Citizen science and artificial intelligence (AI) offer immense potential for tackling urgent sustainability challenges, from health to climate change. Combined, they offer innovative solutions to accelerate progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). IIASA researchers explored the synergies between citizen science and AI, specifically highlighting how the integration of citizen science data and approaches into AI can enhance sustainable development monitoring and achievement while mitigating AI risks.

 

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are not just falling short of global sustainability targets but are actively contributing to the very problems they claim to address, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. This study argues that there is an urgent need for MNEs to reassess their innovation strategies to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A new study in the journal Scientific Reports offers a rare glimmer of hope in the face of climate change, suggesting glacial rivers and lakes may play a crucial role in mitigating the effects of  methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that recent studies have shown emerging as glaciers melt in warming global temperatures.

A new AI image tool could aid the development of algorithms to analyse wildlife images to help improve understanding of how species around the world are responding to climate change, a study suggests.

A new analysis published in the journal Science reveals that overfishing has caused populations of chondrichthyan fishes – sharks, rays, and chimaeras – to decline by more than 50 per cent since 1970. To determine the consequences, a team of researchers developed an aquatic Red List Index (RLI) which shows that the risk of extinction for chondrichthyan has increased by 19 per cent. The study also highlights that the overfishing of the largest species in nearshore and pelagic habitats could eliminate up to 22 per cent of ecological functions.

Chondrichthyans are an ancient and ecologically diverse group of over 1,199 fishes that are increasingly threatened by human activities. Overexploitation by target fisheries and incidental capture (bycatch), compounded by habitat degradation, climate change and pollution, has resulted in over one-third of chondrichthyans facing extinction. Here, the RLI was used to track the status of these species over the past 50-years.

The 2014-2016 Pacific marine heatwave wiped out more than half – roughly 4 million – of Alaska’s common murre (Uria aalge) seabirds, representing the largest documented vertebrate die-off linked to warming oceans, according to a new study. “Although research on the impacts of global warming on marine birds has clearly suggested major shifts in species’ ranges and abundance, documented changes have been gradual (years to decades),” write the authors. “To our knowledge, this study is the first to show that climate impacts can be swift (1 year) and intense (eliminating half of the population).” Marine heatwaves – intense, prolonged, and expansive ocean warming events – are becoming increasingly common due to climate change. They are profoundly reshaping marine ecosystems globally. These heatwaves lead to mass mortality of key habitat-forming species like kelps and corals, triggering cascading trophic effects that alter ecosystem productivity, displace lower-trophic-level species, and amplify food shortages for top predators. Although many upper-trophic-level species suffer from reduced reproductive success, increased mortality, and even mass die-offs due to marine heatwaves, broader population impacts are poorly understood. Heather Renner and colleagues evaluated the impact of the largest recorded marine heatwave in the northeast Pacific, which took place from late 2014 to 2016, on Alaska’s population of common murre seabirds. Analyzing colony counts before that period (2008-2014), and after (2016-2022), Renner et al. documented a 52-78% population decline across 13 murre colonies, equating to the loss of 4 million birds within the span of less than 2 years. According to the authors, this represents the largest documented wildlife mortality event in the modern era. Moreover, the findings reveal no evidence of population recovery since, suggesting potential long-term ecosystem shifts and an overall diminished capacity to support historical seabird populations. “We suggest that the pronounced decline of an abundant and widespread upper trophic predator to less than half of its former population size in Alaska may signal a new threshold of response to global warming,” write Renner et al.