Review Articles

Climate adaptation in African vegetable farming focuses on rural areas with technological options dominating, while urban agriculture and institutional strategies remain underexplored, according to a systematic review of 60 studies.

Heavy metal pollution shapes biodiversity in modern and past ecosystems, malformations and extinctions indicate toxicity, but their role as drivers or artifacts depends on bioavailability, according to a review of published literature on past mass extinction events and case studies.

Substantial environmental lead contamination continues today contributing to an annual global economic loss exceeding $3.4 trillion through contemporary childhood lead exposure, according to a review of lead sources, possible pathways into the environment, and human exposure in the 21st century.

Nutrient fluxes from rivers and groundwater flowing into the ocean are impacted by climate change impacts such as precipitation changes, cryosphere melt, and sea level rise.

The dynamic qualities of fact-cycling mineral-associated organic matter depend on chemistry between minerals and organic matter, their interactions, and the destabilizing forces causing decomposition, according to a review of recent studies on mineral-associated organic matter across ecosystems

Global coffee farms now store roughly 481.59 Tg carbon, with more carbon lost from removing existing shade trees than gained by planting new ones into coffee monocultures, which is largely independent of biodiversity outcomes, as revealed by a global meta-analysis.

Bioarchaeological isotope data that provide information on the migratory and feeding behaviors of ancient species and their interactions with humans can improve understanding of past ecological and climatic changes and improve predictions of environmental processes.

A compilation and analysis of palaeomagnetic and geologic data highlight the importance of subduction transference processes on terrane convergence in the Tibetan Plateau and the migration of microcontinents from Gondwana to Eurasia in the Mesozoic.

Warming of +1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels is too high for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and even the current climate forcing of +1.2 °C is likely to lead to several meters of sea-level rise, meaning that only a return to +1 °C or lower will avoid extensive loss and damage to coastal populations, according to a synthesis of recent evidence.

Climate change is altering bioaccumulation and biological effects of persistent organic pollutants in marine organisms, impacting toxicity, thermal regulation, and energy usage of exposed organisms with broad implications for ecological health.

Biochar-based catalytic conversion of plastic waste into value-added fuels and advanced oxidation-based upcycling of plastic are practical and promising route for sustainable management of plastic pollution, according to a literature review coupled with machine learning.

Glacial weathering is a significant source of dissolved silicon to coastal waters, supporting diatom growth in polar ecosystems, according to a review of the stable and radioisotope measurements alongside biogeochemical modeling to understand subglacial silica mobilization and its cycling across the land-ocean continuum.

Global assessments of the climate change mitigation potential of biochar diverge, and many rely on a dated analysis, but there is strong evidence for gigaton-scale contribution, concludes a synthesis of 19 studies of biochar mitigation potential.

Australia experiences meteorological droughts due to insufficient moisture transport and heavy precipitation, which are influenced by climate variability and land processes, and are expected to become longer and more frequent, according to a review of observational and model-based studies.

Caribbean peatlands are a critical ecosystem that remain poorly understood, according to a synthesis of paleoecology, carbon dynamics and mapping data: estimations of distribution and extent vary by more than 200% depending upon mapping technique

Improved understanding of marine heatwave predictability and impacts requires analysis of these extremes at full ocean depth, using models and observations capturing their key drivers at the relevant scales, according to a broad literature review.

The formation of nanomaterials in aqueous fluids can be explained by four different pathways: formation by biotic and abiotic processes, coupled and decoupled with weathering processes. In the Earth’s critical zone, these pathways can be classified into 18 subcategories based on the surrounding environment.

Climate change is likely to impact coastal trace element contamination through natural processes, such as river runoff and human activities such as shipping. A focus on increased data coverage in the Global South, long-term and multiple stressors studies and improved ecosystem models are promising avenues to improve our understanding.

Water table fluctuations in wetlands impact methane production and emissions via biotic and abiotic pathways including soil redox, substrate availability, electron flow, gas transport, and microbial community structure, according to the analysis of observational data from 31 wetland sites and a broad literature review.

Anti-repeaters – earthquakes that happen in the same location but with opposite focal mechanisms – are widespread but under-recognised and likely result from fluid migration processes, suggests a synthesis of observations of these phenomena from a range of tectonic environments.