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Human activities are rapidly influencing the balance of Earth system processes [1], possibly beyond planetary thresholds [2]. The environmental limits of four out of nine planetary boundaries [3] (climate, biodiversity, biogeochemical flows and land-system change) are estimated to have already been exceeded [1]. Ecosystems, societies, and economies are all severely challenged by anthropogenic pressures and the latter two are highly reliant on the provision of food, and secure sources of renewable energy, clean water, and raw materials (all of which are themselves reliant upon well-functioning ecosystems). Securing the Earth’s ecosystem services under conditions of rapid population growth and climate change also poses transitional challenges, as Earth systems are highly interdependent [4]. The movement towards an increased bio-economic exploitation may present further challenges by introducing new and potentially novel adverse environmental side-effects [5].
Addressing these challenges requires a move away from traditional single-domain research towards a more complete systems-science based approach [2]. Technological innovation will play an important role, as will changes in human behaviour and new governance arrangements [1, 6,7,8]. One step towards a more sustainable society is to address the key scientific issues overarching both earth and human systems. It will also be important to inform policy makers and advance public awareness and understanding of Earth system changes within the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and the anthroposphere.
World leaders have agreed to work together to build a greener, fairer, and better world by 2030. To that end, the United Nations (UN) has established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (https://www.globalgoals.org/), including the themes of Climate Action, Life on Land, Affordable and Clean Energy, Clean Water and Sanitation, and Life below Water. Research supporting the achievement of these goals will require innovative thinking and collaboration between researchers, stakeholders, and policy makers across disciplines, geographical zones, and political borders. Breakthrough innovation is often the result of key insights being transferred from one discipline to another [9]. But it is not only insights which need to be able to speak across disciplines, but also the datasets which underlie the disciplines themselves. Combining datasets in an effective manner which makes them useful across disciplines can be challenging, given that assessments of different systems are typically made at different scales and therefore monitored at different spatial and temporal resolutions. For example, when evaluating the potential impacts of climate change on water quality, the available data and process representations of the two disciplines are often available at disparate temporal and/or spatial scales that can be difficult to reconcile into a combined assessment [10]. Bringing together disparate datasets, disciplines, and human diversity has the potential to spark creativity, inventions, and direct science into new spaces and, in best cases, achieve unexpected productivity. This approach is favourable for research that aims to avert negative human influences on the balance of Earth system processes, address interconnected challenges, and avoid adverse environmental side-effects.
Discover Geoscience supports such research and policy developments across all fields of geoscience (Geochemistry, Geophysics, Paleontology, Petrology, Sedimentology, Quaternary science, Geomorphology and Paleoenvironment, Volcanology, Marine Geoscience, Mineralogy, Hydrology, Planetary geology, Geoheritage and Geotourism, Forensic geology, Remote sensing, Geomagnetism, Economic geology, Cryospheric science, Biogeoscience, Geohazards, Societal impacts, Geology) from all over the world. The journal aims to be an international resource for researchers, and also to inform policy makers and the general public with recent advances in geoscience, and its uses in research development and society.
Discover Geoscience is a fully Open Access journal, ensuring that our research is easy to discover and is quickly available to researchers worldwide. The journal particularly welcomes work that aims to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially the themes of Life on Land; Affordable and Clean Energy; Clean Water and Sanitation and Climate Action.
We welcome full-length Research articles as well as Brief Communications of empirical findings, Reviews, Perspectives, Comments, Case Studies, Registered Reports, and Data Notes from across the full range of disciplines concerned with geoscience. The journal also publishes guest-edited Topical Collections of relevance to all aspects of geoscience.
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Mellander, PE. Addressing environmental challenges by bridging the geosciences. Discov Geosci 1, 1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44288-023-00001-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44288-023-00001-1