Featured
Article
|Open Access
Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years agoWooden artefacts from waterlogged deposits in Zambia dating back 477 ka indicate hitherto unknown sophistication in woodworking at an early date.
- L. Barham
- ,G. A. T. Duller
- & P. Nkombwe
Article
|Open Access
Global methane emissions from rivers and streamsA spatially explicit global estimate reveals that land–water connections are important for regulating methane supply to running waters, and that these connections are vulnerable to both climate change and direct human modifications of the land.
- Gerard Rocher-Ros
- ,Emily H. Stanley
- & Ryan A. Sponseller
Article
|Open Access
Reversed Holocene temperature–moisture relationship in the Horn of AfricaClimate-proxy data indicate that during the last glacial period in the Horn of Africa higher temperatures were associated with greater moisture availability, whereas during the current interglacial period, as well as historically, higher temperatures have been associated with increased drought.
- A. J. Baxter
- ,D. Verschuren
- & J. S. Sinninghe Damsté
Article
|Open Access
The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a haltImprovements in European freshwater biodiversity occurred mainly before 2010 but have since plateaued, and communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery.
- Peter Haase
- ,Diana E. Bowler
- & Ellen A. R. Welti
Article |
Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirsAnalysis of plastic debris found in surface waters shows that lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized regions, as well as those with elevated deposition areas, are particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination.
- Veronica Nava
- ,Sudeep Chandra
- & Barbara Leoni
Article |
Extensive global wetland loss over the past three centuriesWe reconstruct the spatial distribution and timing of wetland loss through conversion to seven human land uses between 1700 and 2020, elucidating the magnitude and land-use drivers of global wetland losses to improve assessments of wetland loss impacts.
- Etienne Fluet-Chouinard
- ,Benjamin D. Stocker
- & Peter B. McIntyre
Article
|Open Access
700,000 years of tropical Andean glaciationAnalysis of a continuous and independently dated record of glaciation in the tropical Andes spanning 700,000 years shows that Andean glaciation follows patterns of global ice volume change, with a periodicity of approximately 100,000 years.
- D. T. Rodbell
- ,R. G. Hatfield
- & S. Pierdominici
Article |
Global prevalence of non-perennial rivers and streamsNon-perennial rivers and streams are mapped globally, showing that more than half of rivers worldwide experience no flow for at least one day per year.
- Mathis Loïc Messager
- ,Bernhard Lehner
- & Thibault Datry
Article |
Widespread deoxygenation of temperate lakesAnalysis of temperate lakes finds a widespread decline in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface and deep waters, which is associated with reduced solubility at warmer surface water temperatures and increased stratification at depth.
- Stephen F. Jane
- ,Gretchen J. A. Hansen
- & Kevin C. Rose
Matters Arising |
Concerns about phytoplankton bloom trends in global lakes- Lian Feng
- ,Yanhui Dai
- & Chunmiao Zheng
Matters Arising |
Reply to: Concerns about phytoplankton bloom trends in global lakes- Jeff C. Ho
- ,Anna M. Michalak
- & Nima Pahlevan
Article |
Lake heatwaves under climate changeModelling and remote sensing show that by the end of the twenty-first century, lake heatwaves will be several degrees Celsius warmer and some will be months longer, with potentially major adverse consequences for lake ecosystems.
- R. Iestyn Woolway
- ,Eleanor Jennings
- & Stephen C. Maberly
Article |
Maximizing US nitrate removal through wetland protection and restorationAnalysis of US continental wetland inventory data combined with model simulations indicate that a spatially targeted 10% increase in wetland area could double wetland nitrogen removal.
- F. Y. Cheng
- ,K. J. Van Meter
- & N. B. Basu
Article |
Widespread global increase in intense lake phytoplankton blooms since the 1980sAnalyses show that the peak intensity of summertime phytoplankton blooms has increased in 71 large lakes globally over the past three decades, revealing a worldwide exacerbation of bloom conditions.
- Jeff C. Ho
- ,Anna M. Michalak
- & Nima Pahlevan
Perspective |
Damming the rivers of the Amazon basinThe current and expected environmental consequences of built dams and proposed dam constructions in the Amazon basin are explored with the help of a Dam Environmental Vulnerability Index.
- Edgardo M. Latrubesse
- ,Eugenio Y. Arima
- & Jose C. Stevaux
Letter |
A progressively wetter climate in southern East Africa over the past 1.3 million yearsA 1.3-million-year-long climate history from the Lake Malawi basin in eastern Africa displays a trend towards progressively wetter conditions superimposed on strong 100,000-year eccentricity cycles of temperature and rainfall since the Mid-Pleistocene Transition around 900,000 years ago.
- T. C. Johnson
- ,J. P. Werne
- & J. S. Sinninghe Damsté
Letter |
Terrestrial water fluxes dominated by transpirationAn analysis of the relative effects of transpiration and evaporation, which can be distinguished by how they affect isotope ratios in water, shows that transpiration is by far the largest water flux from Earth’s continents, representing 80 to 90 per cent of terrestrial evapotranspiration and using half of all solar energy absorbed by land surfaces.
- Scott Jasechko
- ,Zachary D. Sharp
- & Peter J. Fawcett
