Assessing timber trade networks and supply chains in Brazil
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Hake, a key species in global seafood trade, substantially influences market dynamics and consumption patterns. This study delves into the global hake trade network (HGTN), spotlighting the roles and connections of key countries such as Spain, Namibia, Argentina, South Africa, the USA, and Italy, with Spain being the primary importer and countries like Namibia and South Africa notable exporters. Our findings unveil a multifaceted trade network, with Spain and Namibia as central nodes, and reveal growth in trade volume and value, signifying an evolving marketplace. The network’s susceptibility to economic, political, and ecological shifts underscores the necessity for resilient, adaptable trading practices to sustainably manage hake trade. Our findings emphasise the importance of managing resources and maintaining market balance to support global food security and reflect the dynamic seafood industry.
Rising greenhouse gas emissions embodied in the global bioeconomy supply chain
The bioeconomy is key to meeting climate targets. Here, we examine greenhouse gas emissions in the global bioeconomy supply chain (1995–2022) using advanced multi-regional input-output analysis and a global land-use change model. Considering agriculture, forestry, land use, and energy, we assess the carbon footprint of biomass production and examine its end-use by provisioning systems. The footprint increased by 3.3 Gt CO2-eq, with 80% driven by international trade, mainly beef and biochemicals (biofuels, bioplastics, rubber). Biochemicals showed the largest relative increase, doubling due to tropical land-use change (feedstock cultivation) and China’s energy-intensive processing. Food from retail contributes most to the total biomass carbon footprint, while food from restaurants and canteens account for >50% of carbon-footprint growth, with three times higher carbon intensity than retail. Our findings emphasize the need for sustainable sourcing strategies and that adopting renewables and halting land-use change could reduce the bioeconomy carbon footprint by almost 60%.
Emergent digital possibilities for design-led reuse within circular economy
This paper discusses literature and practice-based case studies in transformative, design-led reuse using emerging technologies. The inability of recycling to manage the assortment and complexity of waste materials within Circular Economy (CE) demands more discrete, attentive and granular approaches to reuse of waste by design professionals. This paper explores emerging and established digital technologies of Building Information Management (BIM), 3D scanning and artificial intelligence (AI) for their capacity to ease and improve transformative, design-led reuse practices for interiors, furnishings, architecture and building. Practice-based research is used to communicate first-hand encounters with the possibilities, benefits and challenges of these digital techniques.
Operating principles of interconnected feedback loops driving cell fate transitions
Interconnected feedback loops are prevalent across biological mechanisms, including cell fate transitions enabled by epigenetic mechanisms in carcinomas. However, the operating principles of these networks remain largely unexplored. Here, we identify numerous interconnected feedback loops implicated in cell lineage decisions, which we discover to be the hallmarks of lower- and higher-dimensional state space. We demonstrate that networks having higher centrality nodes have restricted state space while those with lower centrality nodes have higher dimensional state space. The topologically distinct networks with identical node or loop counts have different steady-state distributions, highlighting the crucial influence of network structure on emergent dynamics. Further, regardless of topology, networks with autoregulated nodes exhibit multiple steady states, thereby “liberating” network dynamics from absolute topological control. These findings unravel the design principles of multistable networks implicated in fate decisions and can have crucial implications in engineering or comprehending multi-fate decision circuits.
Low-carbon ammonia production is essential for resilient and sustainable agriculture
Ammonia-based synthetic nitrogen fertilizers (N fertilizers) are critical for global food security. However, their production, primarily dependent on fossil fuels, is energy- and carbon-intensive and vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, affecting 1.8 billion people reliant on either imported fertilizers or natural gas. Here we examine the global N-fertilizer supply chain and analyse context-specific trade-offs of low-carbon ammonia production pathways. Carbon capture and storage can reduce overall emissions by up to 70%, but still relies on natural gas. Electrolytic and biochemical processes minimize emissions but are 2–3 times more expensive and require 100–300 times more land and water than the business-as-usual production. Decentralized production has the potential to reduce transportation costs, emissions, reliance on imports and price volatility, increasing agricultural productivity in the global south, but requires policy support. Interdisciplinary approaches are essential to understand these trade-offs and find resilient ways to feed a growing population while minimizing climate impacts.
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