Terrestrial aquatic ecosystems may constitute substantially underestimated sources of atmospheric H2, an indirect greenhouse gas with growing significance as the hydrogen economy expands. We conducted a 22 month observational campaign across three sites in China's Yangtze River Delta: a regional background station (LAN), a site with extensive lakes (LK), and a paddy field and a wetland-dominated site (PF-WL). Mean H2 concentrations at LK and PF-WL (1454 and 1503 ppb) were all 2.5-2.6 times higher than the global average. Critically, ΔH2/ΔCO ratios at LK (1.22) and PF-WL (1.98) substantially exceeded the conventional combustion range (0.27-0.9), while strong H2-CH4 correlations (Pearson's r = 0.33-0.44) identified flooded ecosystems as potential H2 sources. At LAN, soil processes dominated with summer peaks driven by temperature-precipitation interactions. LK appeared to reflect mixed anthropogenic and lake sediment influences, whereas PF-WL was more strongly influenced by a combination of anthropogenic emissions and emissions from rice paddies and wetlands. Our findings suggest that aquatic ecosystem emissions may represent an important but previously underappreciated component of regional H2 budgets and that excluding them could introduce substantial uncertainty into hydrogen inventories in monsoon-affected subtropical regions.

Agricultural canal-lake systems are potential hotspots for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; however, existing studies have largely focused on natural water bodies or single-type water bodies, with limited research on the continuum. Therefore, this study analyzed the dynamics of CO2 flux (FCO2) in the agricultural canal-Lake Ulansuhai continuum within the Hetao Irrigation District of Inner Mongolia and quantified the annual CO2 emissions (FCO2total) from agricultural canals and lakes on the Inner Mongolia Plateau. The results showed that agricultural canals were persistently supersaturated with CO2 and released it to the atmosphere, with their average FCO2 (49.43 ± 37.28 mmol per m2 per day) being significantly higher than that of the connected Lake Ulansuhai and the average level of Chinese lakes. Although the average FCO2 of Lake Ulansuhai was higher than that of major freshwater lakes in China, some areas of the lake acted as a net CO2 sink during the autumn irrigation period, revealing a dynamic shift between a carbon source and sink in cold-arid lakes. The annual CO2 emissions from agricultural canals and lakes on the Inner Mongolia Plateau were 0.0097 Tg C per year and 0.22 Tg C per year, respectively, providing key baseline data for regional carbon budgeting. This study transcends the limitations of traditional fragmented research approaches by systematically quantifying the differences in CO2 emissions between canals and lakes within the continuum and highlights the role of agricultural canal-lake systems as regional carbon emission hotspots. The findings provide a scientific basis for salinization control, eutrophication prevention, and water environment protection of the Yellow River, and also offer critical data support for regional ecological management and carbon accounting in cold and arid regions.

Multiscale environmental and management effects on forest water use and productivity in contrasting U.S. regions.

Against the backdrop of global warming, land use change critically shapes regional carbon budgets by altering both emission sources and carbon sinks. Existing studies predominantly focus on macro-scales, overlooking county-level heterogeneity and future trajectories, thus limiting precise carbon balance management. The Chengdu Plain, as a key economic agglomeration and upper Yangtze ecological barrier, faces severe carbon imbalance challenges due to rapid urbanization. This study contributes three novel insights: (i) integrating county-scale analysis with future land use simulation to project carbon budget dynamics; (ii) applying GTWR to reveal spatiotemporally heterogeneous driving mechanisms that macro-scale studies mask; and (iii) developing a county typology-based carbon management framework. (1) From 2000 to 2030, construction land expanded significantly while cropland, forest, and grassland continuously contracted; (2) The net carbon budget (net emissions) followed a trajectory of initial increase and subsequent decline, peaking at 6673.122 × 10⁴ t in 2020 before declining to a projected 6409.177 × 10⁴ t by 2030. Construction land was the dominant carbon source, while forests served as the primary carbon sink, together accounting for over 95% of the gross budget; (3) County-level net carbon budgets exhibited strong positive spatial autocorrelation, dominated by High-High and Low-Low agglomeration patterns; (4) GTWR results indicated that consumption level (mean coefficient: 0.466), urbanization level (0.392), population size (0.388), and industrial structure (0.196) positively drove net carbon emissions, while investment level (-0.048) exhibited an inhibiting effect not captured in average macro-scale models. Spatiotemporal heterogeneity was notable. Achieving a managed regional carbon balance requires differentiated county-level strategies: For urban core counties, low-carbon community transformation and optimized urban layout; for industrial counties, carbon intensity thresholds and green industrial land policies; for underdeveloped southwest counties, green consumption promotion; and cross-regional carbon compensation mechanisms to strengthen sink protection. This county-scale, mechanism-based framework provides a scientific toolkit for precise carbon balance management in ecologically and economically vital regions.

• Mapped 30-m annual changes in urban impervious and green surfaces in Zhejiang Province (1985–2022). • Urbanization-related LUC constituted a net carbon source of 0.27–0.77 Tg C yr −1 . • Half of Urbanization-related LUC emissions was concentrated in Hangzhou Bay region. • Urban LUC offsetting 11–30% of LUC carbon sinks during 2000–2020. Urbanization profoundly influences regional carbon dynamics, yet the effects of urban land-use change (LUC) on land carbon sinks remain poorly represented in current regional carbon budgets. Here, we focus on Zhejiang Province, one of China’s most rapidly urbanizing regions, to quantify net carbon fluxes associated with urbanization-related LUC, driven by the expansion of urban impervious surfaces (UIS) and urban green spaces (UGS). Based on multi-source 30 m datasets, we showed that UIS expanded at an average rate of 140 km 2 yr −1 , generating 0.32–0.83 Tg C yr −1 during 1985–2022 in Zhejiang Province. UGS represented by tree cover, expanded at 7.0 km 2 yr −1 over the past four decades and accelerated to 31.3 km 2 yr −1 during the past decade (2013–2022), enhancing the carbon sink to −0.25 Tg C yr −1 . Even after 2020, carbon sinks from UGS growth outweighed UIS-induced emissions. Overall, urbanization-related LUC constituted a net carbon source of 0.27–0.77 Tg C yr −1 , nearly half of which was concentrated in Hangzhou Bay region (Ningbo, Hangzhou, and Jiaxing). Our results indicated that LUC-induced carbon sinks have been overestimated in Zhejiang Province, with urban LUC offsetting 11–30% of LUC carbon sinks during 2000–2020. These findings highlight that while urban LUC drives carbon emissions, urban greening offers substantial mitigation potential for reconciling urban development with climate goals in rapidly developing regions.

Carbonate aquifer promoting a diverse and carbon-active aquatic habitats in a subtropical river system.

Seasonal and diurnal controls on methane and nitrous oxide dynamics in a tropical Ramsar wetland (Ashtamudi Lake, Southwest India).

Distinct diurnal drivers of estuarine pCO2 revealed by interpretable machine learning.

Abstract. Cloud morphological transitions strongly influence radiative effects and the regional radiation budget. Marine cold-air outbreaks (MCAOs) over the northwestern Atlantic feature such transitions. Characterizing these transitions requires an understanding of the thermodynamic and dynamical evolution of the marine boundary layer and the interplay between warm- and cold-phase cloud processes. Using a novel “space-time exchange” approach, we construct instantaneous trajectories using reanalysis winds and extract geophysical variable traces along these trajectories from GOES-16 satellite snapshots for five MCAO events. Directionality of traces in liquid water path (LWP)-droplet number (Nd) space reveals sequential dominance of drop activation, condensational growth, and collision-coalescence during cloud thickening. Traces in domain-mean LWP-IWP (ice water path) space exhibit two distinct couplings between liquid and ice, consistent with different mixed-phase process fingerprints: (i) gradual liquid depletion dominated by vapor deposition and (ii) rapid liquid depletion driven by collisional freezing, aided by precipitation and dynamical feedbacks. NASA-ACTIVATE in-situ measurements provide independent evidence supporting the interpretation of these process fingerprints. Delayed cloud breakup during the 29 March 2022 event is consistent with a shift from precipitation- to entrainment-driven cloud breakup under high Nd conditions. During the transition to a broken cloud field, two distinct scalings between shortwave albedo and cloud fraction emerge, consistent with the identified mixed-phase process fingerprints, with the degree of cloud organization converging toward the end of the transition. These results demonstrate an effective “space-time exchange” framework for process inference from satellite snapshots, enabling a new pathway for synergistic characterization of mixed-phase microphysics in models and observations.

BackgroundIn order to regulate the surging medical spending, the Chinese government conducted a reform of medical insurance payment directed to regional global budgets and Diagnosis-Intervention Packet (DIP) system.MethodsAn interrupted time series analysis was conducted using monthly medical insurance claims data from 45,900 T2DM inpatients in S City, China between January 2020 and December 2023, comparing outcomes before and after the January 2021 DIP reform implementation across insurance types (UEBMI vs. URRBMI) and hospital types (TCM vs. general hospitals).ResultsThe DIP reform significantly reduced total hospitalization costs and length of stay overall, but divergently affected out-of-pocket ratios—decreasing them for UEBMI enrollees while significantly increasing them for URRBMI patients and TCM hospital patients—indicating worsened financial equity for vulnerable subgroups despite improved cost.ConclusionWhile the DIP payment reform effectively reduced hospitalization costs and length of stay for T2DM patients, it simultaneously exacerbated out-of-pocket inequities across insurance schemes and hospital types, indicating that future payment policies must integrate cost containment with health equity.

The subtropical wetlands of the Doon Valley function as significant net sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs), with methane (CH₄) dominating the radiative forcing (∼62% of CO₂-equivalent emissions) despite lower molar fluxes than carbon dioxide (CO₂). High-resolution field measurements reveal that CH₄ emissions are primarily controlled by anaerobic conditions, sustained soil moisture, elevated temperatures, and low dissolved oxygen, whereas CO₂ fluxes exhibit greater temporal variability and respond strongly to thermal regimes and ionic strength. A key biogeoclimatic insight is the seasonal decoupling of soil moisture and atmospheric water vapor (H2O), where summer drying coincides with peak humidity driven by energy-limited evapotranspiration. Pronounced spatial heterogeneity in gas fluxes further suggests that land-use context and modified hydrological pathways may interact with climatic drivers to influence wetland carbon dynamics. The wetland complex (221.39ha) emits approximately 0.0195 Mt CO₂-eq annually, underscoring its disproportionate role in regional GHG budgets. These findings reveal strong coupling among hydrological saturation, thermal regimes, redox conditions, and atmospheric moisture in regulating GHG emissions. The study underscores the high climate sensitivity of monsoon-dependent wetlands and highlights the need for targeted hydrological restoration and continuous monitoring to mitigate future amplification of emissions under warming scenarios.

Freshwater lakes play a critical role in the global carbon cycle by storing and transforming organic matter (OM) from both terrestrial and aquatic sources. Small lakes in northern temperate regions, despite their limited surface area, disproportionately influence regional carbon budgets. Buried sediments integrate OM inputs over time and archive ecosystem responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. However, the direction and magnitude of recent environmental changes on sediment carbon (C) dynamics remain poorly understood. A 23-centimeter core was collected from a small temperate lake in northeastern USA to evaluate sediment OM content and composition over timescales relevant to historical land-use change, damming, and recovery from acid deposition. Patterns in OM burial and source contributions were revealed via elemental and isotopic analyses of bulk OM and UV–Vis spectrophotometry of water-extractable organic matter (WEOM). The optical metrics expanded observations of likely OM sources beyond the information gained from bulk carbon metrics (total carbon, δ 13 C). The aromaticity of WEOM increased downcore, which is consistent with a shift from increased terrestrial inputs during early logging and damming activity (pre ∼1920) to more microbial-derived OM in recent surficial sediments. Future applications of WEOM optical properties as complements to traditional geochemical metrics can enhance interpretations of lake ecosystem responses recorded in lake sediments to environmental perturbations in temperate lakes. • Highlights (85 character max per point including spaces) • Water-extractable organic matter from lake sediments reveals environmental history • WEOM optical metrics vary more across sediment depth than bulk geochemical metrics • WEOM metrics show promise for broader geochemical applications in lake sediments

Microplastics as a novel carbon reservoir in surface water within a large estuary of Sundarbans mangrove

This study addresses the critical challenge of interregional fiscal disparities and the excessive financial dependence of Russia’s constituent entities on federal transfers. The primary objective is to develop and substantiate comprehensive measures to transform the allocation of tax revenues between the federal and regional budgets, thereby strengthening regional financial sustainability within the framework of competitive federalism. The research is highly relevant given the persistent spatial polarization of Russia’s economic development and the new fiscal conditions created by recent tax innovations. This work proposes a model that combines three changes: moving some value-added tax (VAT), giving some control over the mineral extraction tax (MET), and changing the investment tax deduction into a federal‑ regional partnership. The method uses a systematic approach, with comparative, statistical, and system reviews of official data from the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation for 2019–2024. The results show that regions rely on the federal government, with federal taxes accounting for 64.5% to 67.7% of regional budget money. The study estimates that giving 25% of domestic VAT to the regions could cover a large part of their federal transfers. The suggested change to the investment tax deduction includes setting up federal standards and a way to make it work better. The proposals are discussed within the context of current sanctions, claiming that the change of fiscal flows allows the federal center to focus on important priorities while making regions partners in growth. In conclusion , implementing these connected steps in place will help switch from a support‑based model to one that encourages competitive federalism, leading to a stronger and fairer federation. The findings suggest ways to change budget and tax laws.

This study aims to analyze the effect of Regional Original Revenue (PAD), Intergovernmental Transfers, and Capital Expenditure on Regional Financial Independence in regencies and cities across Sumatra Island during the period 2020–2024. This research adopts a quantitative approach using a causal associative method. The population consists of all regency and city governments in Sumatra Island totaling 154 regions, and a saturated sampling technique was applied so that the entire population was used as the research sample. The data used are secondary data obtained from Regional Budget Realization Reports published by the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance (DJPK). Data analysis was conducted using multiple linear regression with the assistance of SPSS software. The results indicate that Regional Original Revenue (PAD) has a positive and significant effect on regional financial independence. In contrast, Intergovernmental Transfers and Capital Expenditure have a negative and significant effect on regional financial independence. These findings suggest that increasing PAD can strengthen regional fiscal independence, while high dependence on transfer funds and increases in capital expenditure in the short term have not yet contributed to improving regional financial independence. Therefore, local governments need to optimize regional revenue sources and manage fiscal resources more effectively to enhance sustainable regional financial independence.

ABSTRACT Staying within the limits of a rapidly shrinking global carbon budget while avoiding dependency on negative emissions technologies and carbon dioxide removal remains a significant challenge in a multi‐level governance system, where resources and responsibilities are dispersed among different actors. In this paper, we analyse the distribution of perceived agency aimed at accelerating climate action aligned with regional carbon budgets among various actors in three Swedish counties—Östergötland, Västra Götaland, and Västerbotten. Drawing on the definition of embedded agency, we conceptualise agency as the capacity of organisations to act or effect change as perceived by those actors themselves. We interpret these perceptions through the lens of the six modes of governing: self‐governing, provision, authority, enabling, experiment, and agenda‐setting. We employ this framework through a series of workshops with regional stakeholders responsible for influencing territorial emissions, centring around 19 regional energy and climate interventions. Our study highlights that regional climate governance across the three counties could benefit from a greater emphasis on informal and non‐hierarchical modes, particularly in enabling, agenda‐setting, and experimentation, which actors perceive as having the greatest potential to advance more ambitious climate action within the constraints of regional carbon budgets. While formal authority remains underutilised despite its legal availability, the findings demonstrate the need for more decisive leadership, capacity‐building, and supportive structures to translate other modes of governing, such as enabling strategies, into tangible results. Regional variations further show that tailored approaches, responsive to local contexts, are crucial for scaling effective climate initiatives.

This study analyzes the financial performance of local governments in North Sumatra— specifically Medan City, Binjai City, Toba Regency, Simalungun Regency, and Deli Serdang Regency—based on the independence, effectiveness, and efficiency ratios of locally generated revenue (PAD) for the period 2020–2024. Using a descriptive quantitative method with data sourced from the Regional Budget Realization Reports, the findings indicate that fiscal independence across all regions remains low to very low, although several areas show a gradual upward trend. The PAD effectiveness ratio generally falls within the effective to highly effective categories, reflecting the regions’ ability to meet revenue targets. However, the efficiency ratio indicates inefficiency in most years, suggesting that regional spending is not aligned with the capacity of PAD. Overall, the study highlights the need to strengthen PAD and improve budget efficiency in order to enhance the financial performance of local governments.

Regional revenue is a fundamental financial resource reflecting fiscal capacity and supporting the implementation of regional autonomy and sustainable development. The composition and balance of regional revenue components—local own-source revenue, transfer revenue, and other legitimate regional revenues—determine a region’s level of fiscal independence. In practice, many local governments experience structural revenue imbalances due to high dependence on central government transfers. This study examines the development and degree of imbalance among regional revenue components in Binjai City during the 2020–2024 period. The research adopts a descriptive quantitative approach using secondary data from budget realization reports obtained through the Regional Budget Data Portal of the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance. Data are analyzed using growth ratios and contribution ratios to assess revenue dynamics, fiscal dependence, and revenue structure. The findings reveal that local own-source revenue shows fluctuating growth and contributes relatively little to total regional revenue. Transfer revenue consistently dominates the revenue structure, while other legitimate regional revenues exhibit high volatility and a declining contribution trend. These results indicate that Binjai City’s fiscal independence remains low and that imbalances in regional revenue composition persist.

Transforming erosion-prone basin into carbon sink: the role of check dams in regulating carbon cycle in a semi-arid basin.

Abstract Wood-waste management in the Global North represents a substantial yet underappreciated source of methane emissions that remains largely absent from greenhouse-gas inventories. Historical disposal practices, coupled with contemporary landfills and large municipal stockpiles, create conditions conducive to slow but persistent anaerobic decomposition of lignocellulosic material. Legacy deposits from nineteenth- and twentieth-century industrial operations, modern landfill cells, and above-ground stockpiles collectively generate methane over multidecadal timescales, driven by interactions among moisture, compaction, particle size, and limited oxygen diffusion. Emerging evidence indicates that these emissions are climatically significant, with wood-containing waste contributing disproportionately to regional methane fluxes in metropolitan areas. Mechanistic insights from mulch–soil systems and preliminary studies on biochar amendment suggest pathways for mitigation by enhancing aeration, moderating moisture, and supporting methanotrophic activity. Addressing these emissions requires coordinated research to quantify fluxes, refine predictive models, and evaluate operational mitigation strategies alongside updated policy frameworks. Recognizing the climatic significance of wood-waste storage can transform a historically overlooked emission source into a manageable component of regional and national carbon budgets.