
- Ruth A. Howison
Interventions to prevent pandemic-driven diversity loss
The pandemic has badly affected the most diverse career stage in UK Earth sciences: early career researchers. Disrupted careers must be rescued with contingency plans, remote networks, a focus on mental health and mentor support if we are to retain diversity and talent.
- Ben J. Fisher
- Connor J. Shiggins
- Jack Buckingham
Research for climate adaptation
Adaptation to climate change must be ramped up urgently. This Comment proposes three avenues to transform ambition to action: improve tracking of actions and progress, upscale investment especially in critical areas, and accelerate learning through practice.
- Bruce Currie-Alder
- Cynthia Rosenzweig
- Ying Wang
Supereruption doublet at a climate transition
About 74,000 years ago Earth’s climate abruptly transitioned to particularly severe cold and dry conditions, which lasted for several millennia. An incomplete eruption record may be why volcanic eruptions were dismissed as the trigger.
- Alice R. Paine
- Fabian B. Wadsworth
- James U. L. Baldini
Asia’s looming Black Elephant events
Devastating disasters that are predicted but ignored are known as Black Elephants—a cross between a Black Swan event and the proverbial elephant in the room. It’s time we acknowledged the looming natural hazard risks that no one wants to talk about.
- Yolanda C. Lin
- Gizem Mestav Sarica
- David Lallemant
Post-publication careers: lockdown to limelight
Media attention to an article on Greenland’s dynamic ice loss provided a Comms Earth author with a way out of pandemic isolation, a broader perspective of her work, and a heavy responsibility to communicate accurately. She found the experience time-consuming, but rewarding.
- Michalea King
No Comment