Atmospheric nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) deposition can significantly affect forest biodiversity and production by altering the growth and survival of trees. Three decades of air quality regulations in the United States (U.S.) have led to large reductions in oxides of N (44-81%) and S (50-99%) emissions and associated deposition. Here, we evaluated the magnitude and extent of effects over 20 years from atmospheric N and S deposition on the growth and survival of 94 tree species - representing 96.4 billion trees and an average of 88% of forest basal area across the contiguous U.S. (CONUS). Overall, species' growth and survival rates have responded positively to declining deposition, but we find that decreases of at least 2.5 kg N ha yr are needed across 19.8% (growth) and 59.5% (survival) of the CONUS to prevent detrimental effects to sensitive species. Reduced forms of N (NH = NH + NH ) are now the dominant form of N deposition in 45.4% of the CONUS - notably in agricultural regions - and exclusively need to be reduced by ≥ 5.0 kg N ha yr in some areas. Further S deposition decreases of ≥ 1.0 kg S ha yr are needed in 50.4% (growth) and 56.2% (survival) of the CONUS to protect sensitive species and notably, evergreen trees. Total basal area is increasing in much of the country (85.2%) because of N fertilizing effects, but these growth increases could result in biodiversity loss. Our findings can be used to evaluate past successes of air quality policies and the future benefits of air pollution reductions to terrestrial ecosystems.

Predicting how increasing intensity of human-environment interactions affects pathogen transmission is essential to anticipate changing disease risks and identify appropriate mitigation strategies. Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are highly responsive to environmental changes, but such responses are notoriously difficult to isolate because pathogen transmission depends on a suite of ecological and social responses in vectors and hosts that may differ across species. Here we use the emerging tools of cumulative pressure mapping and machine learning to better understand how the occurrence of six medically important VBDs, differing in ecology from sylvatic to urban, respond to multidimensional effects of human pressure. We find that not only is human footprint-an index of human pressure, incorporating built environments, energy and transportation infrastructure, agricultural lands and human population density-an important predictor of VBD occurrence, but there are clear thresholds governing the occurrence of different VBDs. Across a spectrum of human pressure, diseases associated with lower human pressure, including malaria, cutaneous leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis, give way to diseases associated with high human pressure, such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika. These heterogeneous responses of VBDs to human pressure highlight thresholds of land-use transitions that may lead to abrupt shifts in infectious disease burdens and public health needs.

The Barcelona superblock has been proposed as a sustainable urban neighbourhood transformation strategy in cities. Superblock design reduces space assigned to cars to enable alternative uses for improving liveability and sustainability. Here, the potential for superblock transformation is systematically quantified and evaluated for cities with varying urban forms and densities. A superblock consists of nine (3×3) urban city blocks including interior and exterior streets. Miniblocks, consisting of four (2×2) blocks, are proposed as a less disruptive strategy to initiate urban transformation on which superblocks can build upon. A geospatial network-based approach is developed to find locations for introducing multifunctional streets. For possible site prioritization, the identified locations are evaluated concerning the potential disruption to traffic. The analysis reveals that the potential for super- and miniblocks, as well as their disruption effect, varies considerably across cities and is affected by the urban layout. For some cities, over 40% of the street network is potentially suitable for integrating super- or miniblock design, providing opportunities for city-scale transition towards more sustainable and liveable cities. A grid-like layout in cities is not a sufficient condition for high superblock potential and cities with irregular street layouts can show high transformation potential as well.

Over a million species face extinction, urging the need for conservation policies that maximize the protection of biodiversity to sustain its manifold contributions to people. Here we present a novel framework for spatial conservation prioritization based on reinforcement learning that consistently outperforms available state-of-the-art software using simulated and empirical data. Our methodology, CAPTAIN (Conservation Area Prioritization Through Artificial INtelligence), quantifies the trade-off between the costs and benefits of area and biodiversity protection, allowing the exploration of multiple biodiversity metrics. Under a limited budget, our model protects substantially more species from extinction than areas selected randomly or naively (such as based on species richness). CAPTAIN achieves substantially better solutions with empirical data than alternative software, meeting conservation targets more reliably and generating more interpretable prioritization maps. Regular biodiversity monitoring, even with a degree of inaccuracy characteristic of citizen science surveys, substantially improves biodiversity outcomes. Artificial intelligence holds great promise for improving the conservation and sustainable use of biological and ecosystem values in a rapidly changing and resourcelimited world.

Knowing where and when rivers flow is paramount to managing freshwater ecosystems. Yet stream gauging stations are distributed sparsely across rivers globally and may not capture the diversity of fluvial network properties and anthropogenic influences. Here we evaluate the placement bias of a global stream gauge dataset on its representation of socioecological, hydrologic, climatic and physiographic diversity of rivers. We find that gauges are located disproportionally in large, perennial rivers draining more human-occupied watersheds. Gauges are sparsely distributed in protected areas and rivers characterized by non-perennial flow regimes, both of which are critical to freshwater conservation and water security concerns. Disparities between the geography of the global gauging network and the broad diversity of streams and rivers weakens our ability to understand critical hydrologic processes and make informed water-management and policy decisions. Our findings underscore the need to address current gauge placement biases by investing in and prioritizing the installation of new gauging stations, embracing alternative water-monitoring strategies, advancing innovation in hydrologic modelling, and increasing accessibility of local and regional gauging data to support human responses to water challenges, both today and in the future.

Trees within farmers' fields can enhance systems' longer-term productivity e.g., via nutrient amelioration, which is indispensable to attain sustainable agroecosystems. While arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are known to improve plant access to soil nutrients, the potential of AMF to mediate nutrient uptake of tree-derived N by crops from beyond the crops' rooting zones is unclear. We hypothesized that AMF quantitatively contribute to the crop uptake of tree-derived N. We set up root and AMF exclusion and control plots around faidherbia trees () and used the N natural abundance technique to determine the magnitude of AMF-mediated uptake of tree-derived N by maize from beyond its rooting zone in smallholder fields. We further tested whether AMF-mediated N uptake decreases with distance-from-tree. We show that within one cropping season, maize obtained approximately 35 kg biologically fixed N ha from faidherbia. One third of tree-derived N in maize leaves was attributed to AMF-mediated N uptake from beyond the maize rooting zone and two thirds to N from tree leaf litter, regardless of distance-from-tree. As hypothesized, maize grown close (1 m) to faidherbia obtained significantly more tree-derived N than at further distances (4 and 5 m). Thus, the faidherbia-AMF association can enhance agroecosystem functioning.

The possibility of a massive oil spill in the Red Sea is increasingly likely. The , a deteriorating oil tanker containing 1.1 million barrels of oil, has been deserted near the coast of Yemen since 2015 and threatens environmental catastrophe to a country presently in a humanitarian crisis. Here, we model the immediate public health impacts of a simulated spill. We estimate that all of Yemen's imported fuel through its key Red Sea ports would be disrupted and that the anticipated spill could disrupt clean-water supply equivalent to the daily use of 9.0-9.9 million people, food supply for 5.7-8.4 million people and 93-100% of Yemen's Red Sea fisheries. We also estimate an increased risk of cardiovascular hospitalization from pollution ranging from 5.8 to 42.0% over the duration of the spill. The spill and its potentially disastrous impacts remain entirely preventable through offloading the oil. Our results stress the need for urgent action to avert this looming disaster.

The presence of organic contaminants in wastewater poses considerable risks to the health of both humans and ecosystems. Although advanced oxidation processes that rely on highly reactive radicals to destroy organic contaminants are appealing treatment options, substantial energy and chemical inputs limit their practical applications. Here we demonstrate that Cu single atoms incorporated in graphitic carbon nitride can catalytically activate HO to generate hydroxyl radicals at pH 7.0 without energy input, and show robust stability within a filtration device. We further design an electrolysis reactor for the on-site generation of HO from air, water and renewable energy. Coupling the single-atom catalytic filter and the HO electrolytic generator in tandem delivers a wastewater treatment system. These findings provide a promising path toward reducing the energy and chemical demands of advanced oxidation processes, as well as enabling their implementation in remote areas and isolated communities.

Consumer, industrial, and commercial product usage is a source of exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals. In addition, cleaning agents, personal care products, coatings, and other volatile chemical products (VCPs), evaporate and react in the atmosphere producing secondary pollutants. Here, we show high air emissions from VCP usage (≥ 14 kg person yr, at least 1.7× higher than current operational estimates) are supported by multiple estimation methods and constraints imposed by ambient levels of ozone, hydroxyl radical (OH) reactivity, and the organic component of fine particulate matter (PM) in Pasadena, California. A near-field model, which estimates human chemical exposure during or in the vicinity of product use, indicates these high air emissions are consistent with organic product usage up to ~75 kg person yr, and inhalation of consumer products could be a non-negligible exposure pathway. After constraining the PM yield to 5% by mass, VCPs produce ~41% of the photochemical organic PM (1.1 ± 0.3 g m) and ~17% of maximum daily 8-hr average ozone (9 ± 2 ppb) in summer Los Angeles. Therefore, both toxicity and ambient criteria pollutant formation should be considered when organic substituents are developed for VCPs in pursuit of safer and sustainable products and cleaner air.

Exposure to disasters and other extreme events is rising across the globe but the impact on long-term mortality risks of affected populations is not established. We examine how mortality and individual-specific traumatic exposures at the time of the disaster affect mortality risks of survivors over the next ten years, using data from Aceh, Indonesia collected before and after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Across communities, the higher the percentage of individuals killed in the tsunami, the lower the mortality rate for adults over the next decade. However, among older adults post-disaster mortality is elevated for males with poor post-tsunami psychosocial health and for females whose spouse died in the tsunami. Individual-specific tsunami exposures do not affect mortality of younger adults within the 10 year time frame. Whereas positive mortality selection is evident for all adults, scarring is evident only for older adults and is large enough to substantively counteract the reductions in risk from positive mortality selection.

Recent evidence suggests that snail predators may aid efforts to control the human parasitic disease schistosomiasis by eating aquatic snail species that serve as intermediate hosts of the parasite. Potential synergies between schistosomiasis control and aquaculture of giant prawns are evaluated using an integrated bio-economic-epidemiologic model. Combinations of stocking density and aquaculture cycle length that maximize cumulative, discounted profit are identified for two prawn species in sub-Saharan Africa: the endemic, non-domesticated , and the non-native, domesticated . At profit maximizing densities, both and may substantially reduce intermediate host snail populations and aid schistosomiasis control efforts. Control strategies drawing on both prawn aquaculture to reduce intermediate host snail populations and mass drug administration to treat infected individuals are found to be superior to either strategy alone. Integrated aquaculture-based interventions can be a win-win strategy in terms of health and sustainable development in schistosomiasis endemic regions of the world.

Electrification of passenger road transport and household heating features prominently in current and planned policy frameworks to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. However, since electricity generation involves using fossil fuels, it is not established where and when the replacement of fossil fuel-based technologies by electric cars and heat pumps can effectively reduce overall emissions. Could electrification policy backfire by promoting their diffusion before electricity is decarbonised? Here, we analyse current and future emissions trade-offs in 59 world regions with heterogeneous households, by combining forward-looking integrated assessment model simulations with bottom-up life-cycle assessment. We show that already under current carbon intensities of electricity generation, electric cars and heat pumps are less emission-intensive than fossil fuel-based alternatives in 53 world regions, representing 95% of global transport and heating demand. Even if future end-use electrification is not matched by rapid power sector decarbonisation, it likely avoids emissions in almost all world regions.

Under current trends, 60% of India's population (>10% of people on Earth) will experience severe food deficiencies by 2050. Increased production is urgently needed, but high costs and volatile prices are driving farmers into debt. Zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) is a grassroots movement that aims to improve farm viability by reducing costs. In Andhra Pradesh alone, 523,000 farmers have converted 13% of productive agricultural area to ZBNF. However, sustainability of ZBNF is questioned because external nutrient inputs are limited, which could cause a crash in food production. Here, we show that ZBNF is likely to reduce soil degradation and could provide yield benefits for low-input farmers. Nitrogen fixation, either by free-living nitrogen fixers in soil or symbiotic nitrogen fixers in legumes, is likely to provide the major portion of nitrogen available to crops. However, even with maximum potential nitrogen fixation and release, only 52-80% of the national average nitrogen applied as fertilizer is expected to be supplied. Therefore, in higher-input systems, yield penalties are likely. Since biological fixation from the atmosphere is possible only with nitrogen, ZBNF could limit the supply of other nutrients. Further research is needed in higher-input systems to ensure that mass conversion to ZBNF does not limit India's capacity to feed itself.

Pesticides have underpinned significant improvements in global food security, albeit with associated environmental costs. Currently, the yield benefits of pesticides are threatened as overuse has led to wide-scale evolution of resistance. Yet despite this threat, there are no large-scale estimates of crop yield losses or economic costs due to resistance. Here, we combine national-scale density and resistance data for the weed (black-grass) with crop yield maps and a new economic model to estimate that the annual cost of resistance in England is £0.4bn in lost gross profit (2014 prices), and annual wheat yield loss due to resistance is 0.8 million tonnes. A total loss of herbicide control against black-grass would cost £1bn and 3.4 million tonnes of lost wheat yield annually. Worldwide, there are 253 herbicide-resistant weeds, so the global impact of resistance could be enormous. Our research provides an urgent case for national-scale planning to combat further evolution of resistance, and an incentive for policies focused on increasing yields through more sustainable food-production systems rather than relying so heavily on herbicides.

Household solid fuel (biomass, coal) burning contributes to climate change and is a leading health risk factor. How and why households stop using solid fuel stoves after adopting clean fuels has not been studied. We assessed trends in the uptake, use, and suspension of household stoves and fuels in a multi-provincial cohort study of 753 Chinese adults and evaluated determinants of clean fuel uptake and solid fuel suspension. Over one-third (35%) and one-fifth (17%) of participants suspended use of solid fuel for cooking and heating, respectively, during the past 20 years. Determinants of solid fuel suspension (younger age, widowed) and of earlier suspension (younger age, higher education, and poor self-reported health status) differed from the determinants of clean fuel uptake (younger age, higher income, smaller households, and retired) and of earlier adoption (higher income). Clean fuel adoption and solid fuel suspension warrant joint consideration as indicators of household energy transition. Household energy research and planning efforts that more closely examine solid fuel suspension may accelerate household energy transitions that benefit climate and human health.

"Sustainability", "resilience", and other terms group under the heading of "stability." Their ubiquity speaks to a vital need to characterise changes in complex social and environmental systems. In a bewildering array of terms, practical measurements are essential to permit comparisons and so untangle underlying relationships.

Natural gas has become the largest fuel source for electricity generation in the United States and accounts for a third of energy production and consumption. However, the environmental and socioeconomic impacts across the supply chain and over the boom-and-bust cycle have not been comprehensively characterized. To provide insight for long-term decision making for energy transitions, we estimate the cumulative impacts of the shale gas boom in the Appalachian basin from 2004 to 2016 on air quality, climate change, and employment. We find that air quality impacts (1200 to 4600 deaths; $23B +99%/-164%) and employment impacts (469,000 job-years ±30%; $21B ±30%) follow the boom-and-bust cycle, while climate impacts ($12B to $94B) persist for generations well beyond the period of natural gas activity. Employment effects concentrate in rural areas where production occurs. However, almost half of cumulative premature mortality due to air pollution is downwind of these areas, occurring in urban regions of the Northeast. The cumulative temperature impacts of methane and carbon dioxide over a 30-year time horizon are nearly equivalent, but over the long term, the cumulative climate impact is largely due to carbon dioxide. We estimate that a tax on production of $2 per thousand cubic foot (+172%/-76%) would compensate for cumulative climate and air quality externalities across the supply chain.

Measuring the full set of society's assets is critical to the design of policies for a sustainable future.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0563-0.].

A panel of leading global experts working at the forefront of battery research and applications shares insights into how further development of this critical energy technology can effectively integrate sustainability principles.

A prominent goal of policies mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss is to achieve zero-deforestation in the global supply chain of key commodities, such as palm oil and soybean. However, the extent and dynamics of deforestation driven by commodity expansion are largely unknown. Here we mapped annual soybean expansion in South America between 2000 and 2019 by combining satellite observations and sample field data. From 2000-2019, the area cultivated with soybean more than doubled from 26.4 Mha to 55.1 Mha. Most soybean expansion occurred on pastures originally converted from natural vegetation for cattle production. The most rapid expansion occurred in the Brazilian Amazon, where soybean area increased more than 10-fold, from 0.4 Mha to 4.6 Mha. Across the continent, 9% of forest loss was converted to soybean by 2016. Soy-driven deforestation was concentrated at the active frontiers, nearly half located in the Brazilian Cerrado. Efforts to limit future deforestation must consider how soybean expansion may drive deforestation indirectly by displacing pasture or other land uses. Holistic approaches that track land use across all commodities coupled with vegetation monitoring are required to maintain critical ecosystem services.