Volume 2 Issue 3, March 2024

When the substrate for ecological interactions is the river network, the emerging universality of form is reflected in its function as ecological corridor, with implications.

Earth system model projections of vegetation–climate feedback frequently depend on inaccurate values of evaporation sensitivity to vegetation changes, potentially resulting in misleading conclusions. A promising avenue involves improving the transpiration partitioning parameterizations and incorporating groundwater connections to refine the modelled sensitivity.

Research on the ecological impacts of drought has predominantly focused on the scarcity of water supply, often overlooking divergent ecosystem water demands across vegetation types, regions, and time. These diverse ecosystem water demands need to be incorporated into an effective ecological drought monitoring and assessment framework.

Rivers carry large quantities of carbon and form an important link between terrestrial, marine and atmospheric biogeochemical cycles, yet our observations of river carbon are severely limited. Here we provide a blueprint to build a global River Observation System that would improve our ability to observe and predict changes in this crucial piece of the global carbon cycle.

An absence of precipitation combined with drying of the ground through evaporation can deplete fresh water crucial for societies and ecosystems. However, new research highlights a more remote driver of drought.

Irrigation has helped facilitate large gains in crop yields but comes at an increasing cost to water resources, complicating climate change adaptation.

This Review highlights the strengths and limitations of deep learning approaches relative to traditional approaches, emphasizing their potential as a currently underutilized yet promising avenue for advancing our understanding of water-quality sciences.

This study presents the probability of drought occurrence in various regions globally and demonstrates the pivotal role of moisture transport deficit. Assessing the contribution deficit of the dominant global moisture source to regional precipitation enhances drought predictability.

Half of irrigation expansion in the twenty-first century has taken place in water-stressed areas, offering a mixed picture for simultaneously achieving future food security, water sustainability and climate resilience in global agriculture.

Exceptional streamflow and soil moisture conditions now occur on a substantial share of global land area and are much more frequent than in pre-industrial times. This marks a notable transgression of the new planetary boundary for freshwater change.

Coastal megacities, such as Shanghai and New York City, exhibit marked disparities in flood evacuation patterns for elderly residents. Risk-informed, strategic storm flood evacuation planning can significantly improve the overall performance of evacuee transfer for large coastal cities.

Coagulation plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety of drinking water by removing natural organic matter. A comprehensive investigation of existing coagulation theories at the molecular functional group scale highlights the importance of the properties of natural organic matter on coagulation efficiency and provides valuable insights for predicting and achieving the efficient removal of pollutants by coagulation.