The absence of vegetation in urban areas contributes to the establishment of the urban heat island, markedly increasing thermal stress for residents, driving morbidity and mortality. Mitigation strategies are, therefore, needed to reduce urban heat, particularly against a background of urbanization, anthropogenic warming and increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves. In this Review, we evaluate

An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes how glacier–rock interactions could fuel chemosynthetic primary production in Icelandic sediments.

An article in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta reports a Nd-isotope record of terrestrial dust from northern Tibetan Plateau sediments since 52 Ma, revealing insight into regional uplift and climate changes from inland Asia.

The increasing availability of satellite data at higher spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions is enabling new applications in agriculture and economic development, including agricultural insurance. Yet, effectively using satellite data in this context requires blending technical knowledge about their capabilities and limitations with an understanding of their influence on the value of risk-reduction

An article in Nature Climate Change outlines how the connection between the North Atlantic Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation might break down under a warming climate.

An article in Geomorphology examines the role of plants in coastal sand dune formation through wind tunnel experiments and field observations.

Short-duration (1–3 h) rainfall extremes can cause serious damage to societies through rapidly developing (flash) flooding and are determined by complex, multifaceted processes that are altering as Earth’s climate warms. In this Review, we examine evidence from observational, theoretical and modelling studies for the intensification of these rainfall extremes, the drivers and the impact on flash flooding

Join us in celebrating the first anniversary of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.

To celebrate the first anniversary of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, we asked five researchers investigating solid Earth processes to outline notable developments within their discipline and provide thoughts on important work yet to be done.

To celebrate the first anniversary of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, we asked six researchers investigating Earth surface processes to outline notable developments within their discipline and provide thoughts on important work yet to be done.

To celebrate the first anniversary of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, we asked six researchers investigating weather and climate to outline notable developments within their discipline and provide thoughts on important work yet to be done.

Life on Earth has existed for over 3.5 billion years and has caused fundamental changes in Earth’s biogeochemistry. However, the timing and impact of major events in the evolution of the biosphere are hotly contested, owing partially to the inherent difficulty in studying events that occurred in deep time. In this Review, we discuss the evolving structure of Earth’s biosphere and major changes in its

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-00134-8.

An article in Geophysical Research Letters reports that pCO2 levels at the surface of Taal Volcano crater lake can be used to continuously monitor volcanic CO2 flux, which could help provide important insights for eruption monitoring.

An article in Global Change Biology characterizes the diversity and abundance of biogenic volatile organic compounds from two coral species.

An article in Chemical Geology reports the use of magnesium and lithium isotopes to track olivine weathering in soils.

Coastal subsidence contributes to relative sea-level rise and exacerbates flooding hazards, with the at-risk population expected to triple by 2070. Natural processes of vertical land motion, such as tectonics, glacial isostatic adjustment and sediment compaction, as well as anthropogenic processes, such as fluid extraction, lead to globally variable subsidence rates. In this Review, we discuss the

An article in the Journal of Hydrology reports the impact of coal mining on groundwater resources and vegetation greenness in Inner Mongolia, China.

As the first year of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment draws to an end, we celebrate the successes and reflect on the areas of improvement needed for volume two and beyond. Thank you to all our authors, peer reviewers and readers.

Owing to a lack of understanding, and data being unavailable, unusable or unsuitable, weather and climate information is currently underutilized in Sustainable Development Goal implementation. Improvements are essential in knowledge brokering, clarifying responsibilities, multi-institutional and multi-stakeholder governance arrangements and research on systemic risks and decisions.

Beach nourishment — the addition of sand to increase the width or sand volume of the beach — is a widespread coastal management technique to counteract coastal erosion. Globally, rising sea levels, storms and diminishing sand supplies threaten beaches and the recreational, ecosystem, groundwater and flood protection services they provide. Consequently, beach nourishment practices have evolved from

Despite decades of observational, laboratory and theoretical studies, the processes leading to large earthquake generation remain enigmatic. However, recent observations provide new promising perspectives that advance knowledge. Here, we review data on the initiation processes of large earthquakes and show that they are multiscale and diverse, involving localization of deformation, fault heterogeneities

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Since the 1970s, ferromagnetic minerals were believed to be absent in the Earth’s mantle and, even if present, the temperatures were considered too high for such phases to carry magnetic remanence. However, new experimental data, measurements on mantle xenoliths and an improved understanding of long-wavelength features in aeromagnetic data require that the magnetization of the mantle be revisited.

Intermediate glacial states were characterized by large temperature changes in Greenland and the North Atlantic, referred to as Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) variability, with some transitions occurring over a few decades. D–O variability included changes in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), temperature changes of opposite sign and asynchronous timing in each hemisphere

The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident, Japan, released the largest quantity of radionuclides into the terrestrial environment since the 1986 accident at Chernobyl. This accident resulted in 2.7 PBq of radiocaesium (137Cs) contaminated forests, agricultural lands, grasslands and urban areas, which subsequently migrated through soil and waterways in the Fukushima Prefecture

Wind energy is a virtually carbon-free and pollution-free electricity source, with global wind resources greatly exceeding electricity demand. Accordingly, the installed capacity of wind turbines grew at an annualized rate of >20% from 2000 to 2019 and is projected to increase by a further 50% by the end of 2023. In this Review, we describe the factors that dictate the wind resource magnitude and variability

Turbulent mixing from breaking oceanic internal waves drives a vertical transport of water, heat and other climatically important tracers in the ocean, thereby playing an important role in shaping the circulation and distributions of heat and carbon within the climate system. However, linking internal wave-driven mixing to its impacts on climate poses a formidable challenge, since it requires understanding

Erosional landscapes transport sediment downstream, host natural hazards and are geologically active. While perturbations in external forcing, particularly climate and tectonics, sculpt erosional landscapes, similar landforms can be created by internal dynamics, that is, feedbacks between topography, erosion and sediment transport that occur independent of external perturbations. Internal system responses

Tectonic or subduction erosion refers to the removal of upper-plate material from the forearc at convergent margins. Subduction erosion has been suggested to represent a major process associated with the transfer of crustal material into the Earth’s mantle at subduction zones. However, few studies have attempted to trace the fate of eroded forearc crust beneath volcanic arcs, where the eroded crust

The use of cement and concrete, among the most widely used man-made materials, is under scrutiny. Owing to their large-scale use, production of cement and concrete results in substantial emission of greenhouse gases and places strain on the availability of natural resources, such as water. Projected urbanization over the next 50–100 years therefore indicates that the demand for cement and concrete

Soils under natural, tropical forests provide essential ecosystem services that have been shaped by long-term soil–vegetation feedbacks. However, deforestation of tropical forest, with a net rate of 5.5 million hectares annually in 2010–2015, profoundly impacts soil properties and functions. Reforestation is also prominent in the tropics, again altering the state and functioning of the underlying soils

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports provide policy-relevant insights about climate impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation through a process of peer-reviewed literature assessments underpinned by expert judgement. An iconic output from these assessments is the burning embers diagram, first used in the Third Assessment Report to visualize reasons for concern, which aggregate

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Soil health is the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans, and connects agricultural and soil science to policy, stakeholder needs and sustainable supply-chain management. Historically, soil assessments focused on crop production, but, today, soil health also includes the role of soil in water quality, climate change and human health

Vegetation fires are an essential component of the Earth system but can also cause substantial economic losses, severe air pollution, human mortality and environmental damage. Contemporary fire regimes are increasingly impacted by human activities and climate change, but, owing to the complex fire–human–climate interactions and incomplete historical or long-term datasets, it is difficult to detect

The South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is a diagonal band of intense rainfall and deep atmospheric convection extending from the equator to the subtropical South Pacific. Displacement of the SPCZ causes variability in rainfall, tropical-cyclone activity and sea level that affects South Pacific island populations and surrounding ecosystems. In this Review, we synthesize recent advances in understanding

Geophysical remote-sensing methods, particularly seismology, provide an incredibly detailed view of the structure and composition of Earth’s mantle. The seismic velocity structure of the deep mantle can be used, in theory, to constrain its temperature, mineralogy and composition. However, inversion of the mantle velocity structure relies on quantitative knowledge of the elastic properties of Earth’s

Tropical fisheries substantially contribute to the well-being of societies in both the tropics and the extratropics, the latter through ‘telecoupling’ — linkages between distant human–natural systems. Tropical marine habitats and fish stocks, however, are vulnerable to the physical and biogeochemical oceanic changes associated with rising greenhouse gases. These changes to fish stocks, and subsequent

Restrictions to reduce human interaction have helped to avoid greater suffering and death from the COVID-19 pandemic, but have also created socioeconomic hardship. This disruption is unprecedented in the modern era of global observing networks, pervasive sensing and large-scale tracking of human mobility and behaviour, creating a unique test bed for understanding the Earth System. In this Perspective

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are prolonged extreme oceanic warm water events. They can have devastating impacts on marine ecosystems — for example, causing mass coral bleaching and substantial declines in kelp forests and seagrass meadows — with implications for the provision of ecological goods and services. Effective adaptation and mitigation efforts by marine managers can benefit from improved MHW predictions

In the most destructive and catastrophic landslide events, rocks, soil and fluids can travel at speeds approaching several tens of metres per second. However, many landslides, commonly referred to as slow-moving landslides, creep at rates ranging from millimetres to several metres per year and can persist for years to decades. Although slow-moving landslides rarely claim lives, they can cause major

Through the Desert Garden program, scientists and refugees have turned two problems — the inability to grow fresh fruits and vegetables in desert refugee camps and a warehouse of unrecyclable foam mattresses — into a humanitarian solution.

Climate change is one of the most severe threats to global lake ecosystems. Lake surface conditions, such as ice cover, surface temperature, evaporation and water level, respond dramatically to this threat, as observed in recent decades. In this Review, we discuss physical lake variables and their responses to climate change. Decreases in winter ice cover and increases in lake surface temperature modify

Soils are sources of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) globally, but emissions from permafrost-affected soils have been considered negligible owing to nitrogen (N) limitation. Recent measurements of N2O emissions have challenged this view, showing that vegetated soils in permafrost regions are often small but evident sources of N2O during the growing season (~30 μg N2O–N m−2 day−1). Moreover

Pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) are dangerous multiphase flows originating from volcanic eruptions. PDCs cause more than a third of volcanic fatalities globally and, therefore, development of robust PDC hazard models is a priority in volcanology and natural hazard science. However, the complexity of gas–particle interactions inside PDCs, as well as their hostile nature, makes quantitative measurements

The efforts of early career researchers are many and varied, but how they are acknowledged requires improvement. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment is now part of a peer review trial to include, train and acknowledge early career referees. The efforts of early career researchers are many and varied, but how they are acknowledged requires improvement. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment is now part of

Agricultural soil is a non-renewable natural resource that requires careful stewardship in order to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. However, industrial and agricultural activity is often detrimental to soil health and can distribute heavy metal(loid)s into the soil environment, with harmful effects on human and ecosystem health. In this Review, we examine processes that can

The Carbon Neutrality Challenge is an initiative to mitigate climate change, in which individuals estimate their CO2 footprint and then plant enough trees to offset it. Thousands of trees have been planted by volunteers in Hawaii who took the Carbon Neutrality Challenge.

Compound weather and climate events describe combinations of multiple climate drivers and/or hazards that contribute to societal or environmental risk. Although many climate-related disasters are caused by compound events, the understanding, analysis, quantification and prediction of such events is still in its infancy. In this Review, we propose a typology of compound events and suggest analytical

Mountain building results in high erosion rates and the interaction of rocks with the atmosphere, water and life. Carbon transfers that result from increased erosion could control the evolution of Earth’s long-term climate. For decades, attention has focused on the hypothesized role of mountain building in drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) via silicate weathering. However, it is now recognized

Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) describe organized groupings of thunderstorms in the tropics and mid-latitudes that span thousands of square kilometres. While recognized for over a century, the advent of satellite and radar observations, as well as atmospheric-model simulations, has brought about their increased understanding. In this Review, we synthesize current knowledge on MCS formation, climatological

Human activities have altered the state of the ocean, leading to warming, acidification and deoxygenation. These changes impact ocean biogeochemistry and influence ecosystem functions and ocean health. The long-term global effects of these changes are difficult to predict using current satellite sensing and traditional in situ observation techniques. Autonomous platforms equipped with biogeochemical

As recently as 2015, it was common in the scientific literature to find assertions that the risk of triggering a damaging earthquake by hydraulic fracturing (HF) — an industrial process where pressurized fluids are used to create or open fractures within rock layers — could be treated as negligible. However, that viewpoint has changed dramatically. It is now clear that the hazard from induced seismicity

Stratospheric ozone depletion, first observed in the 1980s, has been caused by the increased production and use of substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halons and other chlorine-containing and bromine-containing compounds, collectively termed ozone-depleting substances (ODSs). Following controls on the production of major, long-lived ODSs by the Montreal Protocol, the ozone layer is now showing

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.