Mangrove-based carbon market projects: What stakeholders need to address during pre-feasibility assessment.

Mangrove-based carbon market projects (MbCMP) aim to conserve, protect and restore mangrove habitats in order to generate high quality blue carbon credits via a crediting program, as a contribution to climate change mitigation/adaptation, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services provision and local socio-economic development. The blue carbon credits generated are transferable, verifiable and sold through carbon markets to earn additional income for governments and local communities. The main aim of the paper is to provide important considerations for pre-field planning, that is, how challenges associated with fieldwork, project implementation, and monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) can be addressed with proper pre-field planning.

Warming-induced changes in seasonal priority effects drive shifts in community composition.

Shifting community assembly dynamics are an underappreciated mechanism by which warming will alter plant community composition. Germination timing (which can determine the order in which seedlings emerge within a community) will likely shift unevenly across species in response to warming. In seasonal environments where communities reassemble at the beginning of each growing season, changes in germination timing could lead to changes in seasonal priority effects, and ultimately community composition.

Indicators from The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Perspectives and Experience of City Leaders from 118 Cities.

Rapid urbanization and escalating climate crises place cities at the critical juncture of environmental and public health action. Urban areas are home to more than half of the global population, contributing ~ 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Structured surveys were completed by 191 leaders in city governments and civil society from 118 cities in 52 countries (February-April 2024).

Global spatiotemporal characterization factors for freshwater eutrophication under climate change scenarios.

Nutrient enrichment of water bodies can lead to eutrophication, which poses a global threat to freshwater ecosystems, affecting biodiversity and water quality. While human activities have accelerated eutrophication, climate change further complicates the dynamics of nutrient cycling and ecosystem responses. Here, we provide global, spatially explicit freshwater eutrophication characterization factors, at an annual resolution from 2021 up to 2099 based on eight different climate change scenarios.

Habitat suitability modeling and conservation status of Salvadora oleoides and Tamarix aphylla in tropical thorn forest.

The habitat suitability of Salvadora oleoides and Tamarix aphylla can be one of the most significant steps towards conserving these tree species. Habitat loss presents a critical threat to the existence of S. oleoides and T.

Nitrogen Deposition Weakens Soil Carbon Control of Nitrogen Dynamics Across the Contiguous United States.

Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition is unequally distributed across space and time, with inputs to terrestrial ecosystems impacted by industry regulations and variations in human activity. Soil carbon (C) content normally controls the fraction of mineralized N that is nitrified (ƒ), affecting N bioavailability for plants and microbes. However, it is unknown whether N deposition has modified the relationships among soil C, net N mineralization, and net nitrification.

Assessing inequities in electrification via heat pumps across the US.

Heat pumps are an energy-efficient and increasingly cost-effective solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector. However, other clean energy technologies, such as rooftop solar, are less likely to be adopted in underserved communities, and thus policies incentivizing their adoption may funnel support to well-resourced communities. Unlike previously studied technologies, the effects of heat pumps on household energy bills may be positive or negative depending on local climate, energy costs, building features, and other factors.

Cross-continental comparison of plant reproductive phenology shows high intraspecific variation in temperature sensitivity.

The success of plant species under climate change will be determined, in part, by their phenological responses to temperature. Despite the growing need to forecast such outcomes across entire species ranges, it remains unclear how phenological sensitivity to temperature might vary across individuals of the same species. In this study, we harnessed community science data to document intraspecific patterns in phenological temperature sensitivity across the multicontinental range of six herbaceous plant species.

Antagonistic biotic interactions mitigate the positive effects of warming on wood decomposition.

Global change drivers such as habitat fragmentation, species invasion, and climate warming can act synergistically upon native systems; however, global change drivers can be neutralized if they induce antagonistic interactions in ecological communities. Deadwood comprises a considerable portion of forest carbon, and it functions as refuge, nesting habitat and nutrient source for plant, animal and microbial communities. We predicted that thermophilic termites would increase wood decomposition with experimental warming and in forest edge habitat.

Predictors of Food Insecurity and Food Assistance Program Usage Among Puerto Ricans Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Background/objectives: Puerto Rican households often face elevated rates of food insecurity. Frequently, households experiencing food insecurity turn to federal and emergency nutrition assistance for urgent or prolonged aid. This study analyzes factors influencing food insecurity and food assistance program involvement among Puerto Ricans in Holyoke, Massachusetts, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assessing the effectiveness of vegetation indices in detecting forest disturbances in the southeast Amazon.

Amazon forests are becoming increasingly vulnerable to disturbances such as droughts, fires, windstorms, logging, and forest fragmentation, all of which lead to forest degradation. Nevertheless, quantifying the extent and severity of disturbances and their cumulative impact on forest degradation remains a significant challenge. In this study, we combined multispectral data from Landsat sensors with hyperspectral data from the Earth Observing-One (Hyperion/EO-1) sensor to evaluate the efficacy of multiple vegetation indices in detecting forest responses to disturbances in an experimentally burned forest in southeastern Amazonia.

More extremely hot days, more heat exposure and fewer cooling options for people of color in Connecticut, U.S.

It is well-documented that people of color in the U.S. are disproportionately exposed to extreme urban heat.

Domestic groundwater wells in Appalachia show evidence of low-dose, complex mixtures of legacy pollutants.

Lack of water quality data for private drinking water sources prevents robust evaluation of exposure risk for communities co-located with historically contaminated sites and ongoing industrial activity. Areas of the Appalachian region of the United States (, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia) contain extensive hydraulic fracturing activity, as well as other extractive and industrial technologies, in close proximity to communities reliant on private drinking water sources, creating concern over potential groundwater contamination. In this study, we characterized volatile organic compound (VOC) occurrence at 307 private groundwater well sites within Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Wood nutrients: Underexplored traits with functional and biogeochemical consequences.

Resource storage is a critical component of plant life history. While the storage of nonstructural carbohydrates in wood has been studied extensively, the multiple functions of mineral nutrient storage have received much less attention. Here, we highlight the size of wood nutrient pools, a primary determinant of whole-plant nutrient use efficiency, and a substantial fraction of ecosystem nutrient budgets, particularly tropical forests.

Enhanced Rock Weathering for Carbon Removal-Monitoring and Mitigating Potential Environmental Impacts on Agricultural Land.

Terrestrial enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is the application of pulverized silicate rock to soils for the purposes of carbon removal and improved soil health. Although a geochemical modeling framework for ERW in soils is emerging, there is a scarcity of experimental and field trial data exploring potential environmental impacts, risks, and monitoring strategies associated with this practice. This paper identifies potential negative consequences and positive cobenefits of ERW scale-up and suggests mitigation and monitoring strategies.

A woody biomass burial.

Ancient, buried wood points to a possible low-cost method to store carbon.

The enigmatic Triassic ovulate reproductive structures of Dordrechtites are recurved cupules fundamentally comparable to the cupules of Doylea and similar plants.

Recent paleobotanical discoveries have renewed interest in the distinctively recurved, seed-bearing cupules of Mesozoic plants, which are important for understanding seed plant phylogeny and the origin of the second integument of the angiosperm ovule. Reanalysis of the enigmatic seed-bearing organ Dordrechtites elongatus from the Triassic of South Africa, the type species of the genus, combined with information from similar material from Antarctica, Argentina and Australia, indicates that Dordrechtites is a highly modified lateral branch of a seed cone. Short lateral projections from a primary cone axis each bear several Dordrechtites units.

Short-term effects of wildfire-specific fine particulate matter and its carbonaceous components on perinatal outcomes: A multicentre cohort study in New South Wales, Australia.

Background: Epidemiological evidence on the association between wildfire-specific fine particulate matter (PM) and its carbonaceous components with perinatal outcomes is limited. We aimed to examine the short-term effects of wildfire-specific PM and its carbonaceous components on perinatal outcomes.

Methods: A multicentre cohort of 9743 singleton births during the wildfire seasons from 1 September 2009 to 31 December 2015 across six cities in New South Wales, Australia were linked with daily wildfire-specific PM and carbonaceous components (organic carbon and black carbon).

Trait-Mediated Variation in Seedling Performance in Costa Rican Successional Forests: Comparing Above-Ground, Below-Ground, and Allocation-Based Traits.

The interspecific relationship between functional traits and tree seedling performance can be inconsistent, potentially due to site-to-site or microsite variation in environmental conditions. Studies of seedling traits and performance often focus on above-ground traits, despite the importance of below-ground resource acquisition and biomass allocation to above versus below-ground functions. Here we investigate how varying environmental conditions across sites induce intraspecific variation in organ-level (above-ground, below-ground) and biomass allocation traits, affecting interspecific relationships between these traits and seedling performance.