environmental science research papers

2019 Best Papers published in the Environmental Science journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry

In 2019, the Royal Society of Chemistry published 180, 196 and 293 papers in Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts , Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology , and Environmental Science: Nano , respectively. These papers covered a wide range of topics in environmental science, from biogeochemical cycling to water reuse to nanomaterial toxicity. And, yes, we also published papers on the topic of the environmental fate, behavior, and inactivation of viruses. 1–10 We are extremely grateful that so many authors have chosen our journals as outlets for publishing their research and are equally delighted at the high quality of the papers that we have had the privilege to publish.

Our Associate Editors, Editorial Boards, and Advisory Boards were enlisted to nominate and select the best papers from 2019. From this list, the three Editors-in-Chief selected an overall best paper from the entire Environmental Science portfolio. It is our pleasure to present the winners of the Best Papers in 2019 to you, our readers.

Overall Best Paper

In this paper, Johansson et al. examine sea spray aerosol as a potential transport vehicle for perfluoroalkyl carboxylic and sulfonic acids. The surfactant properties of these compounds are well known and, in fact, key to many of the technical applications for which they are used. The fact that these compounds are enriched at the air–water interface makes enrichment in sea spray aerosols seem reasonable. Johansson et al. systematically tested various perfluoroalkyl acids enrichment in aerosols under conditions relevant to sea spray formation, finding that longer chain lengths lead to higher aerosol enrichment factors. They augmented their experimental work with a global model, which further bolstered the conclusion that global transport of perfluoroalkyl acids by sea spray aerosol is and will continue to be an important process in determining the global distribution of these compounds.

Journal Best Papers

Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts

First Runner-up Best Paper: Yamakawa, Takami, Takeda, Kato, Kajii, Emerging investigator series: investigation of mercury emission sources using Hg isotopic compositions of atmospheric mercury at the Cape Hedo Atmosphere and Aerosol Monitoring Station (CHAAMS), Japan , Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts , 2019, 21 , 809–818, DOI: 10.1039/C8EM00590G .

Second Runner-up Best Paper: Avery, Waring, DeCarlo, Seasonal variation in aerosol composition and concentration upon transport from the outdoor to indoor environment , Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts , 2019, 21 , 528–547, DOI: 10.1039/C8EM00471D .

Best Review Article: Cousins, Ng, Wang, Scheringer, Why is high persistence alone a major cause of concern? Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts , 2019, 21 , 781–792, DOI: 10.1039/C8EM00515J .

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

First Runner-up Best Paper: Yang, Lin, Tse, Dong, Yu, Hoffmann, Membrane-separated electrochemical latrine wastewater treatment , Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 51–59, DOI: 10.1039/C8EW00698A .

Second Runner-up Best Paper: Genter, Marks, Clair-Caliot, Mugume, Johnston, Bain, Julian, Evaluation of the novel substrate RUG™ for the detection of Escherichia coli in water from temperate (Zurich, Switzerland) and tropical (Bushenyi, Uganda) field sites , Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 1082–1091, DOI: 10.1039/C9EW00138G .

Best Review Article: Okoffo, O’Brien, O’Brien, Tscharke, Thomas, Wastewater treatment plants as a source of plastics in the environment: a review of occurrence, methods for identification, quantification and fate , Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 1908–1931, DOI: 10.1039/C9EW00428A .

Environmental Science: Nano

First Runner-up Best Paper: Janković, Plata, Engineered nanomaterials in the context of global element cycles , Environ. Sci.: Nano , 2019, 6 , 2697–2711, DOI: 10.1039/C9EN00322C .

Second Runner-up Best Paper: González-Pleiter, Tamayo-Belda, Pulido-Reyes, Amariei, Leganés, Rosal, Fernández-Piñas, Secondary nanoplastics released from a biodegradable microplastic severely impact freshwater environments , Environ. Sci.: Nano , 2019, 6 , 1382–1392, DOI: 10.1039/C8EN01427B .

Best Review Article: Lv, Christie, Zhang, Uptake, translocation, and transformation of metal-based nanoparticles in plants: recent advances and methodological challenges , Environ. Sci.: Nano , 2019, 6 , 41–59, DOI: 10.1039/C8EN00645H .

Congratulations to the authors of these papers and a hearty thanks to all of our authors. As one can clearly see from the papers listed above, environmental science is a global effort and we are thrilled to have contributions from around the world. In these challenging times, we are proud to publish research that is not only great science, but also relevant to the health of the environment and the public. Finally, we also wish to extend our thanks to our community of editors, reviewers, and readers. We look forward to another outstanding year of Environmental Science , reading the work generated not just from our offices at home, but also from back in our laboratories and the field.

Kris McNeill, Editor-in-Chief

Paige Novak, Editor-in-Chief

Peter Vikesland, Editor-in-Chief

• A. B Boehm, Risk-based water quality thresholds for coliphages in surface waters: effect of temperature and contamination aging, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts , 2019, 21 , 2031–2041,   10.1039/C9EM00376B .
• L. Cai, C. Liu, G. Fan, C Liu and X. Sun, Preventing viral disease by ZnONPs through directly deactivating TMV and activating plant immunity in Nicotiana benthamiana , Environ. Sci.: Nano , 2019, 6 , 3653–3669,   10.1039/C9EN00850K .
• L. W. Gassie, J. D. Englehardt, N. E. Brinkman, J. Garland and M. K. Perera, Ozone-UV net-zero water wash station for remote emergency response healthcare units: design, operation, and results, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 1971–1984,   10.1039/C9EW00126C .
• L. M. Hornstra, T. Rodrigues da Silva, B. Blankert, L. Heijnen, E. Beerendonk, E. R. Cornelissen and G. Medema, Monitoring the integrity of reverse osmosis membranes using novel indigenous freshwater viruses and bacteriophages, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 1535–1544,   10.1039/C9EW00318E .
• A. H. Hassaballah, J. Nyitrai, C. H. Hart, N. Dai and L. M. Sassoubre, A pilot-scale study of peracetic acid and ultraviolet light for wastewater disinfection, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 1453–1463,   10.1039/C9EW00341J .
• W. Khan, J.-Y. Nam, H. Woo, H. Ryu, S. Kim, S. K. Maeng and H.-C. Kim, A proof of concept study for wastewater reuse using bioelectrochemical processes combined with complementary post-treatment technologies, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 1489–1498,   10.1039/C9EW00358D .
• J. Heffron, B. McDermid and B. K. Mayer, Bacteriophage inactivation as a function of ferrous iron oxidation, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 1309–1317,   10.1039/C9EW00190E .
• S. Torii, T. Hashimoto, A. T. Do, H. Furumai and H. Katayama, Impact of repeated pressurization on virus removal by reverse osmosis membranes for household water treatment, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 910–919,   10.1039/C8EW00944A .
• J. Miao, H.-J. Jiang, Z.-W. Yang, D.-y. Shi, D. Yang, Z.-Q. Shen, J. Yin, Z.-G. Qiu, H.-R. Wang, J.-W. Li and M. Jin, Assessment of an electropositive granule media filter for concentrating viruses from large volumes of coastal water, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2019, 5 , 325–333,   10.1039/C8EW00699G .
• K. L. Nelson, A. B. Boehm, R. J. Davies-Colley, M. C. Dodd, T. Kohn, K. G. Linden, Y. Liu, P. A. Maraccini, K. McNeill, W. A. Mitch, T. H. Nguyen, K. M. Parker, R. A. Rodriguez, L. M. Sassoubre, A. I. Silverman, K. R. Wigginton and R. G. Zepp, Sunlight mediated inactivation of health relevant microorganisms in water: a review of mechanisms and modeling approaches, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts , 2018, 20 , 1089–1122,   10.1039/C8EM00047F .

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Ben Clarke et al 2022 Environ. Res.: Climate 1 012001

Extreme event attribution aims to elucidate the link between global climate change, extreme weather events, and the harms experienced on the ground by people, property, and nature. It therefore allows the disentangling of different drivers of extreme weather from human-induced climate change and hence provides valuable information to adapt to climate change and to assess loss and damage. However, providing such assessments systematically is currently out of reach. This is due to limitations in attribution science, including the capacity for studying different types of events, as well as the geographical heterogeneity of both climate and impact data availability. Here, we review current knowledge of the influences of climate change on five different extreme weather hazards (extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall, drought, wildfire, tropical cyclones), the impacts of recent extreme weather events of each type, and thus the degree to which various impacts are attributable to climate change. For instance, heat extremes have increased in likelihood and intensity worldwide due to climate change, with tens of thousands of deaths directly attributable. This is likely a significant underestimate due to the limited availability of impact information in lower- and middle-income countries. Meanwhile, tropical cyclone rainfall and storm surge height have increased for individual events and across all basins. In the North Atlantic basin, climate change amplified the rainfall of events that, combined, caused half a trillion USD in damages. At the same time, severe droughts in many parts of the world are not attributable to climate change. To advance our understanding of present-day extreme weather impacts due to climate change developments on several levels are required. These include improving the recording of extreme weather impacts around the world, improving the coverage of attribution studies across different events and regions, and using attribution studies to explore the contributions of both climate and non-climate drivers of impacts.

Friederike E L Otto et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 025001

As a direct consequence of extreme monsoon rainfall throughout the summer 2022 season Pakistan experienced the worst flooding in its history. We employ a probabilistic event attribution methodology as well as a detailed assessment of the dynamics to understand the role of climate change in this event. Many of the available state-of-the-art climate models struggle to simulate these rainfall characteristics. Those that pass our evaluation test generally show a much smaller change in likelihood and intensity of extreme rainfall than the trend we found in the observations. This discrepancy suggests that long-term variability, or processes that our evaluation may not capture, can play an important role, rendering it infeasible to quantify the overall role of human-induced climate change. However, the majority of models and observations we have analysed show that intense rainfall has become heavier as Pakistan has warmed. Some of these models suggest climate change could have increased the rainfall intensity up to 50%. The devastating impacts were also driven by the proximity of human settlements, infrastructure (homes, buildings, bridges), and agricultural land to flood plains, inadequate infrastructure, limited ex-ante risk reduction capacity, an outdated river management system, underlying vulnerabilities driven by high poverty rates and socioeconomic factors (e.g. gender, age, income, and education), and ongoing political and economic instability. Both current conditions and the potential further increase in extreme peaks in rainfall over Pakistan in light of anthropogenic climate change, highlight the urgent need to reduce vulnerability to extreme weather in Pakistan.

Anne Hinzmann et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 011003

Over recent decades, the retreat of Kilimanjaro's glaciers has been portrayed as a beacon of climate change. The decline of glaciers over the 20 th century, however, is evident for all tropical glaciers in East Africa, including those found on Mount Kenya and in the Rwenzori Range. More recent studies have focused on Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya but the Rwenzori Range has not been considered for nearly two decades, which introduces an uncertainty about the remaining glacierization in East Africa. Therefore, the present study provides insights into the most recent glacier extents of all three mountain regions using a manual, multitemporal analysis of high-resolution satellite images for the years 2021/2022. The glacierization in East Africa is estimated to be 1.36 km 2 , with a glacier area of 0.98 km 2 on Kilimanjaro, 0.069 km 2 on Mount Kenya and 0.38 km 2 in the Rwenzori Range. The uncertainty is determined to be within 12.5%. Compared to previous estimations, the overall area has declined by more than a half of its early 21 st century extent. Being mainly controlled by high-altitude hygric seasonality, these glaciers are particularly valuable indicators of tropical climate variability and climate change.

A J Pitman et al 2022 Environ. Res.: Climate 1 025002

Efforts to assess risks to the financial system associated with climate change are growing. These commonly combine the use of integrated assessment models to obtain possible changes in global mean temperature (GMT) and then use coupled climate models to map those changes onto finer spatial scales to estimate changes in other variables. Other methods use data mined from 'ensembles of opportunity' such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Several challenges with current approaches have been identified. Here, we focus on demonstrating the issues inherent in applying global 'top-down' climate scenarios to explore financial risks at geographical scales of relevance to financial institutions (e.g. city-scale). We use data mined from the CMIP to determine the degree to which estimates of GMT can be used to estimate changes in the annual extremes of temperature and rainfall, two compound events (heatwaves and drought, and extreme rain and strong winds), and whether the emission scenario provides insights into the change in the 20, 50 and 100 year return values for temperature and rainfall. We show that GMT provides little insight on how acute risks likely material to the financial sector ('material extremes') will change at a city-scale. We conclude that 'top-down' approaches are likely to be flawed when applied at a granular scale, and that there are risks in employing the approaches used by, for example, the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System. Most fundamental, uncertainty associated with projections of future climate extremes must be propagated through to estimating risk. We strongly encourage a review of existing top-down approaches before they develop into de facto standards and note that existing approaches that use a 'bottom-up' strategy (e.g. catastrophe modelling and storylines) are more likely to enable a robust assessment of material risk.

Vishisth Kalik et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 045009

Sylvia Dee et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 022002

The hydrologic cycle is a fundamental component of the climate system with critical societal and ecological relevance. Yet gaps persist in our understanding of water fluxes and their response to increased greenhouse gas forcing. The stable isotope ratios of oxygen and hydrogen in water provide a unique opportunity to evaluate hydrological processes and investigate their role in the variability of the climate system and its sensitivity to change. Water isotopes also form the basis of many paleoclimate proxies in a variety of archives, including ice cores, lake and marine sediments, corals, and speleothems. These records hold most of the available information about past hydrologic variability prior to instrumental observations. Water isotopes thus provide a 'common currency' that links paleoclimate archives to modern observations, allowing us to evaluate hydrologic processes and their effects on climate variability on a wide range of time and length scales. Building on previous literature summarizing advancements in water isotopic measurements and modeling and describe water isotopic applications for understanding hydrological processes, this topical review reflects on new insights about climate variability from isotopic studies. We highlight new work and opportunities to enhance our understanding and predictive skill and offer a set of recommendations to advance observational and model-based tools for climate research. Finally, we highlight opportunities to better constrain climate sensitivity and identify anthropogenically-driven hydrologic changes within the inherently noisy background of natural climate variability.

Nilofer K Bharwani et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 045008

As environmental disasters disproportionately affect women, international guidelines to address the disparity focus on the inclusion of women in disaster risk reduction programs. While inclusion is a noble pursuit, it may fall short of equitable outcomes and instead lead to tokenization. Drawing on standpoint feminism and intersectionality, the goal of this study was to investigate tensions between inclusion and equity for women working in disaster risk reduction. We interviewed women from Ecuador and Tajikistan and asked them about the ways that gender shapes their experiences working in disaster risk reduction. We found that the women reflect upon themselves as agents with various forms of privilege and disadvantage, based on their multifaceted identities and differing levels of perceived discrimination within their professions. The findings suggest that inclusion, while necessary, can fall short of its promises. We recommend that organizational guidelines make everyone responsible for fostering equitable workplaces for disaster risk reduction.

Joseph Giguere et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 035003

Ashbin Jaison et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 045006

Windstorms cause severe damages and are the dominant natural hazard responsible for insurance payouts in Norway. Using future wind speeds from twenty bias corrected regional climate model simulations from EURO-CORDEX and four damage functions, fitted on municipality level to observed insurance losses, we estimate storm related losses to increase in all Norwegian counties due to climate change. At national level, there is an increase in storm losses in the far future, but some counties and municipalities can still exhibit a decrease in losses. Under a changing climate, despite a decrease in the 98th percentile of the wind speed, the most extreme winds increase, and this drives an increase in the windstorm damages. We also show that the wind load design values may need to be re-evaluated to take into account the changing wind speeds. In addition to climate change, the impact of future exposure changes in the form of population changes using municipality-level population projections is shown to be important for determining the level of future windstorm damage risk. Overall, the loss projections show a large spread, highlighting their sensitivity to the choice of the storm-damage function and to the choice of the simulation.

Zachary I Glaser et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 045007

Internal climate variability (ICV) often violates the assumptions of statistical methods, and the climate research community does not have an established approach for addressing resulting biases. Here we argue for a technique we call climate model Large-Ensemble Monte-Carlo (LENS-MC) to inform the selection of statistical methods for real-world application. Until now, scientists have often made best efforts to select methods based on assumptions about the mathematical properties of ICV. LENS-MC relaxes these assumptions and justifies method selection, potentially for a wide range of statistical analyses. We demonstrate LENS-MC using a case study of statistical errors in 20 year trends in global temperature and top-of-atmosphere flux series, comparing results with standard ordinary least squares (OLS). OLS commonly underestimates trend uncertainties, resulting in a higher likelihood of falsely reporting statistically significant trends or changes in trends, for example reporting p < 0.05 in 20 year temperature trends when the statistics are actually equivalent to p < 0.56. LENS-MC tests result in the selection of methods that almost eliminate the low bias in OLS trend standard errors. Using the suggested methods, researchers are less likely to mistakenly report significant trends, and LENS-MC could be widely applied to statistical climate analysis for which model output is available, provided that model ICV displays similar statistical structure, such as in autocorrelation, to observed ICV.

Latest articles

Diana Danilenko et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 045010

This paper is the first to analyse the role of women authors in fostering justice-relevant topics in climate adaptation research. As representation, citation and payment patterns remain gender-biased across scientific disciplines, we explore the case of climate science, particularly adaptation, as its most human-oriented facet. In climate research and policy, there has been a recent surge of interest in climate justice topics: mentions of justice have increased almost tenfold in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group 2 reports between the latest assessment cycles (AR5 and AR6). We conduct a systematic examination of the topic space in the adaptation policy scholarship. As it is a vast and rapidly growing field, we use topic modelling, an unsupervised machine learning method, to identify the literature on climate justice and related fields, as well as to examine the relationship between topic prevalence and the gender of the authors. We find climate change adaptation policy research to be male dominated, with women holding 38.8% of first and 28.8% of last authorships. However, we observe topic-specific variability, whereby the share of female authors is higher among publications on justice-relevant topics. Female authorship is highly linked to topics such as Community, Local Knowledge, and Governance, but less to Food Security and Climate Finance. Our findings corroborate the evidence that female authors play a significant role in advancing the research and dialogue on the relationship between climate change and areas that have meaningful impact on lives of women and other marginalised groups.

Kelvin S Ng et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 041001

While the improved performance of climate prediction systems has allowed better predictions of the East Asian Summer Monsoon rainfall to be made, the ability to predict extreme Mei-yu rainfall (MYR) remains a challenge. Given that large scale climate modes (LSCMs) tend to be better predicted by climate prediction systems than local extremes, one useful approach is to employ causality-guided statistical models (CGSMs), which link known LSCMs to improve MYR prediction. However, previous work suggests that CGSMs trained with data from 1979–2018 might struggle to model MYR in the pre-1978 period. One hypothesis is that this is due to potential changes in causal processes, which modulate MYR in different phases of the multidecadal variability, such as the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). In this study, we explore this hypothesis by constructing CGSMs for different PDO phases, which reflect the different phases of specific causal process, and examine the difference in quality as well as with respect to difference drivers and thus causal links between CGSMs of different PDO phases as well as the non-PDO phase specific CGSMs. Our results show that the set of predictors of CGSMs is PDO phase specific. Furthermore, the performance of PDO phase specific CGSMs are better than the non-PDO phase specific CGSMs. To demonstrate the added value of CGSMs, the PDO phase specific versions are applied to the latest UK Met Office decadal prediction system, DePreSys4, and it is shown that the root-mean squared errors of MYR prediction based on PDO phase specific CGSMs is consistently smaller than the MYR predicted based on the direct DePreSys4 extreme rainfall simulations. We conclude that the use of a causality approach improves the prediction of extreme precipitation based solely on known LSCMs because of the change in the main drivers of extreme rainfall during different PDO-phases.

Review articles

Andrés Navarro and Francisco J Tapiador 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 042001

Climate classification systems (CCSs) were developed in the 19th century to explain the global distribution of plants and animals, but were given a new life in the Earth physics community in the 21st century as a means to validate Earth System Models (ESMs). The purpose of this paper is to critically review the evolution of this approach to validation and to discuss the current status. It is shown that CCSs can not only measure model performance, but also help identify and deconstruct systematic model biases. CCSs provide a rational and comprehensive zonation of the global environment using quantitative estimates of physical variables such as precipitation, temperature, and humidity. They offer several advantages over single variables due to the high sensitivity of the resulting classes to small changes in input variables and dimensionality reduction. CCSs encompass model behavior on both energy and water balances, allowing for a more comprehensive assessment of ESM performance.

Claude-Michel Nzotungicimpaye and H Damon Matthews 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 032001

Anthropogenic CO 2 emissions are causing climate change, and impacts of climate change are already affecting every region on Earth. The purpose of this review is to investigate climate impacts that can be linked quantitatively to cumulative CO 2 emissions (CE), with a focus on impacts scaling linearly with CE. The reviewed studies indicate a proportionality between CE and various observable climate impacts such as regional warming, extreme daily temperatures, heavy precipitation events, seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation, global mean precipitation increase over ocean, sea ice decline in September across the Arctic Ocean, surface ocean acidification, global mean sea level rise, different marine heatwave characteristics, changes in habitat viability for non-human primates, as well as labour productivity loss due to extreme heat exposure. From the reviewed literature, we report estimates of these climate impacts resulting from one trillion tonne of CE (1 Tt C). These estimates are highly relevant for climate policy as they provide a way for assessing climate impacts associated with every amount of CO 2 emitted by human activities. With the goal of expanding the number of climate impacts that could be linked quantitatively to CE, we propose a framework for estimating additional climate impacts resulting from CE. This framework builds on the transient climate response to cumulative emissions (TCRE), and it is applicable to climate impacts that scale linearly with global warming. We illustrate how the framework can be applied to quantify physical, biological, and societal climate impacts resulting from CE. With this review, we highlight that each tonne of CO 2 emissions matters in terms of resulting impacts on natural and human systems.

Toyin Adekanmbi et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 012001

Potatoes as a food crop contribute to zero hunger: Sustainable Development Goal 2. Over the years, the global potato supply has increased by more than double consumption. Changing climatic conditions are a significant determinant of crop growth and development due to the impacts of meteorological conditions, such as temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation, on yields, placing nations under the threat of food insecurity. Potatoes are prone to climatic variables such as heat, precipitation, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), droughts, and unexpected frosts. A crop simulation model (CSM) is useful for assessing the effects of climate and various cultivation environments on potato growth and yields. This article aims to review recent literature on known and potential effects of climate change on global potato yields and further highlights tools and methods for assessing those effects. In particular, this review will explore (1) global potato production, growth and varieties; (2) a review of the mechanisms by which changing climates impact potato yields; (3) a review of CSMs as tools for assessing the impacts of climate change on potato yields, and (4) most importantly, this review identifies critical gaps in data availability, modeling tools, and adaptation measures, that lays a foundation for future research toward sustainable potato production under the changing climate.

Fengfei Song et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 042001

Aided by progress in the theoretical understanding, new knowledge on tropical rainfall annual cycle changes under global warming background has been advanced in the past decade. In this review, we focus on recent advances in understanding the changes of tropical rainfall annual cycle, including its four distinct features: amplitude, pattern shift, phase and wet/dry season length changes. In a warming climate, the amplitude of tropical rainfall annual cycle is enhanced, more evidently over ocean, while the phase of tropical rainfall annual cycle is delayed, mainly over land. The former is explained by the wet-get-wetter mechanism and the latter is explained by the enhanced effective atmospheric heat capacity and increased convective barrier. The phase delay over land has already emerged in the past four decades. The pattern shift under warming is marked by two features: equatorward shift of the inter-tropical convergence zone throughout the year and the land-to-ocean precipitation shift in the rainy season. The former is explained by the upped-ante mechanism and/or related to the enhanced equatorial warming in a warmer world. The latter is suggested to be caused by the opposite land and ocean surface temperature annual cycle changes in the tropics. Over tropical rainforest regions such as Amazon and Congo Basin, the dry season has lengthened in the recent decades, but the fundamental reason is still unclear. Despite the notable progress of the last decade, many gaps remain in understanding the mechanism, quantifying and attributing the emergence, narrowing the inter-model uncertainty, and evaluating the impact of tropical rainfall annual cycle changes, motivating future work guided by some directions proposed in this review.

G Persad et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 032001

Anthropogenic aerosol emissions are expected to change rapidly over the coming decades, driving strong, spatially complex trends in temperature, hydroclimate, and extreme events both near and far from emission sources. Under-resourced, highly populated regions often bear the brunt of aerosols' climate and air quality effects, amplifying risk through heightened exposure and vulnerability. However, many policy-facing evaluations of near-term climate risk, including those in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report, underrepresent aerosols' complex and regionally diverse climate effects, reducing them to a globally averaged offset to greenhouse gas warming. We argue that this constitutes a major missing element in society's ability to prepare for future climate change. We outline a pathway towards progress and call for greater interaction between the aerosol research, impact modeling, scenario development, and risk assessment communities.

Accepted manuscripts

Jézéquel et al 

As extreme event attribution (EEA) matures, explaining the impacts of extreme events has risen to be a key focus for attribution scientists. Studies of this type usually assess the contribution of anthropogenic climate change to observed impacts. Other scientific communities have developed tools to assess how human activities influence impacts of extreme weather events on ecosystems and societies. For example, the disaster risk reduction (DRR) community analyses how the structure of human societies affects exposure, vulnerability, and ultimately the impacts of extreme weather events, with less attention to the role of anthropogenic climate change. In this perspective, we argue that adapting current practice in EEA to also consider other causal factors in attribution of extreme weather impacts would provide richer and more comprehensive insight into the causes of disasters. To this end, we propose a framework for EEA that would generate a more complete picture of human influences on impacts and bridge the gap between the EEA and DRR communities. We provide illustrations for five case studies: the 2021-2022 Kenyan drought; the 2013-2015 marine heatwave in the northeast Pacific; the 2017 forest fires in Portugal; Acqua Alta (flooding) events in Venice and evaluation of the efficiency of the Experimental Electromechanical Module (MoSE), an ensemble of mobile barriers that can be activated to mitigate the influx of seawater in the city; and California droughts and the Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) system as an adaptation strategy,

Ivanova et al 

Human populations are migrating as a result of climate change. We conducted a systematic literature review examining the relationship between several climate hazards and migration flows. We reviewed 58 empirical studies between 2010 and 2023 that examined current and future migration related to acute and long-term climate hazards. The results indicate that the relationship between climate hazards and migration is diverse and depends on a range of socio-economic factors. Droughts and rising temperatures have a major impact on both international and domestic migration. Our review also reveals that multiple climate hazards collectively tend to intensify domestic migration toward urban areas, especially in agriculturally dependent regions. A better understanding of migration patterns and the climate hazards that drive them can inform global policy and preparedness for climate migration.

Klug et al 

In June 2017, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) adopted the Policy for Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Access to integrate gender equity in West Africa's energy and climate policy making. The policy represents the first regional gender and energy policy in the world, establishing a framework to enhance understanding at the nexus of gender and energy, improve the inclusivity of policies, programs, and initiatives, and increase women's participation in the field of energy in the public and private sectors. Each member state developed a National Action Plan to operationalize these goals and align implementation with national contexts and policy priorities. This study examines the experience of Senegal's National Action Plan development, from 13 semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders and document review. We use the Actor, Objective, Context political economy framework to understand how Senegal's economic and political structures, historical and social context, and influence of key stakeholders shaped their efforts to mainstream gender in the country's energy sector. We then describe four main objectives of actors in government, civil society, and the development space involved in policy development, summarizing these as: electricity access, economic development, access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, and gender equity. We find that the objectives of government and development actors are reflected in the emphasis on energy access in the National Action Plan and the government's long-term development agenda, though a critical lack of engagement with the private sector has limited the policy's effectiveness in mainstreaming women across energy sub-sectors beyond clean cooking. Women's civil society organizations, historically less engaged with energy issues, have nonetheless achieved considerable success in advocating for increased women's political participation. This advocacy has set a precedent for policies promoting "positive discrimination" for women and marginalized groups, evident in the policy's activities aimed at electrifying women's economic sectors.

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Research Topics & Ideas: Environment

F inding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation, thesis or research project. Here, we’ll explore a variety research ideas and topic thought-starters related to various environmental science disciplines, including ecology, oceanography, hydrology, geology, soil science, environmental chemistry, environmental economics, and environmental ethics.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas within the environmental sciences. This is the starting point though. To develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. Also be sure to also sign up for our free webinar that explores how to develop a high-quality research topic from scratch.

Overview: Environmental Topics

• Ecology /ecological science
• Atmospheric science
• Oceanography
• Soil science
• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental economics
• Environmental ethics
• Examples  of dissertations and theses

Topics & Ideas: Ecological Science

• The impact of land-use change on species diversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes
• The role of disturbances such as fire and drought in shaping arid ecosystems
• The impact of climate change on the distribution of migratory marine species
• Investigating the role of mutualistic plant-insect relationships in maintaining ecosystem stability
• The effects of invasive plant species on ecosystem structure and function
• The impact of habitat fragmentation caused by road construction on species diversity and population dynamics in the tropics
• The role of ecosystem services in urban areas and their economic value to a developing nation
• The effectiveness of different grassland restoration techniques in degraded ecosystems
• The impact of land-use change through agriculture and urbanisation on soil microbial communities in a temperate environment
• The role of microbial diversity in ecosystem health and nutrient cycling in an African savannah

Topics & Ideas: Atmospheric Science

• The impact of climate change on atmospheric circulation patterns above tropical rainforests
• The role of atmospheric aerosols in cloud formation and precipitation above cities with high pollution levels
• The impact of agricultural land-use change on global atmospheric composition
• Investigating the role of atmospheric convection in severe weather events in the tropics
• The impact of urbanisation on regional and global atmospheric ozone levels
• The impact of sea surface temperature on atmospheric circulation and tropical cyclones
• The impact of solar flares on the Earth’s atmospheric composition
• The impact of climate change on atmospheric turbulence and air transportation safety
• The impact of stratospheric ozone depletion on atmospheric circulation and climate change
• The role of atmospheric rivers in global water supply and sea-ice formation

Topics & Ideas: Oceanography

• The impact of ocean acidification on kelp forests and biogeochemical cycles
• The role of ocean currents in distributing heat and regulating desert rain
• The impact of carbon monoxide pollution on ocean chemistry and biogeochemical cycles
• Investigating the role of ocean mixing in regulating coastal climates
• The impact of sea level rise on the resource availability of low-income coastal communities
• The impact of ocean warming on the distribution and migration patterns of marine mammals
• The impact of ocean deoxygenation on biogeochemical cycles in the arctic
• The role of ocean-atmosphere interactions in regulating rainfall in arid regions
• The impact of ocean eddies on global ocean circulation and plankton distribution
• The role of ocean-ice interactions in regulating the Earth’s climate and sea level

Tops & Ideas: Hydrology

• The impact of agricultural land-use change on water resources and hydrologic cycles in temperate regions
• The impact of agricultural groundwater availability on irrigation practices in the global south
• The impact of rising sea-surface temperatures on global precipitation patterns and water availability
• Investigating the role of wetlands in regulating water resources for riparian forests
• The impact of tropical ranches on river and stream ecosystems and water quality
• The impact of urbanisation on regional and local hydrologic cycles and water resources for agriculture
• The role of snow cover and mountain hydrology in regulating regional agricultural water resources
• The impact of drought on food security in arid and semi-arid regions
• The role of groundwater recharge in sustaining water resources in arid and semi-arid environments
• The impact of sea level rise on coastal hydrology and the quality of water resources

Topics & Ideas: Geology

• The impact of tectonic activity on the East African rift valley
• The role of mineral deposits in shaping ancient human societies
• The impact of sea-level rise on coastal geomorphology and shoreline evolution
• Investigating the role of erosion in shaping the landscape and impacting desertification
• The impact of mining on soil stability and landslide potential
• The impact of volcanic activity on incoming solar radiation and climate
• The role of geothermal energy in decarbonising the energy mix of megacities
• The impact of Earth’s magnetic field on geological processes and solar wind
• The impact of plate tectonics on the evolution of mammals
• The role of the distribution of mineral resources in shaping human societies and economies, with emphasis on sustainability

Topics & Ideas: Soil Science

• The impact of dam building on soil quality and fertility
• The role of soil organic matter in regulating nutrient cycles in agricultural land
• The impact of climate change on soil erosion and soil organic carbon storage in peatlands
• Investigating the role of above-below-ground interactions in nutrient cycling and soil health
• The impact of deforestation on soil degradation and soil fertility
• The role of soil texture and structure in regulating water and nutrient availability in boreal forests
• The impact of sustainable land management practices on soil health and soil organic matter
• The impact of wetland modification on soil structure and function
• The role of soil-atmosphere exchange and carbon sequestration in regulating regional and global climate
• The impact of salinization on soil health and crop productivity in coastal communities

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Chemistry

• The impact of cobalt mining on water quality and the fate of contaminants in the environment
• The role of atmospheric chemistry in shaping air quality and climate change
• The impact of soil chemistry on nutrient availability and plant growth in wheat monoculture
• Investigating the fate and transport of heavy metal contaminants in the environment
• The impact of climate change on biochemical cycling in tropical rainforests
• The impact of various types of land-use change on biochemical cycling
• The role of soil microbes in mediating contaminant degradation in the environment
• The impact of chemical and oil spills on freshwater and soil chemistry
• The role of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in shaping water and soil chemistry
• The impact of over-irrigation on the cycling and fate of persistent organic pollutants in the environment

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Economics

• The impact of climate change on the economies of developing nations
• The role of market-based mechanisms in promoting sustainable use of forest resources
• The impact of environmental regulations on economic growth and competitiveness
• Investigating the economic benefits and costs of ecosystem services for African countries
• The impact of renewable energy policies on regional and global energy markets
• The role of water markets in promoting sustainable water use in southern Africa
• The impact of land-use change in rural areas on regional and global economies
• The impact of environmental disasters on local and national economies
• The role of green technologies and innovation in shaping the zero-carbon transition and the knock-on effects for local economies
• The impact of environmental and natural resource policies on income distribution and poverty of rural communities

Need a helping hand?

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Ethics

• The ethical foundations of environmentalism and the environmental movement regarding renewable energy
• The role of values and ethics in shaping environmental policy and decision-making in the mining industry
• The impact of cultural and religious beliefs on environmental attitudes and behaviours in first world countries
• Investigating the ethics of biodiversity conservation and the protection of endangered species in palm oil plantations
• The ethical implications of sea-level rise for future generations and vulnerable coastal populations
• The role of ethical considerations in shaping sustainable use of natural forest resources
• The impact of environmental justice on marginalized communities and environmental policies in Asia
• The ethical implications of environmental risks and decision-making under uncertainty
• The role of ethics in shaping the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future for the construction industry
• The impact of environmental values on consumer behaviour and the marketplace: a case study of the ‘bring your own shopping bag’ policy

Examples: Real Dissertation & Thesis Topics

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various environmental science-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• The physiology of microorganisms in enhanced biological phosphorous removal (Saunders, 2014)
• The influence of the coastal front on heavy rainfall events along the east coast (Henson, 2019)
• Forage production and diversification for climate-smart tropical and temperate silvopastures (Dibala, 2019)
• Advancing spectral induced polarization for near surface geophysical characterization (Wang, 2021)
• Assessment of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter and Thamnocephalus platyurus as Tools to Monitor Cyanobacterial Bloom Development and Toxicity (Hipsher, 2019)
• Evaluating the Removal of Microcystin Variants with Powdered Activated Carbon (Juang, 2020)
• The effect of hydrological restoration on nutrient concentrations, macroinvertebrate communities, and amphibian populations in Lake Erie coastal wetlands (Berg, 2019)
• Utilizing hydrologic soil grouping to estimate corn nitrogen rate recommendations (Bean, 2019)
• Fungal Function in House Dust and Dust from the International Space Station (Bope, 2021)
• Assessing Vulnerability and the Potential for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in Sudan’s Blue Nile Basin (Mohamed, 2022)
• A Microbial Water Quality Analysis of the Recreational Zones in the Los Angeles River of Elysian Valley, CA (Nguyen, 2019)
• Dry Season Water Quality Study on Three Recreational Sites in the San Gabriel Mountains (Vallejo, 2019)
• Wastewater Treatment Plan for Unix Packaging Adjustment of the Potential Hydrogen (PH) Evaluation of Enzymatic Activity After the Addition of Cycle Disgestase Enzyme (Miessi, 2020)
• Laying the Genetic Foundation for the Conservation of Longhorn Fairy Shrimp (Kyle, 2021).

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are quite specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. To create a top-notch research topic, you will need to be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you’ll need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

Find The Perfect Research Topic

How To Choose A Research Topic: 5 Key Criteria

How To Choose A Research Topic Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + Free Topic...

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12 Comments

research topics on climate change and environment

Researched PhD topics on environmental chemistry involving dust and water

I wish to learn things in a more advanced but simple way and with the hopes that I am in the right place.

Thank so much for the research topics. It really helped

the guides were really helpful

Research topics on environmental geology

Thanks for the research topics….I need a research topic on Geography

hi I need research questions ideas

Implications of climate variability on wildlife conservation on the west coast of Cameroon

I want the research on environmental planning and management

I want a topic on environmental sustainability

It good coaching

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Collection  12 March 2021

2020 Top 50 Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences Articles

We are pleased to share with you the 50 most downloaded Nature Communications articles* across Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences published in 2020. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers highlight valuable research from an international community. 

Browse all Top 50 subject area collections here .

* Data obtained from SN Insights (based on Digital Science's Dimensions) and has been normalised to account for articles published later in the year.

Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity

Mapping and quantifying degree of forest modification is critical to conserve and manage forests. Here the authors propose a new quantitative metric for landscape integrity and apply it to a global forest map, showing that less than half of the world’s forest cover has high integrity, most of which is outside nationally designed protected areas.

• H. S. Grantham
• J. E. M. Watson

Hysteresis of tropical forests in the 21st century

Tropical rainforests partly create their own climatic conditions by promoting precipitation, therefore rainforest losses may trigger dramatic shifts. Here the authors combine remote sensing, hydrological modelling, and atmospheric moisture tracking simulations to assess forest-rainfall feedbacks in three major tropical rainforest regions on Earth and simulate potential changes under a severe climate change scenario.

• Ingo Fetzer
• Obbe A. Tuinenburg

Understanding and managing new risks on the Nile with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Several dams and reservoirs exist along the Nile, most notably the HAD (Egypt) and GERD (Ethiopia) dams. Due to the lack of strategies, the authors here explore potential risks and solutions how to use both dams simultaneously.

• Kevin G. Wheeler
• Marc Jeuland
• Dale Whittington

Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity

Renewable energy production is necessary to mitigate climate change, however, generating the required technologies and infrastructure will demand huge production increases of many metals. Here, the authors map mining areas and assess spatial coincidence with biodiversity conservation sites, and show that new mining threats to biodiversity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation.

• Laura J. Sonter
• Marie C. Dade
• Rick K. Valenta

A steeply-inclined trajectory for the Chicxulub impact

The authors here present a 3D model that simulates the formation of the Chicxulub impact crater. Based on asymmetries in the subsurface structure of the Chicxulub crater, the authors diagnose impact angle and direction and suggest a steeply inclined (60° to horizontal) impact from the northeast.

• G. S. Collins
• Third-Party Scientists

Centennial response of Greenland’s three largest outlet glaciers

The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest land ice contributor to sea level rise and understanding the long-term glacier response to external forcing is key to improved projections. Here the authors show Greenland’s three largest outlet glaciers will likely exceed current worst-case scenario

• Shfaqat A. Khan
• Anders A. Bjørk
• Toni Schenk

The economic costs of planting, preserving, and managing the world’s forests to mitigate climate change

Forests are critical for stabilizing our climate, but costs of mitigation remain uncertain. Here the authors show the global forest sector could reduce emissions by 6.0 GtCO 2  yr −1 in 2055, or roughly 10% of the mitigation needed to limit warming to 1.5 °C by mid-century, at a cost of 393 billion USD yr −1 , or $281/tCO 2 .

• K. G. Austin
• J. S. Baker

Greater Greenland Ice Sheet contribution to global sea level rise in CMIP6

The potential contribution of Greenland Ice Sheet to sea level rise in the future is known to be substantial. Here, the authors undertake new modelling showing that the Greenland Ice Sheet sea level rise contribution is 7.9 cm more using the CMIP6 SSP585 scenario compared to CMIP5 using multiple RCP8.5 simulations.

• Stefan Hofer
• Charlotte Lang
• Xavier Fettweis

Likely weakening of the Florida Current during the past century revealed by sea-level observations

Understanding trends in ocean circulation and dynamics is hampered by a lack of long-term records. Here the author uses probabilistic reanalysis of available data to show that transport by the Florida Current has declined over the past 110 years, indicating a slowdown of Atlantic Ocean circulation.

• Christopher G. Piecuch

Space station biomining experiment demonstrates rare earth element extraction in microgravity and Mars gravity

Rare earth elements are used in electronics, but increase in demand could lead to low supply. Here the authors conduct experiments on the International Space Station and show microbes can extract rare elements from rocks at low gravity, a finding that could extend mining potential to other planets.

• Charles S. Cockell
• Rosa Santomartino
• René Demets

Towards a global-scale soil climate mitigation strategy

Reducing soil degradation and improving soil management could make an important contribute to climate change mitigation. Here the authors discuss opportunities and challenges towards implementing a global climate mitigation strategy focused on carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, and propose a framework for guiding region- and soil-specific management options.

A spatial emergent constraint on the sensitivity of soil carbon turnover to global warming

The fate of the carbon locked away in soil is uncertain, and there are vast differences between models. Here the authors apply observational, spatio-temporal constraints on carbon turnover projections and find that uncertainty in estimations of carbon dynamics are reduced by 50%.

• Rebecca M. Varney
• Sarah E. Chadburn
• Peter M. Cox

High concentrations of plastic hidden beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean

The risks posed by plastic contamination of the ocean cannot be assessed as their amount and location remain largely unknown. Here the authors show that large quantities of microplastics exist below the ocean surface over the entire Atlantic in quantities greater than previously estimated.

• Katsiaryna Pabortsava
• Richard S. Lampitt

Iron mineral dissolution releases iron and associated organic carbon during permafrost thaw

Iron minerals trap carbon in permafrost, preventing microbial degradation and release to the atmosphere as CO 2 , but the stability of this carbon as permafrost thaws is unclear. Here the authors use nanoscale analyses to show that thaw conditions stimulate Fe-reducing bacteria that trigger carbon release.

• Monique S. Patzner
• Carsten W. Mueller
• Casey Bryce

Global hotspots for the occurrence of compound events

Compound climate events such as floods and droughts together can cause severe socio-economic impacts. Here, the authors analyse global hazard pairs from 1980–2014 and find global hotspots for the occurrence of compound events.

• Nina N. Ridder
• Andy J. Pitman
• Jakob Zscheischler

Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species

Not all plants are equally able to support native insects. Here, the authors use data on interactions among >12,000 Lepidoptera species and >2000 plant genera across the United States, showing that few plant genera host the majority of Lepidoptera species; this information is used to suggest priorities for plant restoration.

• Desiree L. Narango
• Douglas W. Tallamy
• Kimberley J. Shropshire

Remote sensing reveals Antarctic green snow algae as important terrestrial carbon sink

Snow algae bloom along the coast of Antarctica and are likely to be biogeochemically important. Here, the authors produced the first map of such blooms, show that they are driven by warmer temperatures and proximity to birds and mammals, and are likely to increase given projected climate changes.

• Andrew Gray
• Monika Krolikowski
• Matthew P. Davey

Farming fish in the sea will not nourish the world

Marine aquaculture is widely proposed as compatible with ocean sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and human nutrition goals. In this Perspective, Belton and colleagues dispute the empirical validity of such claims and contend that the potential of marine aquaculture has been much exaggerated.

• David C. Little
• Shakuntala H. Thilsted

Migrant birds and mammals live faster than residents

Migration is costly. In the first global analysis of migratory vertebrates, authors report that migratory birds and mammals have faster paces of life than their non-migratory relatives, and that among swimming and walking species, migrants tend to be larger, while among flying species, migrants are smaller.

• Andrea Soriano-Redondo
• Jorge S. Gutiérrez
• Stuart Bearhop

Global warming due to loss of large ice masses and Arctic summer sea ice

The disintegration of cryosphere elements such as the Arctic summer sea ice, mountain glaciers, Greenland and West Antarctica is associated with temperature and radiative feedbacks. In this work, the authors quantify these feedbacks and find an additional global warming of 0.43°C.

• Nico Wunderling
• Matteo Willeit
• Ricarda Winkelmann

Asteroid shower on the Earth-Moon system immediately before the Cryogenian period revealed by KAGUYA

Ancient impact events on Earth are not well characterized due to continuous re-surfacing of Earth. Here, the authors study impact craters on the Moon with ages up to 800 million years ago and present a cross correlation to Earth, linking up to mass extinction events throughout Earth’s history.

• Kentaro Terada
• Tomokatsu Morota

The cascading origin of the 2018 Kīlauea eruption and implications for future forecasting

• M. R. Patrick
• B. F. Houghton

The erosion of biodiversity and biomass in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot

Quantifying forest degradation and biodiversity losses is necessary to inform conservation and restoration policies. Here the authors analyze a large dataset for the Atlantic Forest in South America to quantify losses in forest biomass and tree species richness, functional traits, and conservation value.

• Renato A. F. de Lima
• Alexandre A. Oliveira
• Paulo I. Prado

Thousands of reptile species threatened by under-regulated global trade

There are gaps in international efforts to monitor the wildlife trade, with many species potentially being undetected by the established monitoring groups. Here the authors use an automated web search to document the sale of reptiles online, revealing over 36% of all known reptile species are in trade, including many missing from official databases.

• Benjamin M. Marshall
• Colin Strine
• Alice C. Hughes

Organo–organic and organo–mineral interfaces in soil at the nanometer scale

Historically it has been maintained that soil organic carbon (SOC) is stabilized through interactions with mineral interfaces. Here the authors use cryo-electron microscopy and spectroscopy to show that SOC interactions can also occur between organic forms in patchy, disordered structure.

• Angela R. Possinger
• Michael J. Zachman
• Johannes Lehmann

Atmospheric transport is a major pathway of microplastics to remote regions

Plastic pollution is a critical concern across diverse ecosystems, yet most research has focused on terrestrial and aquatic transport, neglecting other mechanisms. Here the authors show that atmospheric transport is a major pathway for road plastic pollution over remote regions.

• N. Evangeliou

Determining the current size and state of subvolcanic magma reservoirs

This study makes use of the total spread of zircon ages and trace elements to study the thermal evolution of magmatic systems. Applied to Nevado de Toluca, the authors determine the size of its subvolcanic magma reservoir and assess its potential of re-activation.

• Gregor Weber
• Luca Caricchi
• Axel K. Schmitt

Revised estimates of ocean-atmosphere CO 2 flux are consistent with ocean carbon inventory

Ocean uptake of carbon dioxide impacts the climate, but flux estimates from surface measurements have not been corrected for temperature differences between surface and water sampling depth. Making that correction, the authors find previous estimates for ocean uptake have been substantially underestimated.

• Andrew J. Watson
• Ute Schuster
• Lonneke Goddijn-Murphy

Large deep-sea zooplankton biomass mirrors primary production in the global ocean

Zooplankton biomass in the dark ocean is thought to be low and weakly coupled to epipelagic primary production, but recent evidence suggests otherwise. Here the authors analyse data from the Malaspina Circumnavigation Expedition and published data to estimate bathypelagic zooplankton biomass and assess its relationship to primary production, currently not well accounted for in oceanic C budget.

• S. Hernández-León
• R. Koppelmann
• C. M. Duarte

Just ten percent of the global terrestrial protected area network is structurally connected via intact land

The effectiveness of protected areas depends not only on whether they are intact, but also on whether they are mutually connected. Here the authors examine the structural connectivity of terrestrial protected areas globally, finding that less than 10% of the protected network can be considered connected.

• Michelle Ward
• Santiago Saura
• James E. M. Watson

Precise radiometric age establishes Yarrabubba, Western Australia, as Earth’s oldest recognised meteorite impact structure

The ~70 km-diameter Yarrabubba impact structure in Western Australia has previously been regarded as among Earth’s oldest meteorite craters, but has hitherto lacked absolute age constraints. Here, the authors determine a precise impact age of 2229 ± 5 Ma, which extends the terrestrial cratering record back in time by > 200 million years and establishes Yarrabubba as the oldest recognised meteorite impact structure on Earth.

• Timmons M. Erickson
• Christopher L. Kirkland
• Thomas M. Davison

Global phosphorus shortage will be aggravated by soil erosion

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient critical for agriculture, but because it is non-renewable its future availability is threatened. Here the authors show that across the globe most nations have net losses of phosphorus, with soil erosion as the major route of loss in Europe, Africa and South America.

• Christine Alewell
• Bruno Ringeval
• Pasquale Borrelli

Impacts of irrigated agriculture on food–energy–water–CO 2 nexus across metacoupled systems

Local human activities can lead to cross-border environmental impacts through the food–energy–water–CO 2 nexus. Here, the authors report wide variations in environmental impacts of irrigated agriculture across counties within the North China Plain under different environmental and socioeconomic scenarios.

• Xiuzhi Chen

The genomic timeline of cichlid fish diversification across continents

Cichlids are a model for adaptive radiation, but the timing of their diversification is debated. Here the authors assemble 14 cichlid genomes, introduce a Bayesian approach to account for fossil-assignment uncertainty, and present a dated phylogenomic hypothesis of cichlid and teleost evolution.

• Michael Matschiner
• Astrid Böhne
• Walter Salzburger

Pervasive subduction zone devolatilization recycles CO 2 into the forearc

The fate of subducted CO 2 remains debated, with estimates mainly from numerical predictions varying from wholesale decarbonation of the shallow subducting slab to massive deep subduction of CO 2 . Here, the authors present field-based data and show that ~40% to ~65% of the CO 2 in subducting crust is released via metamorphic decarbonation reactions at forearc depths.

• E. M. Stewart
• Jay J. Ague

Extinction of eastern Sahul megafauna coincides with sustained environmental deterioration

The causes of the Upper Pleistocene megafauna extinction in Australia and New Guinea are debated, but fossil data are lacking for much of this region. Here, Hocknull and colleagues report a new, diverse megafauna assemblage from north-eastern Australia that persisted until ~40,000 years ago.

• Scott A. Hocknull
• Richard Lewis
• Rochelle A. Lawrence

Strong hydroclimatic controls on vulnerability to subsurface nitrate contamination across Europe

Excess fertilizer use causes subsurface contamination. Here, the authors conduct an assessment of water quality vulnerability across Europe, finding that 75% of agricultural regions are susceptible to nitrate contamination for least one-third of the year, two times more than using standard estimation procedure.

• S. Attinger

Earthquake transformer—an attentive deep-learning model for simultaneous earthquake detection and phase picking

The authors here present a deep learning model that simultaneously detects earthquake signals and measures seismic-phase arrival times. The model performs particularly well for cases with high background noise and the challenging task of picking the S wave arrival.

• S. Mostafa Mousavi
• William L. Ellsworth
• Gregory C. Beroza

Glacial heterogeneity in Southern Ocean carbon storage abated by fast South Indian deglacial carbon release

A Southern Ocean influences on the carbon cycle is considered a key component of deglacial changes. Here, the authors show spatial differences in glacial Southern Ocean carbon storage that dissipated rapidly 14.6 kyr ago, revealing a South Indian Ocean contribution to rapid deglacial atmospheric CO 2 increases.

• Julia Gottschalk
• Elisabeth Michel
• Samuel L. Jaccard

Delayed emergence of a global temperature response after emission mitigation

Strong mitigation of anthropogenic emissions is necessary, but it is not clear how fast these efforts would lead to temperature changes. Here, the authors find that there is a substantial delay between reductions of emissions and a detectable change in surface temperature for a number of climate forcers.

• B. H. Samset
• J. S. Fuglestvedt

The human impact on North American erosion, sediment transfer, and storage in a geologic context

Human activities have accelerated soil erosion and landscape change in many areas. Here the authors show how rates of erosion, sediment transfer and alluvial sedimentation have increased by an order of magnitude across North America since European colonization, far exceeding the rates expected of natural processes.

• David B. Kemp
• Peter M. Sadler
• Veerle Vanacker

Breaking Earth’s shell into a global plate network

How Earth’s lithosphere first divided into tectonic plates remains uncertain. Here, the authors use 3D spherical shell models to demonstrate that anticipated warming of the early lithosphere should lead to thermal expansion and the initiation of a global network of rifts, dividing the lithosphere into tectonic plates.

• A. A. G. Webb

The influence of soil age on ecosystem structure and function across biomes

Soil age is thought to be an important driver of ecosystem development. Here, the authors perform a global survey of soil chronosequences and meta-analysis to show that, contrary to expectations, soil age is a relatively minor ecosystem driver at the biome scale once other drivers such as parent material, climate, and vegetation type are accounted for.

• Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
• Peter B. Reich
• Noah Fierer

Episodes of fast crystal growth in pegmatites

Pegmatite crystals are thought to grow rapidly, yet their growth rates and conditions are not well constrained. Here, the authors find that the trace element distributions of pegmatitic quartz crystals indicate rapid growth in highly dynamic environments, suggesting that large meter-scale crystals can be formed within days.

• Patrick R. Phelps
• Cin-Ty A. Lee
• Douglas M. Morton

Regime shifts occur disproportionately faster in larger ecosystems

Little is known about how the speed of ecosystem collapse depends on ecosystem size. Here, Cooper, Willcock et al. analyse empirical data and models finding that although regime shift duration increases with ecosystem size, this relationship saturates and even large ecosystems can collapse in a few decades.

• Gregory S. Cooper
• Simon Willcock
• John A. Dearing

Over 90 endangered fish and invertebrates are caught in industrial fisheries

Due to legislative shortfalls, species of global conservation concern can still be captured in commercial fisheries. Here the authors show that 91 threatened species are reported in catch/landing databases, 13 of which are traded internationally despite their conservation concern.

• Leslie A. Roberson
• Reg A. Watson
• Carissa J. Klein

Cropland expansion in the United States produces marginal yields at high costs to wildlife

Conversion of natural ecosystems to cropland is a threat to most native wildlife. Here the authors quantify the impact of recent cropland expansion on the habitat of representative pollinator, bird, plant species across the conterminous United States, showing diminished crop yield returns at the cost of important habitat losses.

• Tyler J. Lark
• Seth A. Spawn
• Holly K. Gibbs

Using publicly available satellite imagery and deep learning to understand economic well-being in Africa

It is generally difficult to scale derived estimates and understand the accuracy across locations for passively-collected data sources, such as mobile phones and satellite imagery. Here the authors show that their trained deep learning models are able to explain 70% of the variation in ground-measured village wealth in held-out countries, outperforming previous benchmarks from high-resolution imagery with errors comparable to that of existing ground data.

• Christopher Yeh
• Anthony Perez
• Marshall Burke

Soil moisture dominates dryness stress on ecosystem production globally

Dryness stresses vegetation and can lead to declines in productivity, increased emission of carbon, and plant mortality, but the drivers of this stress remain unclear. Here the authors show that soil moisture plays a dominant role relative to atmospheric water demand over most global land vegetated areas.

• Lukas Gudmundsson
• Sonia I. Seneviratne

Climate change will affect global water availability through compounding changes in seasonal precipitation and evaporation

Adequate water availability is key to human and ecosystem sustainability. Here, the authors show that seasonally variable regimes become more variable, and the combined influence of seasonality and magnitude of climate variables will affect future water availability.

• Goutam Konapala
• Ashok K. Mishra
• Michael E. Mann

Pollution exacerbates China’s water scarcity and its regional inequality

The impact on inadequate water quality on water scarcity is unclear. Here the authors quantify China’s present-day water scarcity and show that inadequate water quality exacerbates China’s water scarcity, which is unevenly distributed across the country.

• Chenghu Zhou

Mapping global urban land for the 21st century with data-driven simulations and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

Here the authors develop a set of global, long-term, spatial projections of urban land expansion for understanding the planet’s potential urban futures. The global total amount of urban land increases by a factor of 1.8-5.9 over the 21st century, and the developed world experiences as much new urban development as the developing world.

• Brian C. O’Neill

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50 Best Environmental Science Research Topics

May 31, 2023

Environmental science is a varied discipline that encompasses a variety of subjects, including ecology, atmospheric science, and geology among others. Professionals within this field can pursue many occupations from lab technicians and agricultural engineers to park rangers and environmental lawyers. However, what unites these careers is their focus on how the natural world and the human world interact and impact the surrounding environment. There is also one other significant commonality among environmental science careers: virtually all of them either engage in or rely on research on environmental science topics to ensure their work is accurate and up to date.

In this post, we’ll outline some of the best environmental science research topics to help you explore disciplines within environmental science and kickstart your own research. If you are considering majoring in environmental science or perhaps just need help brainstorming for a research paper, this post will give you a broad sense of timely environmental science research topics.

What makes a research topic good?

Before we dive into specific environmental science research topics, let’s first cover the basics: what qualities make for a viable research topic. Research is the process of collecting information to make discoveries and reach new conclusions. We often think of research as something that occurs in academic or scientific settings. However, everyone engages in informal research in everyday life, from reading product reviews to investigating statistics for admitted students at prospective colleges . While we all conduct research in our day-to-day lives, formal academic research is necessary to advance discoveries and scholarly discourses. Therefore, in this setting, good research hinges on a topic in which there are unanswered questions or ongoing debates. In other words, meaningful research focuses on topics where you can say something new.

However, identifying an interesting research topic is only the first step in the research process. Research topics tend to be broad in scope. Strong research is dependent on developing a specific research question, meaning the query your project will seek to answer. While there are no comprehensive guidelines for research questions, most scholars agree that research questions should be:

1) Specific

Research questions need to clearly identify and define the focus of your research. Without sufficient detail, your research will likely be too broad or imprecise in focus to yield meaningful insights. For example, you might initially be interested in addressing this question: How should governments address the effects of climate change? While that is a worthwhile question to investigate, it’s not clear enough to facilitate meaningful research. What level of government is this question referring to? And what specific effects of global warming will this research focus on? You would need to revise this question to provide a clearer focus for your research. A revised version of this question might look like this: How can state government officials in Florida best mitigate the effects of sea-level rise?

 2) Narrow

Our interest in a given topic often starts quite broad. However, it is difficult to produce meaningful, thorough research on a broad topic. For that reason, it is important that research questions be narrow in scope, focusing on a specific issue or subtopic. For example, one of the more timely environmental science topics is renewable energy. A student who is just learning about this topic might wish to write a research paper on the following question: Which form of renewable energy is best? However, that would be a difficult question to answer in one paper given the various ways in which an energy source could be “best.” Instead, this student might narrow their focus, assessing renewable energy sources through a more specific lens: Which form of renewable energy is best for job creation?

 3) Complex

As we previously discussed, good research leads to new discoveries. These lines of inquiry typically require a complicated and open-ended research question. A question that can be answered with just a “yes” or “no” (or a quick Google search) is likely indicative of a topic in which additional research is unnecessary (i.e. there is no ongoing debate) or a topic that is not well defined. For example, the following question would likely be too simple for academic research: What is environmental justice? You can look up a definition of environmental justice online. You would need to ask a more complex question to sustain a meaningful research project. Instead, you might conduct research on the following query: Which environmental issue(s) disproportionately impact impoverished communities in the Pacific Northwest? This question is narrower and more specific, while also requiring more complex thought and analysis to answer.

4) Debatable

Again, strong research provides new answers and information, which means that they must be situated within topics or discourses where there is ongoing debate. If a research question can only lead to one natural conclusion, that may indicate that it has already been sufficiently addressed in prior research or that the question is leading. For example, Are invasive species bad? is not a very debatable question (the answer is in the term “invasive species”!). A paper that focused on this question would essentially define and provide examples of invasive species (i.e. information that is already well documented). Instead, a researcher might investigate the effects of a specific invasive species. For example: How have Burmese pythons impacted ecosystems in the Everglades, and what mitigation strategies are most effective to reduce Burmese python populations?

Therefore, research topics, including environmental science topics, are those about which there are ample questions yet to be definitively answered. Taking time to develop a thoughtful research question will provide the necessary focus and structure to facilitate meaningful research.

10 Great Environmental Science Research Topics (With Explanations!)

Now that we have a basic understanding of what qualities can make or break a research topic, we can return to our focus on environmental science topics. Although “great” research topics are somewhat subjective, we believe the following topics provide excellent foundations for research due to ongoing debates in these areas, as well as the urgency of the challenges they seek to address.

1) Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

Although climate change is now a well-known concept , there is still much to be learned about how humans can best mitigate and adapt to its effects. Mitigation involves reducing the severity of climate change. However, there are a variety of ways mitigation can occur, from switching to electric vehicles to enforcing carbon taxes on corporations that produce the highest carbon emission levels. Many of these environmental science topics intersect with issues of public policy and economics, making them very nuanced and versatile.

In comparison, climate change adaptation considers how humans can adjust to life in an evolving climate where issues such as food insecurity, floods, droughts, and other severe weather events are more frequent. Research on climate change adaptation is particularly fascinating due to the various levels at which it occurs, from federal down to local governments, to help communities anticipate and adjust to the effects of climate change.

Both climate change mitigation and adaptation represent excellent environmental science research topics as there is still much to be learned to address this issue and its varied effects.

2) Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is another fairly mainstream topic in which there is much to learn and research. Although scientists have identified many forms of sustainable energy, such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power, questions remain about how to best implement these energy sources. How can politicians, world leaders, and communities advance renewable energy through public policy? What impact will renewable energy have on local and national economies? And how can we minimize the environmental impact of renewable energy technologies? While we have identified alternatives to fossil fuels, questions persist about the best way to utilize these technologies, making renewable energy one of the best environmental science topics to research.

3) Conservation

Conservation is a broad topic within environmental science, focusing on issues such as preserving environments and protecting endangered species. However, conservation efforts are more challenging than ever in the face of a growing world population and climate change. In fact, some scientists theorize that we are currently in the middle of a sixth mass extinction event. While these issues might seem dire, we need scientists to conduct research on conservation efforts for specific species, as well as entire ecosystems, to help combat these challenges and preserve the planet’s biodiversity.

4) Deforestation

The Save the Rainforest movement of the 1980s and 90s introduced many people to the issue of deforestation. Today, the problems associated with deforestation, such as reduced biodiversity and soil erosion, are fairly common knowledge. However, these challenges persist due, in part, to construction and agricultural development projects. While we know the effects of deforestation, it is more difficult to identify and implement feasible solutions. This is particularly true in developing countries where deforestation is often more prevalent due to political, environmental, and economic factors. Environmental science research can help reduce deforestation by identifying strategies to help countries sustainably manage their natural resources.

Environmental Science Topics (Continued)

5) urban ecology.

When we think of “the environment,” our brains often conjure up images of majestic mountain ranges and lush green forests. However, less “natural” environments also warrant study: this is where urban ecology comes in. Urban ecology is the study of how organisms interact with one another and their environment in urban settings. Through urban ecology, researchers can address topics such as how greenspaces in cities can reduce air pollution, or how local governments can adopt more effective waste management practices. As one of the newer environmental science topics, urban ecology represents an exciting research area that can help humans live more sustainably.

6) Environmental Justice

While environmental issues such as climate change impact people on a global scale, not all communities are affected equally. For example, wealthy nations tend to contribute more to greenhouse-gas emissions. However, less developed nations are disproportionately bearing the brunt of climate change . Studies within the field of environmental justice seek to understand how issues such as race, national origin, and income impact the degree to which people experience hardships from environmental issues. Researchers in this field not only document these inequities, but also identify ways in which environmental justice can be achieved. As a result, their work helps communities have access to clean, safe environments in which they can thrive.

7) Water Management

Water is, of course, necessary for life, which is why water management is so important within environmental science research topics. Water management research ensures that water resources are appropriately identified and maintained to meet demand. However, climate change has heightened the need for water management research, due to the occurrence of more severe droughts and wildfires. As a result, water management research is necessary to ensure water is clean and accessible.

8) Pollution and Bioremediation

Another impact of the increase in human population and development is heightened air, water, and soil pollution. Environmental scientists study pollutants to understand how they work and where they originate. Through their research, they can identify solutions to help address pollution, such as bioremediation, which is the use of microorganisms to consume and break down pollutants. Collectively, research on pollution and bioremediation helps us restore environments so they are sufficient for human, animal, and plant life.

9) Disease Ecology

While environmental science topics impact the health of humans, we don’t always think of this discipline as intersecting with medicine. But, believe it or not, they can sometimes overlap! Disease ecology examines how ecological processes and interactions impact disease evolution. For example, malaria is a disease that is highly dependent on ecological variables, such as temperature and precipitation. Both of these factors can help or hinder the breeding of mosquitoes and, therefore, the transmission of malaria. The risk of infectious diseases is likely to increase due to climate change , making disease ecology an important research topic.

10) Ecosystems Ecology

If nothing else, the aforementioned topics and their related debates showcase just how interconnected the world is. None of us live in a vacuum: our environment affects us just as we affect it. That makes ecosystems ecology, which examines how ecosystems operate and interact, an evergreen research topic within environmental science.

40 More Environmental Science Research Topics

Still haven’t stumbled upon the right environmental science research topic? The following ideas may help spark some inspiration:

• The effects of agricultural land use on biodiversity and ecosystems.
• The impact of invasive plant species on ecosystems.
• How wildfires and droughts shape ecosystems.
• The role of fire ecology in addressing wildfire threats.
• The impact of coral bleaching on biodiversity.
• Ways to minimize the environmental impact of clean energies.
• The effects of climate change on ocean currents and migration patterns of marine species.

Environmental Justice and Public Policy

• Opportunities to equalize the benefits of greenspaces for impoverished and marginalized communities.
• The impact of natural disasters on human migration patterns.
• The role of national parks and nature reserves in human health.
• How to address inequalities in the impact of air pollution.
• How to prevent and address the looming climate refugee crisis.
• Environmentally and economically sustainable alternatives to deforestation in less developed countries.
• Effects of environmental policies and regulations on impoverished communities.
• The role of pollutants in endocrine disruption.
• The effects of climate change on the emergence of infectious diseases.

AP Environmental Science Research Topics (Continued)

Soil science.

• Effects of climate change on soil erosion.
• The role of land management in maintaining soil health.
• Agricultural effects of salinization in coastal areas.
• The effects of climate change on agriculture.

Urban Ecology

• How road construction impacts biodiversity and ecosystems.
• The effects of urbanization and city planning on water cycles.
• Impacts of noise pollution on human health.
• The role of city planning in reducing light pollution.

Pollution and Bioremediation

• The role of bioremediation in removing “forever” chemicals from the environment.
• Impacts of air pollution on maternal health.
• How to improve plastic recycling processes.
• Individual measures to reduce consumption and creation of microplastics.
• Environmental impacts of and alternatives to fracking.

Environmental Law and Ethics

• Ethical implications of human intervention in the preservation of endangered species.
• The efficacy and impact of single-use plastic laws.
• Effects of religious and cultural values in environmental beliefs.
• The ethics of climate change policy for future generations.
• Ethical implications of international environmental regulations for less developed countries.
• The impact and efficacy of corporate carbon taxes.
• Ethical and environmental implications of fast fashion.
• The ethics and efficacy of green consumerism.
• Impacts of the hospitality and travel industries on pollution and emissions.
• The ethical implications of greenwashing in marketing.
• Effects of “Right to Repair” laws on pollution.

Final Thoughts: Environmental Science Research Topics

Environmental science is a diverse and very important area of study that impacts all aspects of life on Earth. If you’ve found a topic you’d like to pursue, it’s time to hit the books (or online databases)! Begin reading broadly on your chosen topic so you can define a specific research question. If you’re unsure where to begin, contact a research librarian who can connect you with pertinent resources. As you familiarize yourself with the discourse surrounding your topic, consider what questions spring to mind. Those questions may represent gaps around which you can craft a research question.

Interested in conducting academic research? Check out the following resources for information on research opportunities and programs:

• Research Opportunities for High School Students
• Colleges with the Best Undergraduate Research Programs
• College Success
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Emily Smith

Emily earned a BA in English and Communication Studies from UNC Chapel Hill and an MA in English from Wake Forest University. While at UNC and Wake Forest, she served as a tutor and graduate assistant in each school’s writing center, where she worked with undergraduate and graduate students from all academic backgrounds. She also worked as an editorial intern for the Wake Forest University Press as well as a visiting lecturer in the Department of English at WFU, and currently works as a writing center director in western North Carolina.

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NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative Member Co-Authors Award-Winning Paper in Insects

On August 13, 2024, the publishers of the journal Insects notified authors of three papers selected to receive “Insects 2022 Best Paper Award” for research and review articles published in Insects from January 1 to December 31, 2022.

One of the winning papers was co-authored by Russanne Low, PhD, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). Low is a member of the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC), a NASA Science Activation project, and science lead for the Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Mosquito Habitat Mapper .

The paper – Integrating global citizen science platforms to enable next-generation surveillance of invasive and vector mosquitoes – was published as part of a special issue of Insects on Citizen Science Approaches to Vector Surveillance. It is in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric, which is a high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. The scoring algorithm takes various factors into account, such as the relative reach of the different sources of attention. The paper has been cited 23 times .

Papers were selected by the journal’s Award Committee according to the following criteria:

• Scientific merit and broad impact;
• Originality of the research objectives and/or the ideas presented;
• Creativity of the study design or uniqueness of the approaches and concepts;
• Clarity of presentation;
• Citations and downloads.

Each winner of the best paper award will receive CHF 500 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge in Insects in 2024 after peer review.

The paper is a result of a collaboration by IGES with University of South Florida, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and iNaturalist.

Following is the full citation: Ryan M. Carney, Connor Mapes, Russanne D. Low, Alex Long, Anne Bowser, David Durieux, Karlene Rivera, Berj Dekramanjian, Frederic Bartumeus, Daniel Guerrero, Carrie E. Seltzer, Farhat Azam, Sriram Chellappan, John R. B. Palmer. Role of Insects in Human Society Citizen Science Approaches to Vector Surveillance. Insects 2022, 13(8), 675; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13080675 - 27 Jul 2022

NESEC is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE28A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn

Related Terms

• Earth Science
• Science Activation

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The PREFIRE mission will help develop a more detailed understanding of how much heat the Arctic and Antarctica radiate into space and how this influences global climate. NASA’s newest climate mission has started collecting data on the amount of heat in the form of far-infrared radiation that the Arctic and Antarctic environments emit to space. […]

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In Vietnam, environmental defense is increasingly a crime

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• In the past two years, six prominent environmental defenders have been imprisoned in Vietnam, sending a chill across civil society in the one-party state.
• In the past, activists in Vietnam were often charged with spreading anti-state propaganda. More recently, ambiguous tax laws have been used against environmental experts and advocates, and 2023 saw the use of a novel charge: misappropriation of state documents.
• Analysts say the moves against environment defenders are part of an effort to clamp down on civil society in general, and environmental activism in particular, due to fears that such movements could serve as an engine for broad-based organizing outside of party control.

Until recently, the Hanoi-based nonprofit where Hưng works as a legal advocate distributed its research online, freely circulating information it intended to support policies on climate change and other environment issues. Now, Hưng says, such reports — many of them funded by international organizations— are only circulated internally among trusted working partners.

Hưng (not his real name) explains that this isn’t because his organization doesn’t wish to give the public access to its work. Instead, it is because the plight of a colleague, high-profile energy policy adviser Ngô Thị Tố Nhiên, has sent a chill down their spines.

Nhiên, founder and executive director of Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, has been detained since October 2023. In June, she was reportedly sentenced to 42 months in prison time for misappropriating state documents. Her trial was held behind closed doors and, unlike in previous cases involving environmental defenders, her conviction has not been publicized in state-affiliated media. Two state employees who worked with Nhiên on projects related to Vietnam’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) were also arrested in October 2023: Dương Đức Việt, a senior employee from the National Power Transmission Corporation, and Lê Quốc Anh, head of the system analysis department of the Power Engineering Consulting 1 company, faced the same charges as Ngô, though even less is known publicly about the outcomes of their cases.

“We are quite scared now,” says Hưng, adding that security agents frequently pass by his organization’s office to inquire about the group’s activities.

For Hưng and other environmental activists interviewed for the article, the arrest of Nhiên, while chilling, was hardly a surprise. Nhiên is the sixth prominent expert working on environmental issues, particularly on the issues of energy transition, to have been arrested within two years.

“Up to now, we do not know yet which state documents Nhiên and her colleagues have misappropriated,” says Hưng.

Vaguely defined laws have been weaponized to criminalize environmental defenders in the single-party state. To make the matters worse, ambiguous rules on nonprofit organizations, the lack of an independent judiciary and a tightly controlled media make it even harder for environmental defenders to defend themselves and their organizations from charges made against them.

In fact, many environmental advocates approached for this article declined to be interviewed because, as one informant says, “the government is watching closely the environmental sector.”

New bottles, same wine

The charge Nhiên faces, misappropriating public documents, is a new one for activists. Previously, high-profile independent environmental defenders were generally charged with creating and circulating anti-state propaganda or with abusing fundamental freedoms. Such charges have been leveled against activists such as Cù Huy Hà Vũ, Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh and Phạm Thị Đoan Trang, who publicly held governments accountable for environmental disasters and other human rights abuses.

Within the last three years, tax evasion charges have been leveled against leaders of registered nonprofit organizations, including Mai Văn Lợi, Đặng Đình Bách, Nguỵ Thị Khanh and Hoàng Thị Minh Hồng — all environment advocates who were involved in work related to the JETP.

These charges (conducting and disseminating anti-state propaganda and tax evasion) are also similar to those faced by more than 160 Vietnamese prisoners of conscience as of 2023.

While Vietnam has publicly committed to improving its human rights record and currently sits on the U.N. Human Rights Council, its commitment to reform appears to be deeply ambiguous.

“Like in China, NGOs remain heavily controlled by the state and mainly function as extensions of government in policy implementation, program inputs and consultancy, while policy criticism is out of bounds,” says Ole Bruun, professor of society and globalization at Denmark’s Roskilde University, who has spent years doing research on various environmental issues in both China and Vietnam.

Earlier this year, international human rights group Project 88 obtained a copy of a confidential document called Directive 24 , issued in July 2023 by the Political Bureau of the Central Party Committee (Politburo). The organization was unable to fully verify the text, but it corresponds with public statements from the party, and NPR also cross-referenced the contents with a leaked copy from another source. The document, according to Project 88 “frames all forms of international commerce and cooperation as threats to national security” and seeks to block both international and local groups from “using increased international cooperation as a means to promote an independent civil society and domestic political opposition groups.” The directive calls for “developing and organizing the strict implementation of policies and laws on national security” in relation to the activities of NGOs and civil society groups.

For Vietnamese activists interviewed for the article, this directive represents a written officialization of ongoing actions against human rights activists in general and environmental defenders in particular: restrictions on activities, monitoring activists’ travel to international rights events, arbitrary arrests or harassment of activists and a broader proscription of independent civil society.

“Now, you don’t need to be an outright dissident to be jailed,” Hưng says.

Meanwhile, the Vietnamese government has repeatedly denied international reports on its human rights issues, with officials criticizing reports from entities like the U.N . as “unobjective” and “unbalanced.”

Effects on policy

Lê Quốc Quân, a human rights lawyer who is now exiled in Canada, has firsthand experience with the weaponization of tax laws against activists. In 2013, he was charged with evading corporate income tax of $30,000 and jailed for 30 months following a hasty closed-door trial. Lê was held incommunicado for months, refused access to his lawyer and denied pre-trial release.

“Tax evasion is the easiest accusation for everyone. It is easy to prove from the perspective of the state, but it causes a lot of difficulties for lawyers when defending against it,” Lê says. “In Vietnam, there is a mentality that ‘everyone evades taxes,’ so judges think that accusing someone of tax evasion is always correct, which reduces their moral qualms.”

However, being convicted of tax evasion brings great shame to activists. In Vietnam, Lê explains, an activist should be seen as a morally exemplary and patriotic citizen. Failing to fulfil tax duties is not only seen as being not law-abiding but also as not being patriotic.

And while prosecutors can count on aid and information from state bodies, lawyers representing activists often fight an uphill battle. “Lawyers often have limited knowledge of tax regulations (which are very complex), lack resources to work on tax cases (as they often work pro bono), and have little chance to meet with authorities to gather documentation and evidence to defend their clients,” Lê says.

The regulations involved are numerous and confusing. In Vietnam, nonprofit organizations are not explicitly exempt from tax, but neither does the law on tax administration stipulate exactly what is required of nonprofit entities. Instead, tax policies for nonprofit organizations come from a hodgepodge of agencies, including the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Moreover, foreign funding is ambiguously taxable.

For example, Ngụy Thi Khanh, director of policy advocacy organisation GreenID was penalized for not paying a 10% tax on the prize money from her in 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize, even though no law clearly supports such taxation.  She was sentenced to two years imprisonment, eventually serving 21 months before being quietly released in 2023.

“It is extremely common for these types of organizations (or even other businesses) to not adhere to all bookkeeping and accounting requirements,” Nguyễn says. “Finding mistakes and legally wrongful conduct within these organizations would be easy.”

However, Nguyễn says, it is equally simple to disprove some of the accusations against activists. Nguyễn cites the example of Mai Phan Lợi, a prominent activist charged with tax evasion. State media report that Mai evaded taxes on 19 billion Vietnamese dong of income in 10 years (roughly $75,000 per year).

That 19 billion dong equals the entire amount of funding Mai received during that period, Nguyễn says. But when deductibles like payroll, service contracts and other expenses are factored in, “there should be nothing left to consider ‘taxable income,’” says Nguyễn, adding that it is customary and mandatory for NGOs to disburse the funding they have received from sponsors for the project.

Nguyễn also argues that punishment is disproportionately high. “Administrative fines and warnings should be enough to keep the NGOs in check,” he says. “The fact that … the regime criminalizes such an insignificant amount … proves that the charges are mostly politically motivated.”

Lan (not her real name), a CSR officer at a private company who has cooperated with many of the arrested NGO leaders, notes that the organizations whose leaders were arrested were part of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA). Yet, VUSTA itself remains exempt from all tax evasion charges, she says.

“Tax is checked rigorously every year in Vietnam. It is quite impossible for a small NGO to evade it for 10 years,” Lan says.

Exiled lawyer Lê said that despite his release in 2015 and current exile in Canada, he has still been under pressure to pay the tax that he had been accused of evading.

“I have never admitted to [tax evasion] and have continued to make a request for cassation . The situation remains unchanged until now,” Lê says.

No land for supporters

With the legislative, executive and judiciary bodies de facto led by the party, there is little possibility of challenging the verdicts.

Even lawyers are far from safe when it comes to defending environmental defenders.

“Most of the lawyers who are working for legal aid activities are facing threats, especially when providing legal aid to arrested individuals, particularly political prisoners,” Hưng says.

“The thing is that if they are fair trials or fair judgment, files should be accessible. Yet none of them [cases of criminalized enironmental defenders] can be found on the website of the Ministry of Justice, though the law stipulates so.”

Finding allies among the domestic public, or even from other advocacy groups, is also out of the question. “Other local NGOs have also been silent about arrests of their domestic peers,” legal advocate Hưng says.

These criminalizations go unquestioned in the context of Vietnam due to top-down smear campaigns by party mouthpieces, cybertroopers and state-affiliated journalists. The Communist Party of Vietnam holds a full monopoly on media. The 2019 National Development and Management Plan for the press until 2025 restricts the coverage of sociopolitical news to a few designated outlets . As a result, coverage of arrests and imprisonment of environmental defenders across all state-affiliated outlets is limited and identical, citing only sources from the government.

Many unsubstantiated articles on state-affiliated media outlets refer to environmental activists as being provoked and incentivized by hostile forces, without evidence.

For example, an article published in The Capital’s Defense ( Quốc phòng thủ đô ), the mouthpiece of the Hanoi party committee, listed organizations led by Hoàng Thị Minh Hồng (director of the environmental advocacy group CHANGE) and Đặng Đình Bách (director of a policy advocacy center, LPSD) as among groups that allegedly “create divisions in public opinion, destabilize political security and social order, undermine government agencies, seek external influences to interfere in Vietnam’s internal affairs, deliberately spread misinformation to diminish Vietnam’s reputation and credibility on the international stage.”

The fear is strongly felt among civil society.

“The crackdown is intended to decapitate the capability of private NGOs in Vietnam, channeling all foreign aid to government-controlled NGOs (especially in important fields like climate justice and community development),” Nguyễn says.

Behind the scenes, there is year-round and long-term harassment of NGO workers in the environmental fields.

Nga (not her real name), an employee in a nonprofit organization in Hồ Chí Minh City, said her team has been stressed by the consecutive arrests. Some have stepped down from leadership positions out of fear, while some others have sought employment in other sectors.

“The NGO world is very precarious. Even if we are not punished yet, it does not mean that we are right in the eyes of the government, Nga says. “It is not that we did not check what is right to avoid the wrong. It is just like we never know what is right or what is really wrong. It is really up to the whim of someone else.”

Support is needed from international actors

“Efforts to build a green and truly sustainable future and those to ensure the protection of environmental and climate defenders can seem distinct, but in fact they are intrinsically linked,” says Maureen Harris, senior adviser at International Rivers and also part of the Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition, a group of more than 30 international and regional organizations supporting environment defenders in Vietnam.

“We are experiencing a global shift toward clean energy solutions, and pressure from civil society — from grassroots organizations to large NGOs — is pivotal in accelerating this movement,” Harris says.

Bruun says that environmental activism is a thorn in the side of the CPV due to its power to gather crowds. According to Bruun, Vietnam is folowing the footsteps of China, which in the 1990s quashed civil society due to it being seen as the vanguard of democracy.

“Environmental issues have the potential for broad and powerful organizing, and when the regime feels threatened, it cracks down,” Brunn says.

In order to continue to work for the cause, Hưng, Nga and several other NGO workers say they are considering switching their organizations’ status from nonprofit to for-profit in order to make it easier to ensure they are complying with tax laws. “There will be less challenges when the law is clearer,” Loan says.

Liangyi Chiang, Asia managing director at 350.org, a grassroots organization that promotes renewable energy, stresses the importance of educating donors on the challenges facing Vietnamese activists. “It is important to keep donors updated on the tax policies,” Chiang says. “Every single donor is different. Not all donors are aware of tax regulations’ complexity, especially rapid changes in the policies not only for civil society but also for the private sector.”

In parallel, Chiang emphasizes the importance of telling the stories of those Vietnamese defenders, celebrating activists as inspirations rather than treating their stories as cautionary tales. “We need to show donors the great jobs they [activists] did in the past. The more we do, the stronger support there will be for the activists,” Chiang says. “We make sure that their stories are to be remembered.”

Banner image: A Nicobar pigeon, a bird found in Vietnam. Image by cuatrok77 via Flickr ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ).

Reporting for this story was supported by a grant from GRID-Arendal .

‘The police are watching’: In Mekong countries, eco defenders face rising risks

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