Using the Doughnut Economics framework to structure whole-system thinking in socioecological wellbeing with multidisciplinary stakeholders: an applied case study in Glasgow, Scotland.

BACKGROUND: Human and environmental health are inseparable and interdependent. Doughnut Economics is a conceptual framework combining the Sustainable Development Goals with Planetary Boundaries, thereby simultaneously considering human and planetary wellbeing. The vision is to "meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet, for the benefit of both current and future generations". Glasgow City Council has committed to becoming a Green Wellbeing Economy, with a socially just transition to Net Zero by 2030. Through our City-University partnership, we are exploring whether Doughnut Economics can drive transformative action towards a sustainable, healthy, and equitable future. METHODS: Glasgow is a pilot site for the C40 Cities' Thriving City Portrait methodology that downscales Doughnut Economics to cities. The Portrait process combined desk-based research and policy review (from January to April, 2022) with participatory workshops to enrich initial findings. The five participatory workshops took place between April, 2022, and February, 2023, and involved about 130 stakeholders. Participants included civil servants, politicians, scientists, community representatives, employees and representatives of private and third-sector organisations, and social enterprises, identified through an iterative stakeholder mapping process with City Council partners. Workshop aims were to create pluralistic definitions of what thriving means for each of the Doughnut's social and ecological dimensions. Ethics approval for the study was granted by The University of Glasgow, College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences. FINDINGS: The workshops produced a shared, holistic vision for Glasgow's future as a thriving city. The Doughnut demonstrated potential as a tool for both understanding the city's socioecological impacts, and as a compass by which the city might set its policy agenda. It allows the multiple goals and priorities of a city system to congregate around a cohesive goal. The Portrait process led to a widening of stakeholders' perspectives, applying systems thinking to policy priorities, cross-sector discussion and collaboration, and significant buy-in from a diverse range of changemakers. INTERPRETATION: The Doughnut framework offered a starting point for Public and Planetary Health researchers to understand connections, co-benefits and trade-offs across different parts of the policy and intervention system. Applying this framework in cities could generate support for whole-system interventions and sustainable solutions to the complex and interconnected climate and social challenges we face. One of the limitations is that we do not yet know whether stakeholders can translate support for this co-created framework into tangible whole-systems action. FUNDING: UKRI Natural Environment Research Council and University of Glasgow.

Extended megadroughts in the southwestern United States during Pleistocene interglacials.

The potential for increased drought frequency and severity linked to anthropogenic climate change in the semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States (US) is a serious concern. Multi-year droughts during the instrumental period and decadal-length droughts of the past two millennia were shorter and climatically different from the future permanent, 'dust-bowl-like' megadrought conditions, lasting decades to a century, that are predicted as a consequence of warming. So far, it has been unclear whether or not such megadroughts occurred in the southwestern US, and, if so, with what regularity and intensity. Here we show that periods of aridity lasting centuries to millennia occurred in the southwestern US during mid-Pleistocene interglacials. Using molecular palaeotemperature proxies to reconstruct the mean annual temperature (MAT) in mid-Pleistocene lacustrine sediment from the Valles Caldera, New Mexico, we found that the driest conditions occurred during the warmest phases of interglacials, when the MAT was comparable to or higher than the modern MAT. A collapse of drought-tolerant C(4) plant communities during these warm, dry intervals indicates a significant reduction in summer precipitation, possibly in response to a poleward migration of the subtropical dry zone. Three MAT cycles ∼2 °C in amplitude occurred within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 and seem to correspond to the muted precessional cycles within this interglacial. In comparison with MIS 11, MIS 13 experienced higher precessional-cycle amplitudes, larger variations in MAT (4-6 °C) and a longer period of extended warmth, suggesting that local insolation variations were important to interglacial climatic variability in the southwestern US. Comparison of the early MIS 11 climate record with the Holocene record shows many similarities and implies that, in the absence of anthropogenic forcing, the region should be entering a cooler and wetter phase.

Using Organic Contaminants to Constrain the Terrestrial Journey of the Martian Meteorite Lafayette.

A key part of the search for extraterrestrial life is the detection of organic molecules since these molecules form the basis of all living things on Earth. Instrument suites such as SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) onboard the NASA Perseverance rover and the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer onboard the future ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover are designed to detect organic molecules at the martian surface. However, size, mass, and power limitations mean that these instrument suites cannot yet match the instrumental capabilities available in Earth-based laboratories. Until Mars Sample Return, the only martian samples available for study on Earth are martian meteorites. This is a collection of largely basaltic igneous rocks that have been exposed to varying degrees of terrestrial contamination. The low organic molecule abundance within igneous rocks and the expectation of terrestrial contamination make the identification of martian organics within these meteorites highly challenging. The Lafayette martian meteorite exhibits little evidence of terrestrial weathering, potentially making it a good candidate for the detection of martian organics despite uncertainties surrounding its fall history. In this study, we used ultrapure solvents to extract organic matter from triplicate samples of Lafayette and analyzed these extracts via hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS). Two hundred twenty-four metabolites (organic molecules) were detected in Lafayette at concentrations more than twice those present in the procedural blanks. In addition, a large number of plant-derived metabolites were putatively identified, the presence of which supports the unconfirmed report that Lafayette fell in a semirural location in Indiana. Remarkably, the putative identification of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (or vomitoxin), alongside the report that the collector was possibly a student at Purdue University, can be used to identify the most likely fall year as 1919.

Holocene geochemical footprint from Semi-arid alpine wetlands in southern Spain.

Here we provide the geochemical dataset that our research group has collected after 10 years of investigation in the Sierra Nevada National Park in southern Spain. These data come from Holocene sedimentary records from four alpine sites (ranging from ∼2500 to ∼3000 masl): two peatlands and two shallow lakes. Different kinds of organic and inorganic analyses have been conducted. The organic matter in the bulk sediment was characterised using elemental measurements and isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS). Leaf waxes in the sediment were investigated by means of chromatography with flame-ionization detection and mass spectrometry (GC-FID, GC-MS). Major, minor and trace elements of the sediments were analysed with atomic absorption (AAS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), as well as X-ray scanning fluorescence. These data can be reused by environmental researchers and soil and land managers of the Sierra Nevada National Park and similar regions to identify the effect of natural climate change, overprinted by human impact, as well as to project new management policies in similar protected areas.

Alpine bogs of southern Spain show human-induced environmental change superimposed on long-term natural variations.

Recent studies have proved that high elevation environments, especially remote wetlands, are exceptional ecological sensors of global change. For example, European glaciers have retreated during the 20th century while the Sierra Nevada National Park in southern Spain witnessed the first complete disappearance of modern glaciers in Europe. Given that the effects of climatic fluctuations on local ecosystems are complex in these sensitive alpine areas, it is crucial to identify their long-term natural trends, ecological thresholds, and responses to human impact. In this study, the geochemical records from two adjacent alpine bogs in the protected Sierra Nevada National Park reveal different sensitivities and long-term environmental responses, despite similar natural forcings, such as solar radiation and the North Atlantic Oscillation, during the late Holocene. After the Industrial Revolution both bogs registered an independent, abrupt and enhanced response to the anthropogenic forcing, at the same time that the last glaciers disappeared. The different response recorded at each site suggests that the National Park and land managers of similar regions need to consider landscape and environmental evolution in addition to changing climate to fully understand implications of climate and human influence.