Volume 5 Issue 9, September 2022

Co-culture systems produce more food per land unit — offering a sustainable solution to food security. The first step may lie in optimizing for diverse species interaction networks, much like the way engineers design manufacturing systems for optimal productivity.

The management of introduced species, whether kudzu or zebra mussels, is costly and complex. Now, a paper reports a workable, effective solution that harnesses network analyses of ecological phenomena.

Early human impacts on the environment can illuminate current sustainability challenges. A new paper argues that 5,500 years ago in North China a positive feedback cycle between two domesticated species sparked ongoing intensification of agriculture production and intervention in nature.

Billions of people across the globe lack access to safe drinking water. Now a study sheds light on the potential for sunlight-based technologies to offer reliable disinfection for rural populations, which are often the most underserved.

The cause of the sudden increase in the complexity of prehistoric societies 4,000–6,000 years ago is unknown. Pig diet and millet-field manuring studies indicate that an intensive millet–pig system developed approximately 5,500 years ago in North China, which provided food for the growing populations of the emerging complex societies.

In the face of growing calls to restrict risk analysis to narrow and specific events, this Perspectives argues instead for fully integrated frameworks that bring risk analysis into all aspects of resilience studies.

Systems that combine agriculture and aquaculture have the potential to intensify food production relatively sustainably. This study shows how models of such co-culture systems based on ecological networks can optimize production based on the species involved.

Why environmental benefits are valued differently across individuals and regions is not well understood. Using large-scale survey data collected across G20 countries, this study finds that a few social indicators explain the diversity in people’s perceptions of environmental benefits.

Biological invasions involve complex interactions between social and environmental factors, challenging effective management. This study represents the invasion of Minnesota lakes by zebra mussels as a network of interactions and finds that using network metrics can guide effective management.

Intensifying food production sustainably is critical given growing demand and agriculture’s environmental footprint. This meta-analysis finds that practices such as adding organic matter and increasing crop diversity can partly substitute for nitrogen fertilizer to sustain or increase yields.

The development of complex societies and their agricultural bases underlies key challenges we still face. This study demonstrates sustainable intensification of a pig and millet system that helped feed the earliest complex societies in North China.

Ammonia plays a crucial role in the world’s food supply; however, its production from Haber–Bosch process features heavy CO₂ emissions and energy consumption. Here the authors show a more sustainable approach to synthesize ammonia utilizing a membrane reactor.

The Sustainable Development Goals were launched as a worldwide governance framework, but little is known about their actual political impacts. This study shows evidence that the Sustainable Development Goals have had largely a discursive influence and only limited transformative political impact.

Poor access to safe drinking water is a major global sustainability issue. Solar disinfection provides a feasible solution. Here the authors examine the potential of five most typical types of this technology, revealing their unique challenges and opportunities.