Conceptualizing racial inequalities and injustice in social-ecological systems: A foundation for ecology of segregation.

September 22, 2026| Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Segregation, or social-economic inequity across space, is a widespread phenomenon. What can ecology, with its fundamental concern for spatial heterogeneity, contribute conceptually and practically to issues of segregation? And what can urban ecology learn? The relationships of four established perspectives about environmental inequity and injustice can help answer these questions. All the perspectives acknowledge the social construction of race and similar rankings. Patterns and drivers of segregation originate in extractive capitalism, colonialism, settler colonialism, and unfree labor, and have stimulated a long history of work in environmental justice. A comprehensive framework of environmental justice pattern and processes illustrate the complexity of inequity. The framework begins with a two-dimensional matrix identifying different dimensions of inequity. The conceptual dimensions can be applied to real cases to expose a temporal dynamic. Examples from Baltimore MD, show how the dynamic interactions contribute to larger social-ecological systems that explain the origin and change of segregation in specific places over time. This integration of ecology and broadly social processes is newly emerging. Mechanisms and social-ecological outcomes of segregation based on race are drawn from long-term research in a segregated US metropolitan area. These place-based examples are embedded in broader, globally relevant expressions of segregation that encompass city, suburban, and rural places.

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Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape.

In most vertebrates, social play among peers is considered essential for behavioral development. Yet in solitary species bearing single offspring, opportunities for social play are inherently scarce. Whether mothers of such species actively facilitate play opportunities for their offspring, and at what cost, remains unknown. We used 15 y of behavioral and movement data (∼32,600 observation hours) from 31 wild Bornean orangutan ( Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii ) mother-offspring pairs to test whet

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Continuous UV irradiation played an inconclusive role in selecting the canonical genetic alphabet.

An abundance of heterocyclic molecules analogous to canonical nucleobases (i.e., adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil) used as the genetic alphabet in DNA and RNA could have been present in various prebiotic environments on early Earth. However, extant biology generally uses the canonical nucleobases and nucleosides as the genetic alphabet, and not any number of possible noncanonical counterparts. Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation was likely abundant on the surface of the early Earth and h

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Fault-controlled natural hydrogen reservoirs as underground hydrogen storage sites.

Underground hydrogen storage requires geological formations with demonstrated hydrogen containment, yet no conventional storage candidate (salt caverns, aquifers, or depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs) offers direct, prior evidence of H 2 -specific sealing. We propose that subcommercial natural hydrogen reservoirs, where H 2 has accumulated over geological timescales, can serve as precertified storage sites. This proposition is evaluated using the Bulqizë fault-controlled natural H 2 reservoir

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Breaking trait scaling via the evolution and regulation of dimorphic decoupling in ants.

The evolution of allometry, changing how morphological traits scale to body size, has fueled adaptive radiations. In ants, allometry has facilitated the repeated evolution of a worker-soldier caste system. Here, we reveal an unexpected morphological pattern and its superorganismal regulation within the hyperdiverse genus Pheidole . We uncovered that antennal sizing between the small worker and the big soldier is identical, lacking intercaste scaling (antennae-body scaling is decoupled) yet retai

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Global grassland productivity and carbon storage benefit from functional diversity under climate change.

Functional diversity plays an important role for ecosystem services of managed grasslands such as their gross primary productivity (GPP) and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Yet vegetation models assessing functional diversity have been limited to small spatial scales. We used the Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed land (LPJmL) competitor stress-tolerant ruderal (CSR) model to assess the role of functional diversity for managed grassland GPP and SOC under climate change at the global scale. LPJmL-CSR si