Collection 05 March 2025

Top 25 Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Articles of 2024

This collection highlights the most downloaded* Nature Communications papers in Earth, environmental and planetary sciences published in 2024. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers highlight valuable research from an international community.

You can also check out the Top 25 within various subject areas.

*Data obtained from SN Insights, which is based on Digital Science’s Dimensions.

Top articles

Continuous sterane and phytane δ¹³C record reveals a substantial pCO₂ decline since the mid-Miocene

Molecular fossils from marine phytoplankton reveal a substantial decline in CO2 values over the past 15 million years and may support higher climate sensitivity than previously reported.
- Caitlyn R. Witkowski
- Anna S. von der Heydt
- Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté
ArticleOpen Access18 Jun 2024 Nature Communications
Florida Current transport observations reveal four decades of steady state

The study shows that the Florida Current, an important contributor to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, has not declined as previously suggested, but remained steady over the past 40-years of observations.
- Denis L. Volkov
- Ryan H. Smith
- Molly O. Baringer
ArticleOpen Access5 Sep 2024 Nature Communications
Real-world time-travel experiment shows ecosystem collapse due to anthropogenic climate change

Over 13 years, coastal Louisiana’s wetlands have been endangered by a sea-level rise rate comparable to what is expected later this century. While the rate may not persist over the next few decades, this natural experiment indicates a 75% drowning of these wetlands by 2070 under current carbon emissions.
- Guandong Li
- Torbjörn E. Törnqvist
- Sönke Dangendorf
ArticleOpen Access15 Feb 2024 Nature Communications
The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could occur before 2030

The first day with no sea ice in the Arctic will be a visible sign of climate change. This work reveals that this could occur before 2030 already and becomes more likely as the world warms. As the ice thins, the triggers are extreme weather events.
- Céline Heuzé
- Alexandra Jahn
ArticleOpen Access3 Dec 2024 Nature Communications
Animal life in the shallow subseafloor crust at deep-sea hydrothermal vents

Microbes and viruses inhabit the subseafloor crust beneath hydrothermal vents. Here the authors show that vent endemic animals such as giant tubeworms also live in vent subseafloor cavities, implicating subseafloor dispersal of vent larvae and the need to protect seafloor and subseafloor vent habitats.
- Monika Bright
- Sabine Gollner
- Alex Paris
ArticleOpen Access15 Oct 2024 Nature Communications
Significantly wetter or drier future conditions for one to two thirds of the world’s population

The authors disentangle uncertainty in rainfall projections, revealing regions where multiple global climate models agree on future drying and wetting patterns with implications for one to two thirds of the world’s population.
- Ralph Trancoso
- Jozef Syktus
- Robin Chadwick
ArticleOpen Access11 Jan 2024 Nature Communications
A unifying modelling of multiple land degradation pathways in Europe

This study presents an unprecedented analysis of agricultural land multi-degradation in 40 European countries, using twelve dataset-based processes that were modelled as land degradation convergence and combination pathways across the continent.
- Remus Prăvălie
- Pasquale Borrelli
- Marius-Victor Birsan
ArticleOpen Access8 May 2024 Nature Communications
Mapping the planet’s critical areas for biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people

This study shows that conserving approximately half of global land area through protection or sustainable management could provide 90% of ten of nature’s contributions to people and could meet representation targets for 26,709 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. This finding supports recent commitments to conserve at least 30% of global lands and waters by 2030.
- Rachel A. Neugarten
- Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer
- Amanda D. Rodewald
ArticleOpen Access10 Jan 2024 Nature Communications
A triple increase in global river basins with water scarcity due to future pollution

Here the authors find one third of global sub-basins will face severe clean water scarcity in 2050. Nitrogen pollution aggravates water scarcity in >2,000 sub-basins thus 3 billion more people will be posed with severe water scarcity in 2050.
- Mengru Wang
- Benjamin Leon Bodirsky
- Maryna Strokal
ArticleOpen Access6 Feb 2024 Nature Communications
Potential of artificial intelligence in reducing energy and carbon emissions of commercial buildings at scale

AI reduces building energy and emissions in design/construction, equipment, occupancy, and control/operation. By accelerating high-efficiency and net-zero buildings, AI could cut energy and emissions by 40-90% by 2050 combined with adequate policies.
- Chao Ding
- Jing Ke
- Nan Zhou
ArticleOpen Access14 Jul 2024 Nature Communications
Accounting for albedo change to identify climate-positive tree cover restoration

Restoring tree cover is a prominent climate solution but can cause global warming due to changes in albedo. This paper maps albedo and carbon changes from restoring tree cover to highlight where the greatest net climate benefits can be achieved.
- Natalia Hasler
- Christopher A. Williams
- Susan C. Cook-Patton
ArticleOpen Access26 Mar 2024 Nature Communications
Deep-sea hiatus record reveals orbital pacing by 2.4 Myr eccentricity grand cycles

Cenozoic deep-sea hiatuses reveal a ~2.4 Myr eccentricity signal corresponding to orbitally-forced intensification of deep-water circulation. The signal is disrupted by a chaotic orbital transition in the Solar System at about 56 Ma.
- Adriana Dutkiewicz
- Slah Boulila
- R. Dietmar Müller
ArticleOpen Access12 Mar 2024 Nature Communications
Biodiversity loss reduces global terrestrial carbon storage

Loss of vegetation carbon from biodiversity loss could rival emissions from other sources such as land-use change. This creates a feedback where climate change increases biodiversity loss, leading to greater emissions and more climate change.
- Sarah R. Weiskopf
- Forest Isbell
- Simon Ferrier
ArticleOpen Access22 May 2024 Nature Communications
Drivers and Impacts of the Record-Breaking 2023 Wildfire Season in Canada

The record-breaking 2023 wildfire season in Canada ( ~ 15 Mha burned) was enabled by early snowmelt, drought, and extreme weather. It had profound impacts that included evacuation of >200 communities, millions exposed to hazardous smoke, and a strain on fire-fighting resources.
- Piyush Jain
- Quinn E. Barber
- Marc-André Parisien
ArticleOpen Access20 Aug 2024 Nature Communications
Meta-analysis shows the impacts of ecological restoration on greenhouse gas emissions

International initiatives set ambitious targets for ecological restoration. Here, the authors conduct a meta-analysis to quantify the impacts of ecological restoration on greenhouse gas emissions and find that forest, grassland, and wetland restoration reduce global warming potential.
- Tiehu He
- Weixin Ding
- Quanfa Zhang
ArticleOpen Access26 Mar 2024 Nature Communications
Fire suppression makes wildfires more severe and accentuates impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation

Fire suppression removes less-extreme wildfires, concentrating fires under extreme conditions. The authors use model simulations to show how this “suppression bias” intensifies fire behavior and effects, beyond fuel accumulation and climate change impacts.
- Mark R. Kreider
- Philip E. Higuera
- Andrew J. Larson
ArticleOpen Access25 Mar 2024 Nature Communications
Engineering natural microbiomes toward enhanced bioremediation by microbiome modeling

Engineering natural microbiomes for biotechnological applications remains challenging. Here, the authors present a combinatory top-down and bottom-up framework to engineer natural microbiomes for the construction of function-enhanced synthetic microbiomes.
- Zhepu Ruan
- Kai Chen
- Xihui Xu
ArticleOpen Access1 Jun 2024 Nature Communications
Ecological countermeasures to prevent pathogen spillover and subsequent pandemics

In this Perspective, the authors discuss the importance of preventing zoonotic spillover to prevent pandemics. They highlight mechanisms by which environmental changes can enable spillover, identify ecological interventions for spillover prevention and suggest policy frameworks through which interventions can be implemented.
- Raina K. Plowright
- Aliyu N. Ahmed
- Annika T. H. Keeley
PerspectiveOpen Access26 Mar 2024 Nature Communications
Arctic freshwater outflow suppressed Nordic Seas overturning and oceanic heat transport during the Last Interglacial

During a globally warmer-than-present period, ~128,000 years before present, enhanced melting of Arctic sea ice and freshwater export resulted in slowdown of the Nordic Sea deepwater formation and significant regional cooling.
- Mohamed M. Ezat
- Kirsten Fahl
- Tine L. Rasmussen
ArticleOpen Access27 Oct 2024 Nature Communications
Green spaces provide substantial but unequal urban cooling globally

A 1.5-fold gap exists in green space cooling adaptation between cities in the Global South and North. Enhancing urban green space quality and quantity offers vast potential for improving outdoor cooling adaptation and reducing its global inequality.
- Yuxiang Li
- Jens-Christian Svenning
- Chi Xu
ArticleOpen Access2 Sep 2024 Nature Communications
Knowledge-guided machine learning can improve carbon cycle quantification in agroecosystems

Existing models to estimate agroecosystem C cycle have large uncertainties. Here, the authors propose a knowledge-guided machine learning framework that improves C cycle quantification in agroecosystems by integrating process-based and machine learning models, and multi-source high-resolution data.
- Licheng Liu
- Wang Zhou
- Zhenong Jin
ArticleOpen Access8 Jan 2024 Nature Communications
Chlorine isotopes constrain a major drawdown of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis

Chlorine isotopes reveal a two-phase salt deposition in the Mediterranean during the Messinian Salinity Crisis: an initial, brine-filled phase, followed by a rapid evaporative drawdown, causing a major ( ~ 2 km) sea-level drop.
- G. Aloisi
- J. Moneron
- Z. Gvirtzman
ArticleOpen Access18 Nov 2024 Nature Communications
The feasibility of reaching gigatonne scale CO₂ storage by mid-century

A study shows the maximum techno-economically constrained CO₂ storage rate is 16 GtCO₂ yr^-1 by 2050, with 60% reliant on the USA, highlighting geographical discrepancies with current IPCC projections. A more feasible benchmark is 5-6 GtCO₂ yr⁻¹.
- Yuting Zhang
- Christopher Jackson
- Samuel Krevor
ArticleOpen Access28 Aug 2024 Nature Communications
Global turnover of soil mineral-associated and particulate organic carbon

Separating soil organic carbon into mineral-associated and particulate organic carbon enables a more accurate prediction of soil vulnerability to climate change. The authors generate the global atlas of stocks and turnover times of these two fractions.
- Zhenghu Zhou
- Chengjie Ren
- Gehong Wei
ArticleOpen Access22 Jun 2024 Nature Communications
Remotely sensing potential climate change tipping points across scales

Climate change could drive critical parts of the Earth system past tipping points, causing large-scale, abrupt and/or irreversible changes that harm societies. Here, the authors suggest that satellite remote sensing can play a unique role in helping manage these profound risks, by providing improved early warning of tipping points across scales.
- Timothy M. Lenton
- Jesse F. Abrams
- Niklas Boers
PerspectiveOpen Access6 Jan 2024 Nature Communications

Top 25 Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Articles of 2024

Top articles

Continuous sterane and phytane δ¹³C record reveals a substantial pCO₂ decline since the mid-Miocene

Florida Current transport observations reveal four decades of steady state

Real-world time-travel experiment shows ecosystem collapse due to anthropogenic climate change

The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could occur before 2030

Animal life in the shallow subseafloor crust at deep-sea hydrothermal vents

Significantly wetter or drier future conditions for one to two thirds of the world’s population

A unifying modelling of multiple land degradation pathways in Europe

Mapping the planet’s critical areas for biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people

A triple increase in global river basins with water scarcity due to future pollution

Potential of artificial intelligence in reducing energy and carbon emissions of commercial buildings at scale

Accounting for albedo change to identify climate-positive tree cover restoration

Deep-sea hiatus record reveals orbital pacing by 2.4 Myr eccentricity grand cycles

Biodiversity loss reduces global terrestrial carbon storage

Drivers and Impacts of the Record-Breaking 2023 Wildfire Season in Canada

Meta-analysis shows the impacts of ecological restoration on greenhouse gas emissions

Fire suppression makes wildfires more severe and accentuates impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation

Engineering natural microbiomes toward enhanced bioremediation by microbiome modeling

Ecological countermeasures to prevent pathogen spillover and subsequent pandemics

Arctic freshwater outflow suppressed Nordic Seas overturning and oceanic heat transport during the Last Interglacial

Green spaces provide substantial but unequal urban cooling globally

Knowledge-guided machine learning can improve carbon cycle quantification in agroecosystems

Chlorine isotopes constrain a major drawdown of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis

The feasibility of reaching gigatonne scale CO₂ storage by mid-century

Global turnover of soil mineral-associated and particulate organic carbon

Remotely sensing potential climate change tipping points across scales

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