A curtained stormwater storage and treatment facility was constructed in Lake Storsjön (Sweden) to treat urban stormwater runoff discharges. Over two and a half years, sediments were sampled four times across four facility zones (from inlet to outlet) in two depths to inform facility operation and polluted sediment management. Sediments were analysed for particle size distribution, metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and organic matter content to assess the spatial distribution of deposited sediment characteristics. Finer sediments (<0.016 mm) prevailed near the outlet, with a higher presence of fine particles in the deeper layer (10–20 cm). Substantial variations in chemical concentrations were observed, differing by up to three orders of magnitude. Higher concentrations were consistently found in the inlet zone and deeper layers (10–20 cm depth) throughout the sampling program. Combined horizontal and vertical distributions of sediment characteristics indicated a predominance of historical deposits in the sediments collected. Frequent exceedances of Predicted No-Effect Concentrations of chemicals, particularly in the inlet zone, highlighted potential risks to the aquatic environment that would result from dredging activities. This underscores the importance of considering broad mitigation strategies, including the capping of contaminated sediment, to control the environmental impacts of contaminated sediments on the lake ecosystem.

Climate change is amplifying Residential Electricity Carbon Emissions (RECE), with aging buildings posing challenges. Due to lack of era-specific assessments of RECE, it still remains unclear whether urban renewal strategies can effectively counteract these climate-driven impacts. Using daily electricity and temperature datasets, we developed temperature-responsive Residential Electricity Carbon footprint (RECF) functions to quantify RECE at building and community’s scale. Aging buildings exhibited 2–4 times higher RECF, while newer buildings contribute >50% of Beijing’s RECE. Higher RECF and compacted conditions led to increased Residential Electricity Carbon Intensity (RECI) in aging communities. Our projections indicated that future climate change will elevate RECE by 6–45% by 2050, with hotspots identified in aging communities inside the 3rd Ring Road and high-rise clusters beyond the 5th Ring Road in Beijing. Among the three evaluated renewal strategies, we also found that Near-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) could fully offset the climate-induced increase in RECE in the future. Although requiring a higher initial investment, Ultra-Low Energy Buildings (ULEB) could offer substantial long-term carbon reductions and enhanced climate resilience. These findings can provide an integrated perspective on the interplay among climate conditions, building age, and renewal pathways, offering critical insights for policymaking aimed at facilitating low-carbon and climate-resilient transitions in megacities.

Crop and livestock production in Yunnan province has experienced significant growth over the last decade. However, this progress has come at the expense of excessive phosphorus (P) losses to the environment, leading to ecosystem degradation and adverse effects on human health. As a result, there has been a growing focus on mitigating P losses within the crop-livestock systems (CLSs). Nonetheless, research on quantitatively analyzing the spatial and temporal distribution of P flows in these systems remains inadequate. Addressing this issue requires adopting an appropriate spatial scale for P management, which balances accurate regional representation with sufficient data granularity. Using statistical data, literature and geospatial data collected from 1995 to 2014, a time series and spatial distribution of P flows associated with CLSs was analyzed using the SFA model (Substance Flows Analysis). The results showed that total P inputs to crop systems increased by 52% (from 2.89 × 105 t in 1995 to 4.4 × 105 t in 2014) in Yunnan province. Concurrently, feed import as a dominant input to animal subsystems experienced a minor decrease over the same period. Application of P fertilizer was the main source of P inputs. Soil accumulation emerged as a prominent pathway, contributing to 50% of the total P output in 2014. Additionally, losses to water, stemming from terrain conditions and improper fertilizer application patterns, represented other notable pathways. A spatial analysis of P use efficiency categorized the region into three sub-areas comprising 16 municipalities. In region I, soil testing and fertilizer regulation could support targeted P fertilizer application based on the nutrient supplying capacity of soil and crop nutrient demands. Region II calls for the integration of crop and livestock production, while the region III would necessitate the expansion of animal production and advancements in manure management technology. This approach of sub-area classification presents a promising strategy for improving nutrient management in areas with complex terrain and diverse climate condition.

Environmental concerns due to the wide use of plastic in food packaging have become one of the most significant challenges in the world. Consequently, the research in developing sustainable materials for food packaging has accelerated. Nanocellulose-based packaging is a biodegradable, renewable, and antimicrobial material with some competitive physicochemical characteristics when compared to plastic packaging. However, there has been insufficient research on a holistic discussion of the potentials and drawbacks of nanocellulose as well as its production, applications and disposal regarding sustainability. This study aims to evaluate the application of nanocellulose in food packaging. It gives an exhaustive overview of the essential aspects from the production to disposal of nanocellulose through a literature review. Then, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is used to evaluate the potential and drawbacks of applying nanocellulose in food packaging. It has been observed that the physicochemical properties of nanocellulose materials have the potential to be used in food packaging with fewer negative impacts on the environment. Furthermore, it supports the top tiers of the waste hierarchy and a circular economy. However, some challenges need to be addressed to ensure the safe and effective use of nanocellulose in food packaging, including high expenses, a lack of guidelines, and potential hazards to people and the environment. To eliminate these uncertainties, more studies need to be performed on applying nanocellulose in food packaging. 

Achieving high maize yields and efficient phosphorus (P) use with limited environmental impacts is one of the greatest challenges in sustainable maize production. Increasing plant density is considered an effective approach for achieving high maize yields. However, the low mobility of P in soils and the scarcity of natural P resources have hindered the development of methods that can simultaneously optimize P use and mitigate the P-related environmental footprint at high plant densities. In this study, meta-analysis and substance flow analysis were conducted to evaluate the effects of different types of mineral P fertilizer on maize yield at varying plant densities and assess the flow of P from rock phosphate mining to P fertilizer use for maize production in China. A significantly higher yield was obtained at higher plant densities than at lower plant densities. The application of single super-phosphate, triple super-phosphate, and calcium magnesium phosphate at high plant densities resulted in higher yields and a smaller environmental footprint than the application of diammonium phosphate and monoammonium phosphate. Our scenario analyses suggest that combining the optimal P type and application rate with a high plant density could increase maize yield by 22%. Further, the P resource use efficiency throughout the P supply chain increased by 39%, whereas the P-related environmental footprint decreased by 33%. Thus, simultaneously optimizing the P type and application rate at high plant densities achieved multiple objectives during maize production, indicating that combining P management with cropping techniques is a practical approach to sustainable maize production. These findings offer strategic, synergistic options for achieving sustainable agricultural development.

Urban landscapes are high phosphorus (P) consumption areas and consequently generate substantial P-containing urban solid waste (domestic kitchen wastes, animal bones, and municipal sludge), due to large population. However, urbanization can also trap P through cultivated land loss and urban solid waste disposal. Trapped urban P is an overlooked and inaccessible P stock. Here, we studied how urbanization contributes to trapped urban P and how it affects the P cycle. We take China as a case study. Our results showed that China generated a total of 13 (±0.9) Tg urban trapped P between 1992–2019. This amounts to 6 (±0.5) % of the total consumed P and 9 (±0.6) % of the chemical fertilizer P used in China over that period. The loss of cultivated land accounted for 15% of the trapped urban P, and half of this was concentrated in three provinces: Shandong, Henan, and Hebei. This is primarily since nearly one-third of the newly expanded urban areas are located within these provinces. The remaining 85% of trapped urban P was associated with urban solid waste disposal. Our findings call for more actions to preserve fertile cultivated land and promote P recovery from urban solid waste through sound waste classification and recycling systems to minimize P trapped in urban areas.

Bimetallic gold core-silver shell (Au@Ag) surface-enhanced Raman scattering tags draw broad interest in the fields of biological and environmental analyses. Herein, an efficient hybrid microfluidic chip was designed to prepare uniform Au@Ag core-shell nanoparticles, and DTNB was used as the internal standard tag molecule to prepare Au@DTNB@Ag for SERS detection. Homogeneous core-shell nanoparticles with a particle size of 90 nm were prepared by mixing a silver precursor and a gold core in a microfluidic chip. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the particle size distribution was close to 10%, and the detection limit of 4-MBA was as low as 10-10 M. In order to solve the influence of SERS signal fluctuation, a uniform Au@DTNB@Ag core-molecule-shell structure was synthesized in a microfluidic chip, and the characteristic peak of the analyte was corrected by the relative intensity of the DTNB characteristic peak (1335 cm−1). The experimental results showed that the SERS detection was achieved with high reproducibility, and the SERS peak intensity had a good linear correlation with the concentration. The homogeneous SERS substrate prepared using a microfluidic chip has potential for sensitive and reliable detection of environmental chemical contaminants.

Providing the world’s population with sufficient and nutritious food through sustainable food systems is a major challenge of the twenty-first century. Fertilizer use is a major driver of crop yield, but a comprehensive synthesis of the effect of fertilizer on the nutritional quality of food crops is lacking. Here we performed a comprehensive global meta-analysis using 7859 data pairs from 551 field experiment-based articles published between 1972 and 2022, assessing the contribution of fertilization with a wide set of plant nutrients to the nutritional quality of food crops (i.e., fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses/oil crops, and sugar crops). On average, fertilizer application improved crop yield by 30.9% (CI: 28.2–33.7%) and nutritional quality (referring to all nutritionally relevant components assessed; carbohydrates, proteins, oil, vitamin C, representative mineral nutrients, and total soluble solids) by 11.9% (CI: 10.7–12.1%). The improvements were largely nutrient- and crop species dependent, with vegetables being the most responsive. Potassium, magnesium, and micronutrients played important roles in promoting crop nutritional quality, whereas the combined application of inorganic and organic source(s) had the greatest impact on quality. Desirable climatic conditions and soil properties (i.e., silt loam, soil organic matter 2.5–5.0%, and pH 4.5–8.5) supported further enhancements. Considering cross-continent responsiveness, the increase in the nutritional quality of food crops with fertilizer application was greatest in Africa. In a nutshell, our findings pave the way towards a quantitative understanding of nutrient management programs and responsible plant nutrition solutions that foster the sustainable production of nutritious and healthy food crops for human consumption.

In response to significant shifts in dietary and lifestyle preferences, the global demand for fruits has increased dramatically, especially for apples, which are consumed worldwide. Growing apple orchards of more productive and higher quality with limited land resources is the way forward. Precise planting age identification and yield prediction are indispensable for the apple market in terms of sustainable supply, price regulation, and planting management. The planting age of apple trees significantly determines productivity, quality, and yield. Therefore, we integrated the time-series spectral endmember and logistic growth model (LGM) to accurately identify the planting age of apple orchard, and we conducted planting age-driven yield prediction using a neural network model. Firstly, we fitted the time-series spectral endmember of green photosynthetic vegetation (GV) with the LGM. By using the four-points method, the environmental carrying capacity (ECC) in the LGM was available, which serves as a crucial parameter to determine the planting age. Secondly, we combined annual planting age with historical apple yield to train the back propagation (BP) neural network model and obtained the predicted apple yields for 12 counties. The results show that the LGM method can accurately estimate the orchard planting age, with Mean Absolute Error (MAE) being 1.76 and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) being 2.24. The strong correlation between orchard planting age and apple yield was proved. The results of planting age-driven yield prediction have high accuracy, with the MAE up to 2.95% and the RMSE up to 3.71%. This study provides a novel method to accurately estimate apple orchard planting age and yields, which can support policy formulation and orchard planning in the future.