Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Using stable isotopes, this study introduces an indicator of dynamic water retention that shows river flow dynamics are influenced by land use and hydroclimate characteristics, helping categorize catchment responses and improving water resource management.
A considerable portion of human water usage is allocated to agriculture, yet optimizing water resources remains a persistent challenge. A promising solution lies in solar-powered technology integrated with hygroscopic porous gel, which captures water vapour from both plant transpiration and soil evaporation. This approach holds potential to enhance water utilization efficiency within greenhouses.
The transformation of waste sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants into valuable resources is fraught with challenges due to its complex composition. The approach proposed here efficiently upcycles trace redox-reactive transition metals present in sludge into single-atom catalysts, offering the dual benefit of effective sludge disposal and enhanced water purification.
Current methods for electrocatalytic destruction of nitrate in drinking water require metal catalysts to achieve sufficient nitrate removal. Electrified membranes containing pristine carbon nanotubes operated under flow-through mode provide an alternative approach for efficient nitrate reduction without the use of metals.
Electro-Fenton treatment holds great promise as an advanced oxidation process for removing emerging organic pollutants, but achieving sustained Fenton reactions remains a challenge. An electroresponsive ferrocene metal–organic framework cathode now enables continuous cycling of the catalytic species for Fenton reactions and achieves efficient water purification.
Drinking well water with unsafe levels of arsenic is a considerable public health concern, and conventional point-of-use (POU) treatment often falls short in real-world household utilizations. Integrating a solid oxidant into the POU system has proven to be a successful strategy through long-term field deployment, ensuring drinking-water safety.
Membrane separations are foundational to water treatment processes, and the traditional solute transport theory is limited in predicting the sharp separation of solutes by a membrane. By the proper design of the porous membranes and filtration processes, a sharp rejection curve may be achieved using isoporous membranes with an infinite number of interactions between solutes and membranes.
The combination of metagenome and virus-enriched virome sequencing provides comprehensive profiles of viral communities and their associated antibiotic resistance genes and reveals the factors driving changes in the plastisphere.
The interactions between microplastics and freshwater snow can influence the way in which both particle types settle in freshwater environments. Advanced and automated tracking techniques show that agglomerates of the two particles settle faster than the individual components alone, underscoring the potential repercussions on biogeochemical cycles.
In situ real-time water pollution monitoring provides a fast and convenient way to detect water pollutants, but the development of detectors with high sensitivity is still challenging. Portable organic photodetectors fabricated with a colloid processing approach achieve highly sensitive and accurate monitoring of trace pollutants in water.
US children who avoid tap water, a proxy for water insecurity, were more likely to experience household food insecurity than those who did not. Concurrent water and food insecurity doubled between 2005 and 2020 with considerable racial/ethnic disparities.
This Analysis quantifies how, and to what extent, transboundary cooperation generates economic and environmental co-benefits in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin, highlighting the importance of benefit sharing for sustaining socio-environmental systems.
Floating photovoltaics represent a promising alternative to land-based solar panels. A large-scale analysis, comprising 1 million water bodies worldwide, shows that floating photovoltaics could contribute 16%, on average, of the electricity demands of some countries.
The use of mechanical energy in wastewater treatment has been associated with accelerating physical mixing in compartments, and its effect on microbial activities has not been explored. The implementation of the developed mechano-driven bio-denitrification approach in real wastewater treatment provides a new method for wastewater denitrification.
This study employs a high-resolution, integrated hydrological model extending 400 m into the subsurface. Application of the model in a representative headwater basin in the Colorado River shows that groundwater storage loss will amplify streamflow losses in a warmer world.
A sustainable and chemical-free strategy for superoxide generation based on rechargeable carbonaceous supercapacitors can enable effective pollutant abatement.
Demonstrating the complete defluorination of PFAS confirms PFAS mineralization and mitigated risk. The design of a UV/sulfite–electrochemical oxidation process achieved complete defluorination of various PFAS and removal of organics in aqueous film-forming foam.
Electricity trade between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt is proposed as a mechanism for alleviating Nile water disputes. Simulations show potential benefits, including reduced water deficits, lowered emissions and increased financial returns.
There is a pressing need to develop effective treatment technologies for 6PPD-quinone, a newly discovered micropollutant, given its prevalent presence in water. The proposed advanced oxidation of IO4− activation under solar light irradiation achieves efficient degradation of 6PPD-quinone at environmental concentration levels.