Spatial accurate mapping of land susceptibility to wind erosion is necessary to mitigate its destructive consequences. In this research, for the first time, we developed a novel methodology based on deep learning (DL) and active learning (AL) models, their combination (e.g., recurrent neural network (RNN), RNN-AL, gated recurrent units (GRU), and GRU-AL) and three interpretation techniques (e.g., synergy matrix, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) decision plot, and accumulated local effects (ALE) plot) to map global land susceptibility to wind erosion. In this respect, 13 variables were explored as controlling factors to wind erosion, and eight of them (e.g., wind speed, topsoil carbon content, topsoil clay content, elevation, topsoil gravel fragment, precipitation, topsoil sand content and soil moisture) were selected as important factors via the Harris Hawk Optimization (HHO) feature selection algorithm. The four models were applied to map land susceptibility to wind erosion, and their performance was assessed by three measures consisting of area under of receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve, cumulative gain and Kolmogorov Smirnov (KS) statistic plots. The results revealed that GRU-AL model was considered as the most accurate, revealing that 38.5%, 12.6%, 10.3%, 12.5% and 26.1% of the global lands are grouped at very low, low, moderate, high and very high susceptibility classes to wind erosion hazard, respectively. Interpretation techniques were applied to interpret the contribution and impact of the eight input variables on the model\'s output. Synergy plot revealed that the soil carbon content exhibited high synergy with DEM and soil moisture on the model\'s predictions. ALE plot showed that soil carbon content and precipitation had negative feedback on the prediction of land susceptibility to wind erosion. Based on SHAP decision plot, soil moisture and DEM presented the highest contribution on the model\'s output. Results highlighted new regions at high latitudes (southern Greenland coast, hotspots in Alaska and Siberia), which exhibited high and very high land susceptibility to wind erosion.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a pathogen capable of causing severe diseases and exhibiting resistance to multiple antibiotics. However, there is a significant lack of comprehensive research on the global prevalence of its antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). This study provided a comprehensive analysis of ARGs in S. aureus, using 113,842 S. aureus genome sequences from the National Center for Biotechnology Information database. The results revealed that a significant majority (84%) of these genomes harbored at least one ARG, with a total of 389,464 ARG sequences identified across 19 major types and 103 subtypes. These ARGs exhibited varied abundances and diversities, linked primarily to clinical cases worldwide. ARGs for fluoroquinolones, multidrug resistance, bacitracin, tetracyclines, beta-lactams, and aminoglycosides were notably abundant, ranging from 3.16 × 10-5 to 1.49 copies of ARG per million bp. Variations in the abundance and diversity of ARGs were observed between countries, with middle- and low-income countries showing higher gene abundance but lower diversity compared with high-income countries. Temporal analysis over 30 years showed a fluctuating decline in ARG abundance alongside an increase in diversity, suggesting evolving resistance mechanisms. The study also explored the role of mobile genetic elements in ARG dissemination, finding a substantial proportion of ARG subtypes associated with plasmids and insertion sequence elements, indicating their potential for spread across borders. The global distribution of mobile ARGs was further analyzed, revealing the extensive reach of certain ARGs across countries. This research provides valuable insights into the prevalence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance in S. aureus on a global scale, aiding in the development of effective monitoring and control strategies to combat ARGs in S. aureus and other pathogens.

The rapid expansion of fast fashion has significantly increased microplastic fiber (MPF) release during laundry practices, accounting for approximately one-third of primary microplastics entering the ocean. Currently, a significant gap exists in global-scale research on the release of MPFs from washing textiles. This study introduces an innovative empirical model to assess the spatial distribution of MPF emissions. The model estimates an annual global emission of 5.69 million tons of MPFs from laundry. Of this total, machine washing accounts for the majority (93.7 %), with hand washing contributing the remaining 6.3 %. As the primary source of MPF pollution, Asia\'s emissions reach 3.71 million tons, far exceeding those of North America (1.18 million tons) and Europe (0.45 million tons). The primary issue is that wastewater management efficiency varies significantly worldwide. In Asia, there is persistently high discharge of MPFs into natural waters, and the removal efficiency of wastewater treatment plants is still comparatively low. In contrast, the United States and many European countries exhibit better MPF retention. The global nature of this challenge mandates international collaboration for comprehensive environmental conservation. Our study provides the first high-resolution global distribution map of MPF emissions and discharge into natural waters, establishing a data foundation for global and regional management of microplastics originating from household laundry sources.

Assessing the risk of human pathogens in the environment is crucial for controlling the spread of diseases and safeguarding human health. However, conducting a thorough assessment of low-abundance pathogens in highly complex environmental microbial communities remains challenging. This study compiled a comprehensive catalog of 247 human-pathogenic bacterial taxa from global biosafety agencies and identified more than 78 million genome-specific markers (GSMs) from their 17,470 sequenced genomes. Subsequently, we analyzed these pathogens\' types, abundance, and diversity within 474 shotgun metagenomic sequences obtained from diverse environmental sources. The results revealed that among the four habitats studied (air, water, soil, and sediment), the detection rate, diversity, and abundance of detectable pathogens in the air all exceeded those in the other three habitats. Air, sediment, and water environments exhibited identical dominant taxa, indicating that these human pathogens may have unique environmental vectors for their transmission or survival. Furthermore, we observed the impact of human activities on the environmental risk posed by these pathogens, where greater amounts of human activities significantly increased the abundance of human pathogenic bacteria, especially in water and air. These findings have remarkable implications for the environmental risk assessment of human pathogens, providing valuable insights into their presence and distribution across different habitats.

Landscape changes resulting from anthropogenic activities and climate changes severely impact surface water quality. A global perspective on understanding their relationship is a prerequisite for pursuing equity in water security and sustainable development. A sequent meta-analysis synthesizing 625 regional studies from 63 countries worldwide was conducted to analyze the impacts on water quality from changing landscape compositions in the catchment and explore the moderating factors and temporal evolution. Results exhibit that total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in water are mostly concerned and highly responsive to landscape changes. Expansion of urban lands fundamentally degraded worldwide water quality over the past 20 years, of which the arid areas tended to suffer more harsh deterioration. Increasing forest cover, particularly low-latitude forests, significantly decreased the risk of water pollution, especially biological and heavy metal contamination, suggesting the importance of forest restoration in global urbanization. The effect size of agricultural land changes on water quality was spatially scale-dependent, decreasing and then increasing with the buffer radius expanding. Wetland coverage positively correlated with organic matter in water typified by COD, and the correlation coefficient peaked in the boreal areas (r=0.82, p<0.01). Overall, the global impacts of landscape changes on water quality have been intensifying since the 1990s. Nevertheless, knowledge gaps still exist in developing areas, especially in Africa and South America, where the water quality is sensitive to landscape changes and is expected to experience dramatic shifts in foreseeable future development. Our study revealed the worldwide consistency and heterogeneity between regions, thus serving as a research roadmap to address the quality-induced global water scarcity under landscape changes and to direct the management of land and water.

Pesticides are widely used in agriculture, but their impact on the environment and human health is a major concern. While much attention has been given to their presence in soil, water, and food, there have been few studies on airborne pesticide pollution on a global scale. This study aimed to assess the extent of atmospheric pesticide pollution in countries worldwide and identify regional differences using a scoring approach. In addition to analyzing the health risks associated with pesticide pollution, we also examined agricultural practices and current air quality standards for pesticides in these countries. The pollution scores varied significantly among the countries, particularly in Europe. Asian and Oceanic countries generally had higher scores compared to those in the Americas, suggesting a relatively higher level of air pollution caused by pesticides in these regions. It is worth noting that the current pollution levels, as assessed theoretically, pose minimal health risks to humans. However, studies in the literature have shown that excessive exposure to pesticides present in the atmosphere has been associated with various health problems, such as cancer, neuropsychiatric disorders, and other chronic diseases. Interestingly, European countries had the highest overall pesticide application intensities, but this did not necessarily correspond to higher atmospheric pesticide pollution scores. Only a few countries have established air quality standards specifically for pesticides. Furthermore, pollution scores across states in the USA were investigated and the global sampling sites were mapped. The findings revealed that the scores varied widely in the USA and the current sampling sites were limited or unevenly distributed in some countries, particularly the Nordic countries. These findings can help global relevant environmental agencies to set up comprehensive monitoring networks. Overall, the present research highlights the need to create a pesticide monitoring system and increase efforts to enhance pesticide regulation, ensure consistency in standards, and promote international cooperation.

Deforestation poses a global threat to biodiversity and its capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Yet, the impacts of deforestation on soil biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services remain virtually unknown. We generated a global dataset including 696 paired-site observations to investigate how native forest conversion to other land uses affects soil properties, biodiversity, and functions associated with the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. The conversion of native forests to plantations, grasslands, and croplands resulted in higher bacterial diversity and more homogeneous fungal communities dominated by pathogens and with a lower abundance of symbionts. Such conversions also resulted in significant reductions in carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and soil functional rates related to organic matter decomposition. Responses of the microbial community to deforestation, including bacterial and fungal diversity and fungal guilds, were predominantly regulated by changes in soil pH and total phosphorus. Moreover, we found that soil fungal diversity and functioning in warmer and wetter native forests is especially vulnerable to deforestation. Our work highlights that the loss of native forests to managed ecosystems poses a major global threat to the biodiversity and functioning of soils and their capacity to deliver ecosystem services.

Human activities have long impacted the health of Earth\'s rivers and lakes. These inland waters, crucial for our survival and productivity, have suffered from contamination which allows the formation and spread of antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) and consequently, ARG-carrying pathogens (APs). Yet, our global understanding of waterborne pathogen antibiotic resistance remains in its infancy. To shed light on this, our study examined 1240 metagenomic samples from both open and closed inland waters. We identified 22 types of ARGs, 19 types of mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and 14 types of virulence factors (VFs). Our findings showed that open waters have a higher average abundance and richness of ARGs, MGEs, and VFs, with more robust co-occurrence network compared to closed waters. Out of the samples studied, 321 APs were detected, representing a 43 % detection rate. Of these, the resistance gene \'bacA\' was the most predominant. Notably, AP hotspots were identified in regions including East Asia, India, Western Europe, the eastern United States, and Brazil. Our research underscores how human activities profoundly influence the diversity and spread of resistome. It also emphasizes that both abiotic and biotic factors play pivotal roles in the emergence of ARG-carrying pathogens.

Excessive fine sediment (particles <2 mm) deposition in freshwater systems is a pervasive stressor worldwide. However, understanding of ecological response to excess fine sediment in river systems at the global scale is limited. Here, we aim to address whether there is a consistent response to increasing levels of deposited fine sediment by freshwater invertebrates across multiple geographic regions (Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and the UK). Results indicate ecological responses are not globally consistent and are instead dependent on both the region and the facet of invertebrate diversity considered, that is, taxonomic or functional trait structure. Invertebrate communities of Australia were most sensitive to deposited fine sediment, with the greatest rate of change in communities occurring when fine sediment cover was low (below 25% of the reach). Communities in the UK displayed a greater tolerance with most compositional change occurring between 30% and 60% cover. In both New Zealand and Brazil, which included the most heavily sedimented sampled streams, the communities were more tolerant or demonstrated ambiguous responses, likely due to historic environmental filtering of invertebrate communities. We conclude that ecological responses to fine sediment are not generalisable globally and are dependent on landscape filters with regional context and historic land management playing important roles.

The worldwide retreat of glaciers is causing a faster than ever increase in ice-free areas that are leading to the emergence of new ecosystems. Understanding the dynamics of these environments is critical to predicting the consequences of climate change on mountains and at high latitudes. Climatic differences between regions of the world could modulate the emergence of biodiversity and functionality after glacier retreat, yet global tests of this hypothesis are lacking. Nematodes are the most abundant soil animals, with keystone roles in ecosystem functioning, but the lack of global-scale studies limits our understanding of how the taxonomic and functional diversity of nematodes changes during the colonization of proglacial landscapes. We used environmental DNA metabarcoding to characterize nematode communities of 48 glacier forelands from five continents. We assessed how different facets of biodiversity change with the age of deglaciated terrains and tested the hypothesis that colonization patterns are different across forelands with different climatic conditions. Nematodes colonized ice-free areas almost immediately. Both taxonomic and functional richness quickly increased over time, but the increase in nematode diversity was modulated by climate, so that colonization started earlier in forelands with mild summer temperatures. Colder forelands initially hosted poor communities, but the colonization rate then accelerated, eventually leveling biodiversity differences between climatic regimes in the long term. Immediately after glacier retreat, communities were dominated by colonizer taxa with short generation time and r-ecological strategy but community composition shifted through time, with increased frequency of more persister taxa with K-ecological strategy. These changes mostly occurred through the addition of new traits instead of their replacement during succession. The effects of local climate on nematode colonization led to heterogeneous but predictable patterns around the world that likely affect soil communities and overall ecosystem development.