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Diversity of Global Change Factors and Tipping Points
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This review examines the diversity of global change factors simultaneously affecting Earth systems, including climate change, biodiversity loss, land use change, and emerging pollutants such as microplastics. Researchers argue that global change is multidimensional and that tipping points in one system can cascade into others. The paper calls for integrated research frameworks that address multiple change factors together rather than in isolation.
Global change is not only about climate change. Several changes in the Earth System occur concurrently and sequentially, and still, novel factors are being identified as emerging problems such as microplastic pollutants. Global change is diverse; nonetheless, little is known about the role of multiple global change co-occurrences. Can we safely anticipate that the effects of multiple global change factors are independent of each other? Or, should we be concerned about the potential of their synergistic interaction, where the joint effect of multiple factors can be larger than the addition of their single effects?Our talk focuses on ‘the diversity of global change factors’—How the diversity of global change factors can increase, and how the diversity of global change can affect environmental systems in the context of tipping points. We also show empirical evidence that an increasing number of global change factors can cause abrupt shifts in a soil system (cf. Rillig et al. 2019 in Science). We emphasize the urgent need to investigate the expected roles of an increasing diversity of global change factors as an emerging threat to nature and society.
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This review summarizes the current understanding of microplastic types, sources, environmental impacts, and transport pathways across ecosystems. It highlights that microplastics not only harm organisms through ingestion and physical damage but may also influence climate change by affecting soil carbon storage and ocean processes. The review emphasizes that microplastic pollution is a global challenge requiring coordinated solutions across waste management, policy, and consumer behavior.
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This perspective paper argues that plastics are a central driver of all three dimensions of the planetary crisis — pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss — and must be addressed with the same urgency as carbon emissions. The authors call for a multidisciplinary approach that recognizes plastics as a systemic environmental threat rather than a siloed waste management issue.
Plasticizing the Biosphere: a Multidimensional Assessment of Synthetic Plastic Pollution and Ecosystem Health
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This review paper summarizes existing research on how tiny plastic particles affect soil, water, air, plants, microbes and animals, and how plastic production and waste connect to climate change. It concludes that plastic pollution is a complex, system-wide problem, not just a waste issue, requiring coordinated changes across production, use and disposal.
Global Change
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Scientists tracking Earth's health say we've now pushed 6 out of 9 critical environmental limits past the safe zone, covering everything from climate change to plastic pollution to biodiversity loss. This matters because these problems are connected: fixing one (like using less carbon) could accidentally worsen another (like plastic waste), so we need solutions that address multiple issues at once. This review highlights plastic pollution as a major concern, which is especially relevant since microplastics have been found throughout the environment and in human bodies, with still-unfolding implications for our health.
Number and dissimilarity of global change factors influences soil properties and functions
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Researchers investigated how multiple environmental stressors, including microplastics, climate change, and chemical pollution, affect soil health when they act together. The study found that the more different the stressors are in how they work, the more they amplify each other's harmful effects on important soil functions like decomposition and enzyme activity.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.