Pub Date : 2024-09-04DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01424-5
Angelo C. Gurgel, Joaquim E. A. Seabra, Sofia M. Arantes, Marcelo M. R. Moreira, Lee R. Lynd, Rosana Galindo
Sustainable energy and food production can include double-cropping where two crops are produced sequentially on land required for one crop to maximize resource use. In Brazil, this system involves maize being planted as a second crop following soybean to generate ethanol, thus allowing for combined food–energy production. However, the impacts of such production systems on several sustainable development goals (SDG) and associated indirect land-use changes have not yet fully been explored. We evaluate the fast-expanding food–energy system of double-cropped maize ethanol in the Central-West region of Brazil with respect to SDG impacts, combining life-cycle environmental and computable general equilibrium socio-economic models. We find that this system provides renewable and affordable energy (5 billion litres of ethanol, 600 GWh of electrical power) and feed (4 million tons of distillers dried grains), reduces greenhouse gas emissions (9.3 million to 13.2 million tCO2e), saves land (160,000 ha), boosts regional income and consumption, improves food security and benefits ecosystems and human health. Underlying drivers associated with this were the integration of feedstock supply into existing practices and the use of eucalyptus chips to provide process energy. The sustainability of this production system is improved further by carbon capture and storage. Combined food–energy production systems can help improve resource-use efficiency, but the extent to which such systems contribute to sustainable development has not yet been fully explored. This study evaluates this system in double-cropped maize ethanol production in Brazil.
{"title":"Contribution of double-cropped maize ethanol in Brazil to sustainable development","authors":"Angelo C. Gurgel, Joaquim E. A. Seabra, Sofia M. Arantes, Marcelo M. R. Moreira, Lee R. Lynd, Rosana Galindo","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01424-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01424-5","url":null,"abstract":"Sustainable energy and food production can include double-cropping where two crops are produced sequentially on land required for one crop to maximize resource use. In Brazil, this system involves maize being planted as a second crop following soybean to generate ethanol, thus allowing for combined food–energy production. However, the impacts of such production systems on several sustainable development goals (SDG) and associated indirect land-use changes have not yet fully been explored. We evaluate the fast-expanding food–energy system of double-cropped maize ethanol in the Central-West region of Brazil with respect to SDG impacts, combining life-cycle environmental and computable general equilibrium socio-economic models. We find that this system provides renewable and affordable energy (5 billion litres of ethanol, 600 GWh of electrical power) and feed (4 million tons of distillers dried grains), reduces greenhouse gas emissions (9.3 million to 13.2 million tCO2e), saves land (160,000 ha), boosts regional income and consumption, improves food security and benefits ecosystems and human health. Underlying drivers associated with this were the integration of feedstock supply into existing practices and the use of eucalyptus chips to provide process energy. The sustainability of this production system is improved further by carbon capture and storage. Combined food–energy production systems can help improve resource-use efficiency, but the extent to which such systems contribute to sustainable development has not yet been fully explored. This study evaluates this system in double-cropped maize ethanol production in Brazil.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 11","pages":"1429-1440"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01424-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As the most abundant and renewable biopolymer, cellulose has found applications in a range of fields such as healthcare, packaging, electronics and environmental remediation, contributing to the transition towards sustainability. Here we apply a green and scalable process transforming cellulose to a robust electrolyte exhibiting lithium (Li) ion conductivity of 1.09 × 10−3 S cm−1 with a transference number of 0.81 and mechanical strength of 12 MPa. Our process takes advantage of the rich hydroxyl groups in the cellulose which are replaced by phthalic anhydride through an esterification reaction to form cellulose phthalate (CP). Combined experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that the introduction of phthalate groups is essential to not only ensure effective multi-oxygen interaction with Li ions to create fast ion transportation channels, but also facilitates the intermolecular hydrogen bond responsible for the impressive mechanical properties. The CP biopolymer film is even compatible with most commercial cathode materials, and our solid-state Li/CP/LiFePO4 cells show better performance and notably good stability over 1,000 cycles than that of a baseline Li-ion cell with a flammable organic liquid electrolyte. Our study unlocks the enormous potential of cellulose utilization in batteries and opens an avenue for the development of abundant and sustainable solid-state electrolytes. Cellulose is the most abundant renewable biopolymer resource in nature. Here the authors convert cellulose to an electrolyte through molecular engineering showing good performance in solid-state Li-ion batteries.
{"title":"Molecular engineering of renewable cellulose biopolymers for solid-state battery electrolytes","authors":"Jinyang Li, Ziyang Hu, Sidong Zhang, Hongshen Zhang, Sijie Guo, Guiming Zhong, Yan Qiao, Zhangquan Peng, Yutao Li, Shuguang Chen, GuanHua Chen, An-Min Cao","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01414-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01414-7","url":null,"abstract":"As the most abundant and renewable biopolymer, cellulose has found applications in a range of fields such as healthcare, packaging, electronics and environmental remediation, contributing to the transition towards sustainability. Here we apply a green and scalable process transforming cellulose to a robust electrolyte exhibiting lithium (Li) ion conductivity of 1.09 × 10−3 S cm−1 with a transference number of 0.81 and mechanical strength of 12 MPa. Our process takes advantage of the rich hydroxyl groups in the cellulose which are replaced by phthalic anhydride through an esterification reaction to form cellulose phthalate (CP). Combined experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that the introduction of phthalate groups is essential to not only ensure effective multi-oxygen interaction with Li ions to create fast ion transportation channels, but also facilitates the intermolecular hydrogen bond responsible for the impressive mechanical properties. The CP biopolymer film is even compatible with most commercial cathode materials, and our solid-state Li/CP/LiFePO4 cells show better performance and notably good stability over 1,000 cycles than that of a baseline Li-ion cell with a flammable organic liquid electrolyte. Our study unlocks the enormous potential of cellulose utilization in batteries and opens an avenue for the development of abundant and sustainable solid-state electrolytes. Cellulose is the most abundant renewable biopolymer resource in nature. Here the authors convert cellulose to an electrolyte through molecular engineering showing good performance in solid-state Li-ion batteries.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 11","pages":"1481-1491"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-02DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01421-8
Malte Ladewig, Arild Angelsen, Robert N. Masolele, Colas Chervier
The discovery of valuable minerals in the mineral-abundant eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo can stimulate extensive migration into remote areas of the Congo Basin rainforest. Despite the widespread practice of artisanal mining, its role in the ongoing deforestation has not received adequate attention. Using difference-in-differences estimation, we show that artisanal mining triggers deforestation at least 5 km from mining sites. Within this distance, the onset of mining causes an additional 4 percentage points of forest loss after 10 years. In total, the indirect deforestation caused by mining through the expansion of other land uses is 28 times larger than the forest area directly cleared for mining. Most of this loss is caused by increased farming around mines, followed by forest cleared for settlements. These indirect effects reveal a much larger role played by artisanal mining in deforestation dynamics than previously assumed and explain at least 6.6% of the total deforestation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. A wealth of critical minerals has driven widespread artisanal mining in the Congo Basin, bringing with it the risk of deforestation. Statistical analysis of remote-sensing data reveals that mining-associated deforestation is dominated by indirect factors, land-use change to support mining communities, rather than the direct impacts of the onset of mining.
{"title":"Deforestation triggered by artisanal mining in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo","authors":"Malte Ladewig, Arild Angelsen, Robert N. Masolele, Colas Chervier","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01421-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01421-8","url":null,"abstract":"The discovery of valuable minerals in the mineral-abundant eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo can stimulate extensive migration into remote areas of the Congo Basin rainforest. Despite the widespread practice of artisanal mining, its role in the ongoing deforestation has not received adequate attention. Using difference-in-differences estimation, we show that artisanal mining triggers deforestation at least 5 km from mining sites. Within this distance, the onset of mining causes an additional 4 percentage points of forest loss after 10 years. In total, the indirect deforestation caused by mining through the expansion of other land uses is 28 times larger than the forest area directly cleared for mining. Most of this loss is caused by increased farming around mines, followed by forest cleared for settlements. These indirect effects reveal a much larger role played by artisanal mining in deforestation dynamics than previously assumed and explain at least 6.6% of the total deforestation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. A wealth of critical minerals has driven widespread artisanal mining in the Congo Basin, bringing with it the risk of deforestation. Statistical analysis of remote-sensing data reveals that mining-associated deforestation is dominated by indirect factors, land-use change to support mining communities, rather than the direct impacts of the onset of mining.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 11","pages":"1452-1460"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-29DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01419-2
We introduce a globally consistent, dynamic approach to ecological zoning, representing broad, homogeneous natural-vegetation formations via the Holdridge life zones. Our scheme directly addresses some of the shortcomings in the existing guidance provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
{"title":"A new approach to ecological zoning of the Earth in a changing climate","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01419-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01419-2","url":null,"abstract":"We introduce a globally consistent, dynamic approach to ecological zoning, representing broad, homogeneous natural-vegetation formations via the Holdridge life zones. Our scheme directly addresses some of the shortcomings in the existing guidance provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 10","pages":"1223-1224"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-29DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01416-5
Philip Audebert, Eleanor Milne, Laure-Sophie Schiettecatte, Daniel Dionisio, Maidie Sinitambirivoutin, Carolina Pais, Clara Proença, Martial Bernoux
As climate change accelerates, nations are moving towards meeting their nationally determined contributions and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reporting of this from the agriculture, forestry and other land use sector relies on data related to land use and management, climate and soil type. Where such data are unavailable, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a set of default factors, based on an extensive literature review of likely GHG emission factors and carbon stock changes disaggregated by the Food and Agriculture Organization’s global ecological zones. As understanding of global ecological zones under environmental change improves, it becomes necessary to reassess such ecological zoning approaches to enable reporting of GHG emissions to support nationally determined contributions and global change studies. Here we propose a globally consistent ecological zoning approach based on Holdridge life zones using climatic data from the Climate Research Unit on a 0.5° grid, which tackles certain limitations found in the existing guidance provided by the IPCC. A set of three global ecological zone maps based on Holdridge life zones were devised using increasing levels of aggregation, which could support sustainability studies of global environmental change, specifically climate change, and be used as a zoning approach by the IPCC. Climate change policy and global change studies rely on maps that classify the world into different ecological zones. This study updates current approaches to ecological zoning of the world to ensure that consistent data are provided for such sustainability-related policy and studies.
{"title":"Ecological zoning for climate policy and global change studies","authors":"Philip Audebert, Eleanor Milne, Laure-Sophie Schiettecatte, Daniel Dionisio, Maidie Sinitambirivoutin, Carolina Pais, Clara Proença, Martial Bernoux","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01416-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01416-5","url":null,"abstract":"As climate change accelerates, nations are moving towards meeting their nationally determined contributions and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reporting of this from the agriculture, forestry and other land use sector relies on data related to land use and management, climate and soil type. Where such data are unavailable, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a set of default factors, based on an extensive literature review of likely GHG emission factors and carbon stock changes disaggregated by the Food and Agriculture Organization’s global ecological zones. As understanding of global ecological zones under environmental change improves, it becomes necessary to reassess such ecological zoning approaches to enable reporting of GHG emissions to support nationally determined contributions and global change studies. Here we propose a globally consistent ecological zoning approach based on Holdridge life zones using climatic data from the Climate Research Unit on a 0.5° grid, which tackles certain limitations found in the existing guidance provided by the IPCC. A set of three global ecological zone maps based on Holdridge life zones were devised using increasing levels of aggregation, which could support sustainability studies of global environmental change, specifically climate change, and be used as a zoning approach by the IPCC. Climate change policy and global change studies rely on maps that classify the world into different ecological zones. This study updates current approaches to ecological zoning of the world to ensure that consistent data are provided for such sustainability-related policy and studies.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 10","pages":"1294-1303"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-28DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01407-6
Lei Shi, Huiyuan Zhu
Recovering ammonia from industrial wastewater via nitrate-to-ammonia reduction for a more sustainable nitrogen cycle faces challenges due to complex wastewater matrices and suboptimal reactor design. Now, research presents a membrane-free electrolysis system that enables efficient and stable ammonia recovery from actual wastewater.
{"title":"En route to a circular nitrogen economy","authors":"Lei Shi, Huiyuan Zhu","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01407-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01407-6","url":null,"abstract":"Recovering ammonia from industrial wastewater via nitrate-to-ammonia reduction for a more sustainable nitrogen cycle faces challenges due to complex wastewater matrices and suboptimal reactor design. Now, research presents a membrane-free electrolysis system that enables efficient and stable ammonia recovery from actual wastewater.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 10","pages":"1221-1222"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The growing global capacity for renewable energy generation necessitates the deployment of energy storage technologies with a combination of low cost, good performance and scalability. With these advantages, aqueous organic flow batteries have the potential to be the system of choice because they could store energy from organic redox-active molecules. Here we report naphthalene derivatives as organic redox-active molecules that exhibit high solubility (~1.5 M) and a stable redox-active framework with no obvious capacity decay over 40 days (50 Ah l−1) in an air atmosphere in flow batteries. We report a battery that runs smoothly even under continuous airflow without obvious capacity decay for ~22 days (more than 600 cycles). A series of spectral analyses and theoretical calculations reveal that the dimethylamine scaffolds improve the water solubility and protect the active centre, ensuring the stability of the molecules during the charge and discharge process. Owing to the success in kilogramme-scale molecular synthesis, pilot-scale stack expansion with notable cycling stability over 270 cycles (~27 days) is attained. The cost benefit evidenced by technoeconomic analysis together with the stability even under open-air conditions indicates the practical value of the present molecular system in grid-scale energy storage. Redox flow batteries are solutions to cost-effective grid-scale energy storage. Here the authors report air-stable naphthalene-based redox-active molecules for scaled-up aqueous flow batteries.
{"title":"Air-stable naphthalene derivative-based electrolytes for sustainable aqueous flow batteries","authors":"Ziming Zhao, Tianyu Li, Changkun Zhang, Mengqi Zhang, Shenghai Li, Xianfeng Li","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01415-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01415-6","url":null,"abstract":"The growing global capacity for renewable energy generation necessitates the deployment of energy storage technologies with a combination of low cost, good performance and scalability. With these advantages, aqueous organic flow batteries have the potential to be the system of choice because they could store energy from organic redox-active molecules. Here we report naphthalene derivatives as organic redox-active molecules that exhibit high solubility (~1.5 M) and a stable redox-active framework with no obvious capacity decay over 40 days (50 Ah l−1) in an air atmosphere in flow batteries. We report a battery that runs smoothly even under continuous airflow without obvious capacity decay for ~22 days (more than 600 cycles). A series of spectral analyses and theoretical calculations reveal that the dimethylamine scaffolds improve the water solubility and protect the active centre, ensuring the stability of the molecules during the charge and discharge process. Owing to the success in kilogramme-scale molecular synthesis, pilot-scale stack expansion with notable cycling stability over 270 cycles (~27 days) is attained. The cost benefit evidenced by technoeconomic analysis together with the stability even under open-air conditions indicates the practical value of the present molecular system in grid-scale energy storage. Redox flow batteries are solutions to cost-effective grid-scale energy storage. Here the authors report air-stable naphthalene-based redox-active molecules for scaled-up aqueous flow batteries.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 10","pages":"1273-1282"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-28DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01406-7
Gong Zhang, Binggong Li, Yanfeng Shi, Qi Zhou, Wen-Jie Fu, Gang Zhou, Jun Ma, Shuo Yin, Weihao Yuan, Shiyu Miao, Qinghua Ji, Jiuhui Qu, Huijuan Liu
Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction has great potential for simultaneously achieving ammonia recovery and nitrate-rich wastewater treatment. However, the complexity of wastewater matrices has long hampered its implementation and commercialization in the wastewater treatment industry. Here we develop a membrane-free electrochemical system, called electrochemical NO3− conversion synchronized with NH3 recovery (ECSN), which synchronizes nitrate reduction with ammonia recovery for treating real nitrate-rich wastewater. Key components of this system include a 3D-printed metallic glass decorated Cu–Ni (MPCN) working electrode bearing good corrosion resistance and a UV-assisted stripping unit. When treating real electroplating wastewater, the ECSN system converts over 70% of nitrate into high-purity ammonia chloride. Long-term stability test demonstrates the robustness of the ECSN system in treating real wastewater. Further, the economic feasibility and environmental benefits of this system are evidenced by technoeconomic analysis and life-cycle analysis. Overall, this work brings the electrocatalytic nitrate reduction process one step closer to practical application, contributing to both environmental protection and the circularity of anthropogenic nitrogen flow. Recovering ammonia from wastewater via electrochemical nitrate reduction would support a circular economy. Here the authors develop a membrane-free electrochemical system that allows efficient and robust ammonia recovery from real nitrate-rich wastewater.
{"title":"Ammonia recovery from nitrate-rich wastewater using a membrane-free electrochemical system","authors":"Gong Zhang, Binggong Li, Yanfeng Shi, Qi Zhou, Wen-Jie Fu, Gang Zhou, Jun Ma, Shuo Yin, Weihao Yuan, Shiyu Miao, Qinghua Ji, Jiuhui Qu, Huijuan Liu","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01406-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01406-7","url":null,"abstract":"Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction has great potential for simultaneously achieving ammonia recovery and nitrate-rich wastewater treatment. However, the complexity of wastewater matrices has long hampered its implementation and commercialization in the wastewater treatment industry. Here we develop a membrane-free electrochemical system, called electrochemical NO3− conversion synchronized with NH3 recovery (ECSN), which synchronizes nitrate reduction with ammonia recovery for treating real nitrate-rich wastewater. Key components of this system include a 3D-printed metallic glass decorated Cu–Ni (MPCN) working electrode bearing good corrosion resistance and a UV-assisted stripping unit. When treating real electroplating wastewater, the ECSN system converts over 70% of nitrate into high-purity ammonia chloride. Long-term stability test demonstrates the robustness of the ECSN system in treating real wastewater. Further, the economic feasibility and environmental benefits of this system are evidenced by technoeconomic analysis and life-cycle analysis. Overall, this work brings the electrocatalytic nitrate reduction process one step closer to practical application, contributing to both environmental protection and the circularity of anthropogenic nitrogen flow. Recovering ammonia from wastewater via electrochemical nitrate reduction would support a circular economy. Here the authors develop a membrane-free electrochemical system that allows efficient and robust ammonia recovery from real nitrate-rich wastewater.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 10","pages":"1251-1263"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-27DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01420-9
Cuihong Song, Jun-Jie Zhu, John L. Willis, Daniel P. Moore, Mark A. Zondlo, Zhiyong Jason Ren
Wastewater treatment is a major source of anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. However, the current emission estimations rely on a uniform emission factor (EF) proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change based on a limited database suffering from large uncertainties and inaccuracies. To address this limitation, this study expands the database 12-fold and develops a tier-based approach. Our method considers emission variations across spatial scales, treatment processes and monitoring techniques, enabling more-precise estimations. Here, applying this approach to the US database, we highlight the limitations of current estimations based on uniform EFs and quantified the mean wastewater N2O emission in the United States to be 11.6 MMT CO2-eq. The results also reveal the diverse nature of wastewater N2O emissions and underscore the need for a customized approach to inform facility-level N2O emission estimation as well as inform national- and sector-wide greenhouse gases inventories with emphasis on site-specific considerations. Overall, this study provides a tool to recalibrate the estimations of wastewater N2O emissions, which form the foundation of carbon footprint reduction in wastewater treatment. At present, methods to estimate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from wastewater treatment have intrinsic limitations leading to large uncertainties and inaccuracies. Here the authors introduce a tier-based approach to enable more-precise estimation of wastewater N2O emissions.
{"title":"Oversimplification and misestimation of nitrous oxide emissions from wastewater treatment plants","authors":"Cuihong Song, Jun-Jie Zhu, John L. Willis, Daniel P. Moore, Mark A. Zondlo, Zhiyong Jason Ren","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01420-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01420-9","url":null,"abstract":"Wastewater treatment is a major source of anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. However, the current emission estimations rely on a uniform emission factor (EF) proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change based on a limited database suffering from large uncertainties and inaccuracies. To address this limitation, this study expands the database 12-fold and develops a tier-based approach. Our method considers emission variations across spatial scales, treatment processes and monitoring techniques, enabling more-precise estimations. Here, applying this approach to the US database, we highlight the limitations of current estimations based on uniform EFs and quantified the mean wastewater N2O emission in the United States to be 11.6 MMT CO2-eq. The results also reveal the diverse nature of wastewater N2O emissions and underscore the need for a customized approach to inform facility-level N2O emission estimation as well as inform national- and sector-wide greenhouse gases inventories with emphasis on site-specific considerations. Overall, this study provides a tool to recalibrate the estimations of wastewater N2O emissions, which form the foundation of carbon footprint reduction in wastewater treatment. At present, methods to estimate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from wastewater treatment have intrinsic limitations leading to large uncertainties and inaccuracies. Here the authors introduce a tier-based approach to enable more-precise estimation of wastewater N2O emissions.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 10","pages":"1348-1358"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01420-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-27DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01417-4
Sean E. H. Pang, J. W. Ferry Slik, Ryan A. Chisholm, Edward L. Webb
The forests of Southeast Asia harbour high levels of species diversity, providing a plethora of ecosystem services. However, this biodiversity is threatened by both climate and land-use change, the impacts of which are poorly understood. We modelled 1,498 tree species distributions under four shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) with varying global change intensities, and classified species into 11 spatially associated groups. We found both global changes to cause severe losses in tree distributions. Only under SSP1–2.6, the sustainable pathway with low intensities in both global changes, were distribution losses mitigated. Unexpectedly, losses were overall greatest under intermediate climate change pathways SSP2–4.5 and SSP3–7.0 rather than under the most extreme pathway, SSP5–8.5. This was because, although climate-driven losses were greatest under SSP5–8.5, land-use-driven losses were much more extensive under SSP2–4.5 and SSP3–7.0 than under SSP5–8.5. Crucially, other than SSP1–2.6, each SSP led to worst-case scenarios for several species groups. Our findings highlight that to most effectively conserve Southeast Asian tree distributions, policymakers need to prioritize a sustainable pathway that mitigates both global changes. Global change drivers such as climate and land-use change can impact biodiverse regions and damage the ecosystem services they provide. This study assessed the impact of such global change drivers on tree species distributions across Southeast Asian forests.
{"title":"Conserving Southeast Asian trees requires mitigating both climate and land-use change","authors":"Sean E. H. Pang, J. W. Ferry Slik, Ryan A. Chisholm, Edward L. Webb","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01417-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01417-4","url":null,"abstract":"The forests of Southeast Asia harbour high levels of species diversity, providing a plethora of ecosystem services. However, this biodiversity is threatened by both climate and land-use change, the impacts of which are poorly understood. We modelled 1,498 tree species distributions under four shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) with varying global change intensities, and classified species into 11 spatially associated groups. We found both global changes to cause severe losses in tree distributions. Only under SSP1–2.6, the sustainable pathway with low intensities in both global changes, were distribution losses mitigated. Unexpectedly, losses were overall greatest under intermediate climate change pathways SSP2–4.5 and SSP3–7.0 rather than under the most extreme pathway, SSP5–8.5. This was because, although climate-driven losses were greatest under SSP5–8.5, land-use-driven losses were much more extensive under SSP2–4.5 and SSP3–7.0 than under SSP5–8.5. Crucially, other than SSP1–2.6, each SSP led to worst-case scenarios for several species groups. Our findings highlight that to most effectively conserve Southeast Asian tree distributions, policymakers need to prioritize a sustainable pathway that mitigates both global changes. Global change drivers such as climate and land-use change can impact biodiverse regions and damage the ecosystem services they provide. This study assessed the impact of such global change drivers on tree species distributions across Southeast Asian forests.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 10","pages":"1313-1323"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：