ALT This forum is presenting research investigating emissions from oil and gas operations and their atmospheric, air quality, and climate impacts. Invited are studies on occupational, local, regional, and global scales, as well as interdisciplinary contributions that overlap with other Elementa publication Domains. The public and policy makers have a demonstrated interest in scientific observations and assessments to facilitate educated decisions for the direction of oil and natural gas development. Therefore, we also encourage article submissions that address bridging science and policy in terms of existing and future energy systems assessments.

ALT The International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Project’s mission is to facilitate atmospheric chemistry research towards a sustainable world. IGAC achieves its mission through advancing knowledge, fostering community, building capacity, and engaging society. A strong international science community is especially important for atmospheric chemistry, as the atmosphere is the integrator of the Earth system. Human emissions of pollutants and long-lived greenhouse gases into the atmosphere have caused dramatic transformations of the planet, altering air quality, climate, and nutrient flows in every ecosystem. Emissions are transported across political and geographical boundaries and undergo chemical changes in the atmosphere. Understanding the global atmosphere requires an international network of scientists providing intellectual leadership in areas of atmospheric chemistry that need to be addressed, promoted and would benefit from research across disciplines and geographies.

ALT Guest Editor: Brian Lamb, Washington State University, WA, USA Landfill air emissions pose significant environmental and public health concerns due to the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). Despite regulatory measures, uncertainties remain regarding the characterization, quantification, and mitigation of these emissions. This Special Feature reports research on emissions monitoring, predictive modeling, and mitigation strategies, including advanced sensor technologies, remote sensing, and machine learning applications to refine real-time emission tracking. Studies are also invited that assess the impacts of climate change on landfill gas generation and release dynamics and on the long-term behavior of emissions from aging landfills and their potential interactions with surrounding ecosystems.

ALT Four images illustrating agroecology in Latin America: Image credits from top-left to bottom-right: Agroecological landscape, Mandimbo, Oaxaca, Mexico (photo: Valeria García). Traditional potato varieties, Parque de la Papa, Peru (Photo: Bruce Ferguson). International encounter, Peru, 2025 (Photo: Bruce Ferguson). Maize diversity, Ecuador (Photo: Bruce Ferguson).

ALT Biogeochemical models inadequately capture microscale soil carbon effects, leading to conflicting portrayals of soils as carbon sinks or sources at the ecosystem level under climate change. New models, though promising, face significant challenges due to their growing complexity and scarcity of data for validation. A key difficulty lies in determining how to effectively incorporate the variability of microscale ecosystem processes, which reflect variations of microbiome diversity, and encompass the physiological, hydrological, as well as mineralogical characteristics of soil microhabitats shaped by past selection. This special feature will present interdisciplinary insights into soil carbon dynamics, examining how microscale interactions and microbial diversity affect carbon and nutrient cycles at the ecosystem scale.

ALT The polar oceans, sea-ice, and atmosphere are a tightly coupled system. These Earth system components must be studied together if we are to effectively understand and project the changes underway. Coupled biological, physical and chemical processes drive complex interactions between sea-ice, snow on sea-ice, and the overlying atmosphere in the polar regions. Knowledge of these interactions is key to projecting sea-ice impacts on atmospheric gases and aerosols, and cloud cover over polar oceans, which in turn impact sea-ice melt, freeze-up and biogeochemical activity through nutrient exchange and solar radiation scattering. As the climate and sea-ice at both poles are changing, these core polar processes warrant more focused attention from Earth system scientists. Currently, interconnected processes are only poorly represented in climate and Earth system models.

ALT This special feature brings together case studies in environmental policy from around the globe and across levels of policy decision-making to provide students, practitioners, and researchers with a clearly illustrated and easy-to-understand tool for examining policy choices and associated outcomes. The special feature has three goals. First, to create a resource for instructors who are interested in using active learning methods to teach a social-environmental systems framework approach to environmental policy. Second, to provide scholars with numerous cases that demonstrate the complexity of environmental policy problems and their solutions. The third goal is to provide scholars with examples of tangible change, progress, and failures associated with public policy solutions to environmental problems using a common analytical framework.

ALT As the Anthropocene progresses, the possibility of polymetallic nodule mining in the deep sea draws nearer, in both international waters and in nations’ exclusive economic zones. However, our understanding of the baseline conditions and dynamic properties of these remote environments, a prerequisite to future detection of mining impacts, remains limited.

ALT As the Anthropocene progresses, the possibility of polymetallic nodule mining in the deep sea draws nearer, in both international waters and in nations’ exclusive economic zones. However, our understanding of the baseline conditions and dynamic properties of these remote environments, a prerequisite to future detection of mining impacts, remains limited. For this special Elementa Feature we welcome all studies investigating abyssal and water column ecosystem baselines and mining trial impact studies in polymetallic nodule mining zones. We particularly encourage submission of integrative studies across different biotas and environmental conditions to provide solid descriptions of the state and dynamics of these ecosystems.

ALT The first stage of the scientific process, before developing hypotheses to test, involves an awareness and sensitivity to scientific datasets and observations. Here, we expand that involvement to include input from any other creative practice, defined broadly as “art”. The art-science interface is a rich source of innovation and discovery, yet artists and scientists rarely co-author papers that reveal the approaches and outcomes of such highly interdisciplinary endeavors. With this special collection we aim to provide a window into such endeavors, opening new ways to view the Earth’s 4-billion-year-old ocean. The Ocean Memory Project, launched by grants from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, serves as an example of the benefits of diverse creative practitioners exploring a novel interface together, in this case between “ocean” and “memory”.

ALT (Graphical abstract)

ALT As the Anthropocene progresses, the possibility of polymetallic nodule mining in the deep sea draws nearer. However, our understanding of the baseline conditions and dynamic properties of these remote environments, a prerequisite to future detection of mining impacts, remains limited. For this special Elementa Feature we welcome all studies investigating abyssal and water column ecosystem baselines and mining trial impact studies in polymetallic nodule mining zones. We particularly encourage submission of integrative studies across different biotas and environmental conditions to provide solid descriptions of the state and dynamics of these ecosystems. In addition, we envisage studies using different scientific disciplines to address meaningful questions about the nature and mechanics of nodule mining impacts, the repercussions for biodiversity and ecosystem function across various spatial and temporal scales, and the ability of these systems to recover.