Earth and Environmental Sciences

In the version of this article initially published, a reference was missing from the Fig. 3 legend and is now cited as ref. 53 in the description of panel a : “The dust-flux records from ODP Site 849 (blue) 51 and 17PC (yellow) 52,53 .” The reference (Jacobel, A. W., McManus, J. F., Anderson, R. F. & Winckler, G. Climate-related response of dust flux to the central equatorial Pacific over the past 150 kyr. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2016.09.042 (2017)) has been added to the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

The relationship between pedestrian-level exposure to green space in different social contexts remains unexplored. We examined 899 firearm-related and 2,256 natural deaths in Cook County, Illinois, using a retrospective matched case-control design. Greenness was assessed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index near death locations, tree canopy coverage, green space along walkable streets, and proximity of death to parks. Two additional greenness measures were derived from Google Street View images, analyzed using machine learning techniques. Associations were evaluated using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests and conditional logistic regression, adjusting for area-level deprivation and racial composition. The green view index derived from street-view imagery (OR = 0.693, p = 0.004), the greenness of walkable streets (OR = 0.787, p = 0.017), and tree canopy coverage (OR = 0.792, p = 0.029) were inversely associated with firearm-related homicide risk. Higher tree canopy coverage (OR = 0.213, p = 0.040) and Segmented Green Space Index (GSI) (OR = 0.552, p = 0.033) provided greater protective effects in less deprived neighborhoods. Street-level green space is associated with lower odds of homicide and its protective effects are moderated by neighborhood socioeconomic context.

Abstract Transdisciplinarity and the production of actionable knowledge with and for societal actors is a central feature of sustainability science. Yet questions remain about whether such efforts genuinely challenge the structural roots of unsustainability or inadvertently reinforce them in pursuit of proximate impacts. This paper responds to calls for more critical monitoring and evaluation by evaluating a transdisciplinary Horizon Europe project, Agroecology-TRANSECT. We employ a critical realist approach to analyze qualitative data from project work with 11 territorially-rooted European networks focused on agroecological transition (called ‘innovation hubs’(IHs). This analysis was developed as a part of the project’s co-innovation approach, with iterative reflection and validation embedded throughout the research process. Our analysis sought to explain how observed actionable knowledge outcomes came about (or did not) by examining multi-level contextual factors. Societal effects were assessed using a conforming-transforming distinction informed by political agroecology. We found that the project’s co-innovation approach has resulted in many instances of actionable knowledge production among IHs, including new conceptual and strategic developments, and providing legitimacy and resources for instrumental gains like policy change. While the project served to amplify the agency of IHs, the extent to which this resulted in transformative societal effects varied. Effects were largely shaped by the IHs’ pre-existing strategic orientation (i.e. whether they already worked to challenge, alter, or replace dominant institutional structures and reconfigure their power relations). For some IHs, structural constraints – namely, market dependency, social acceleration, and state mediation of capital accumulation – limited the extent to which their network could generate transformative effects. We conclude that co-innovation’s complex-adaptive systems approach should widen its scope of system boundaries, integrating social structural analysis to reveal root causes of blockages and enhance agential effectiveness. For actionable knowledge to achieve societal effects that are both proximate and transformative, transdisciplinary research should prioritize involvement of partners with pre-existing transformative strategies, and devote creative focus to building enabling societal contexts.

Abstract Achieving sustainability requires collective action by diverse stakeholders, facilitated by knowledge systems that integrate scientific, policy, and locally tested, place-based practical insights. As collective action and knowledge systems are usually analyzed separately, this paper explicitly examines this relationship, assessing the role of knowledge in shaping collective action within a network of 32 sustainability initiatives in Southern Transylvania, Romania. Using social network analysis (SNA), we explore the interplay between 12 types of knowledge- and action-related collaborative activities, while also drawing on complementary data on organizational knowledge and decision-making processes to contextualize our findings. Our results suggest that knowledge relationships serve as structural entry points for further types of collaboration, functioning as necessary relational preconditions, while strategic action for deeper societal change may depend on the development of informal relationships. We propose a working hypothesis on how network collaborations evolve from low to high-risk actions and from coordination to cooperation, as suggested by the hierarchical structure of collaborative engagement we observed.

The European Green Deal (EGD) sets new standards for policy integration. Its broad and interconnected agenda demands tightly integrated environmental policies – internally and with other sectors – plus collaboration with local stakeholders, meaning also vertical integration. Checking progress thereof requires a framework for evaluating policy integration broad enough to be applicable to all implicated actors and sectors, yet sufficiently reliable and practical to generate comparable results across multiple analyses. One assessment alone cannot examine all the EGD’s dimensions. We review existing frameworks and, generally finding lacking breadth or practicality, construct our own, which amalgamates previous insights without compromising ease-of-use or reliability. Inspired by processual integration theories, it describes five levels of integration across key aspects of the policy cycle: Overarching commitments and institutions for integration, decision-making processes, policy outputs, and behavioural plus environmental outcomes. For each, two indicators determine the integration level. We test practicality and versatility by using the framework to compare integration between climate and air pollution policies in Italy and Finland. Both cases show mismatches between levels of integration in institutions and those in policy outputs, demonstrating the need for comprehensive evaluation. We furthermore argue for the framework’s practicality for evaluations within other governance levels and policy areas.

The accelerating shift to renewable energy has engendered public opposition rooted in fears of job losses. This poses a threat to the momentum of energy transition and underscores the importance of Just Transition. While the scholarship on Just Labor Transition that specifically focuses on workforce protection has grown, the claim that proactive workforce support programs are essential to mitigate the socioeconomic costs of the transition and maximize its benefits requires empirical scrutiny. Therefore, this study investigates whether public spending on workforce support programs conditions the renewable energy-employment nexus. Using a dynamic panel model across OECD countries, this study finds a statistically significant and positive interaction between renewable energy consumption and workforce support spending. At low levels of workforce support spending, renewable energy consumption is negatively associated with the employment rate, whereas at higher levels the association turns positive. By grounding the central proposition of Just Labor Transition in cross-national empirical evidence, this study shifts the analytical question from whether renewable energy transition is uniformly job-creating to the policy conditions under which its employment potential is more likely to be realized.

Urban blue and green spaces, such as streams and adjacent riparian areas, constitute important biodiversity refuges in highly anthropogenically -modified areas, but this depends on their ecological characteristics, preservation and management. Birds are useful indicators of ecosystem quality due to their relatively high trophic position. They may also disseminate and control pathogenic organisms, being good indicators for human and animal health risks. In our study, we used presence/absence data of avian species, and a wide environmental characterization of 102 urban streams across five European cities with a broad latitudinal range (Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, and Norway), to evaluate how the impacts of urbanisation on ecosystem health impacted avian biodiversity. Benevento and Oslo differed most strongly from the remaining cities. The most representative bird species were different among the cities, which indicated that there is not a full homogenization of in European riparian zones. Yet, the number of insectivorous bird species was negatively associated with increasing urbanisation, including some of its proxies such as imperviousness, artificial light at night and population density. Streams with higher diversity of vegetation types and habitats tended to favour insectivorous birds like the Eurasian Wren Troglodytes troglodytes and the Common Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita. This is relevant in the context of One Health because this feeding guild may control the abundance of potential disease vector-mosquitoes. Management strategies should focus on preserving and rehabilitating riparian zones with structured vegetation and promoting habitat diversity through the maintenance of hedgerows and patches of natural green areas.