Building an ecosystem services-based framework for agricultural soil health assessment in drylands

Soil health is essential for sustainable agriculture, especially in drylands, which support over one‑third of the global population. The authors surveyed 265 dryland farmlands and developed an ecosystem‑services‑based framework, showing that biological indicators, particularly microorganisms, explain most variation in soil health, highlighting soil microbes as a key target for sustaining arid agriculture.

dlvr.it

Credible, scalable, actionable: Principles for Scope 3 emissions measurement and supply chain decarbonization

Scope 3 emissions dominate corporate carbon footprints, yet reported figures are often too uncertain to guide effective decarbonization, and this creates a dangerous illusion of climate accountability. This problem is intensifying as AI tools speed up flawed estimates. We propose three bedrock principles—credible, scalable, and actionable—to make Scope 3 accounting trustworthy and, critically, accelerate decarbonization.

dlvr.it

Nanoconfined single-atom catalysis enables long-lived hydroxyl radicals for low-cost, versatile on-site water purification

Decentralized organic wastewater is costly and risky to collect, transport, and treat off-site, creating demand for compact on-site oxidation. Fenton chemistry can degrade many pollutants, yet it often wastes oxidants because hydroxyl radicals are rapidly quenched, and strategies to stabilize them for sustained use remain unclear. Here, we confine Fe–O4 single atoms within zeolite micropores to extend the effective liftetime of hydroxyl radical and sustain it generation for efficient, lower-cost wastewater purification.

dlvr.it

E-fuels can cut battery material demand by up to 9-fold but create new dilemmas for UK net-zero transport

Challenges exist in the UK’s supply of critical battery minerals that would impact the success of vehicle electrification and transport decarbonization policies. Synthetic e-fuels could provide an alternative solution, though the environmental, resource, and cost trade-offs remain unclear. Here, we present a life cycle assessment model demonstrating that e-fuels could be effective in decarbonizing transport fuels, although their implementation increases pressure on renewable energy generation and production costs, which must be carefully considered in the policy development.

dlvr.it

Global urban greening substantially reduced premature deaths from 2000 to 2019, but mostly in high-income countries

Urban greening is widely promoted as a strategy to improve health, yet its cumulative global impact remains unknown. Using satellite observations and health data, this study finds that urban greening over the past decades has delivered substantial global health benefits but mainly in high- and upper-middle-income countries. These findings reveal inequities in the health impacts of urban greening worldwide.

dlvr.it

Chemical fingerprints enable environmental footprinting and optimization of feed procurement

Sustainable procurement of biomass is supported by the derivation of environmental impacts based on rapid and non-destructive spectral information, thereby bypassing error-prone administration. Combining geographical origin information derived from spectral characteristics of biomass feedstocks with impact assessment allows optimization between impact reduction and profitability while maintaining product quality. The approach can support sustainable procurement of any bio-based product.

dlvr.it

Leveraging thermal regimes and connectivity networks to promote evolutionary adaptation across coral reef seascapes

As marine heat waves intensify, coral reef adaptation may struggle to keep pace. This perspective presents an operational framework that integrates heat-wave exposure and larval dispersal patterns to identify reef functional roles and management needs, helping guide evolution-informed interventions that support coral reef persistence under climate change.

dlvr.it

Alleviating future groundwater stress in China requires more stringent adaptation beyond existing measures

Groundwater stress threatens sustainable development in China, yet the effectiveness of future adaptation strategies remains unclear. This study reveals that existing measures have limited effects on future intensifying groundwater stress, and the synergistic implementation of stringent water withdrawal management and supply enhancement is essential to substantially alleviate future stress.

dlvr.it

Evaluating the biodiversity commitments of Earth’s keystone corporations

A small number of corporations exert outsized influence over global production systems and biodiversity outcomes. Hawkins et al. find that although most of these keystone corporations report biodiversity commitments, only a small minority disclose sufficiently clear and measurable targets to enable third parties to evaluate whether they have been met, highlighting priorities for improving corporate action for nature.

dlvr.it

Field edges enhance crop yields in wet regions but suppress yields in dry regions across the United States

Using satellite data across the United States, Yang et al. show that crop yields increase near field edges in humid regions but decline in dry regions. These findings highlight how climate and landscape context shape edge effects, offering new opportunities to optimize agricultural productivity through boundary management.

dlvr.it

Year-round marine heat extremes severely impact marine life during the first year at 1.5°C warming

Summer-focused assessments may underestimate the impacts of ocean heat on marine ecosystems. Examining 201 events from 2023 to 2024, an exceptional period of ocean warmth, we show that one-third of non-tropical impacts and compound extreme events occurred outside warm seasons. These results emphasize the need for year-round impact assessments to inform preparedness plans.

dlvr.it

ARMS-to-Arks: Trophic rewiring of viral, microbial, and functional networks through reef ecosystem seeding

Coral reefs depend on an unseen web of viruses, microbes, and tiny invertebrates that recycle nutrients, support food webs, and clean seawater. Despite their important role, most reef restoration efforts focus solely on corals. Little et al. show that these invisible communities can be transplanted as a unit by relocating pre-colonized settlement panels from natural reefs onto artificial reef structures to jump-start viral, microbial, and functional processes necessary to form a self-sustaining reef. The study offers a scalable, low-tech complement to coral planting and a new template for ecosystem-based reef restoration.

dlvr.it

Reforestation increases water inequality under low warming but reduces water availability under high warming

We find that the same reforestation has distinct impacts on water availability under different background climates, not only in the mean amount but also in spatial and seasonal distributions. This highlights that the hydrological outcomes of reforestation are pathway-dependent—a key insight for policymakers.

dlvr.it

Joint compliance with food security and environmental constraints limits the global potential of energy crops

Bioenergy crops are often expected to support climate mitigation, but their expansion can conflict with food security, carbon storage, and biodiversity. This study maps where dedicated energy crops could expand under joint food and environmental safeguards, showing that sustainable potential is lower than many previous estimates and concentrated in a limited set of low-opportunity-cost regions.

dlvr.it

Operationalizing biodiversity credits to catalyze coral reef management and investment

This perspective explores emerging biodiversity frameworks and nature-based funding instruments (especially biodiversity credits) to catalyze investments needed to increase the scale, nature, and effectiveness of coral reef conservation. High-integrity coral reef biodiversity credits require the development of a robust biodiversity accounting framework that reflects positive and meaningful biodiversity outcomes and ecosystem benefits. This perspective outlines next steps and ongoing research and innovation needed to establish high-integrity coral reef biodiversity credits.

dlvr.it

Identifying drivers of antibiotic resistance: Mathematical model of One Health interventions spotlights transmission and environmental pathways

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical One Health challenge requiring context-specific understanding and tailored interventions. We develop a single transmission mathematical model to compare hypothetical intervention packages targeting the priority pathogen third-generation cephalosporin-resistant E. coli across England, Denmark, and Senegal. The results suggest that reducing transmission between sectors and environmental AMR may be optimal. However, large uncertainties and limited comparable data highlight the urgent need for improved AMR surveillance across settings.

dlvr.it

Unlocking microbial potential to advance nutritious and sustainable food systems

Microbes influence food long before and after it reaches the plate. This perspective introduces the food-microbe nexus, a framework linking microbes and food biochemicals across soils, crops, foods, and the human gut. It identifies research priorities for using microbiomes to improve crop nutrition, reduce postharvest losses, and support plant-based food innovation while outlining how emerging evidence can guide more nutritious and sustainable food-system transitions.

dlvr.it

Oceanic heat sources exacerbate continental heatwaves

This study reveals the significant contribution of oceanic heatwaves to continental heatwaves, quantifies the attribution of anthropogenic climate change to landfalling oceanic heatwaves, and projects future changes under various global warming scenarios. The findings will significantly advance the understanding of the complex dynamics between oceanic and continental heatwaves and underscore the urgency of climate action.

dlvr.it

Shifting cultivation as a driver of deforestation: Misinterpreted data, misguided conclusions, and misplaced blame

Shifting cultivation has long been blamed for deforestation, but this paper shows that flawed remote sensing methods and misinterpreted data have exaggerated its role. By distinguishing forests, fallows, and active fields, the authors propose a framework for more accurate mapping, which can lead to more just land-use policies.

dlvr.it

Toward climate-smart rewilding: An integrated framework for biodiversity, climate change, and society

Rewilding is increasingly promoted as a solution to biodiversity loss and climate change, yet integrated planning frameworks remain limited. This study presents a novel climate-smart rewilding framework linking biodiversity recovery, climate mitigation and adaptation, and socio-economic outcomes to guide large-scale restoration decisions.

dlvr.it

Food and beverage plastics dominate global shorelines: A harmonized rank-based assessment of usage types to guide interventions

Plastic pollution is a pervasive environmental crisis, yet global mitigation is often hindered by a lack of item-specific data across diverse regions. This study analyses over 5,300 shoreline litter surveys across 112 nations to provide the first granular global index of macroplastic pollution by usage type. By identifying food and beverage plastics as a dominant pollutant in 93% of nations, this research shifts the focus toward targeted, sectoral interventions and upstream production reduction strategies.

dlvr.it

Closure of the Strait of Hormuz fuels Europe’s natural-gas trilemma

The Strait of Hormuz closure intensifies natural-gas-related energy risks for Europe, triggering a new set of energy trilemmas. By contemplating several scenarios, we argue that natural-gas supplier diversification after the 2022 energy crisis is unlikely to resolve underlying energy-system vulnerability, whereas structural shifts toward renewables is crucial.

dlvr.it