Browse Items (128 total)
- Collection: Environmental Systems & Societies
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Before we drown we may die of thirst
The island nation of Kiribati is one of the world's most vulnerable to rising sea levels. But residents may have to leave well before the ocean claims their homes.
Australia is ‘free to choose’ economic growth and falling environmental pressures
A multi-model framework that accounts for climate, water, energy, food, biodiversity and economic activity in Australia reveals that a sustainable society that enjoys economic improvement without ecological deterioration is possible, but that…
Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming
Whether or not an increase in meltwater will make ice sheets move more quickly has been contentious, because water lubricates the ice–rock interface and speeds up the ice, but also stimulates the development of efficient drainage; now, a long-term…
Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate extremes
Data from experiments that manipulated grassland biodiversity across Europe and North America show that biodiversity increases an ecosystem’s resistance to, although not resilience after, climate extremes.
The vulnerability of Indo-Pacific mangrove forests to sea-level rise
Assessment of mangrove forest surface elevation changes across the Indo-Pacific coastal region finds that almost 70 per cent of the sites studied do not have enough sediment availability to offset predicted sea-level rise; modelling indicates that…
The multi-millennial Antarctic commitment to future sea-level rise
Despite computational and methodological uncertainties, and a wide range of potential greenhouse gas emissions, here millennial-scale simulations of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a warming climate show that most of Antarctica’s fringing ice shelves will…
The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale
Investigation of premature mortality by seven emission sources of atmospheric pollutants shows that outdoor air pollution, mostly by fine particulate matter, leads to more than three million premature deaths per year worldwide, which could double by…
A marine biogenic source of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles
The presence of ice in clouds can influence cloud lifetime, precipitation and radiative properties; here, organic material at the sea–air interface, possibly associated with phytoplankton cell exudates, is shown to nucleate ice under conditions…
Genetic evidence for two founding populations of the Americas
Previous genetic studies have suggested that the Americas were peopled by a single founding population of Eurasian origin, but a genome-wide study of 30 Native American groups shows that Amazonian Native Americans also have a second source of…
Global exchange and accumulation of non-native plants
A global database of alien plants, showing that over 13,000 species, nearly 4% of the global flora, have become naturalized in a new location.
Broad plumes rooted at the base of the Earth's mantle beneath major hotspots
A whole-mantle seismic imaging technique, combining accurate wavefield computations with information contained in whole seismic waveforms, is used to reveal the presence of broad conduits beneath many of Earth’s surface hotspots, supporting the idea…
Global separation of plant transpiration from groundwater and streamflow
Soil water is usually assumed to be equally available for all purposes, supplying plant transpiration as well as groundwater and streamflow; however, a study of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes from 47 globally distributed sites shows that in fact the…
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Aleksander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Contract
Bulgaria suffered a swift and devastating defeat in the First World War, due, G.D. Sheppard argues, to its peasant leader-in-waiting’s shrewd use of…