Peng Gong

1 month ago | nature.com | Ying Tu |Bin Lin Chen |Chuan Liao |Shengbiao Wu |Chen Lin |Peng Gong

AbstractEconomic, social and environmental infrastructure forms a fundamental pillar of societal development. Ensuring equitable access to infrastructure for all residents is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, yet knowledge gaps remain in infrastructure accessibility and inequality and their associations with human health.

2 months ago | nature.com | Jinying Liu |Huabing Huang |Lian Feng |Xuehui Pi |Ethan Kyzivat |Yunlin Zhang | +5 more

Aquatic vegetation contributes to lake methane emissions, but changes in aquatic vegetation in northern (>40° N) lakes remain unknown, hindering evaluations of its importance in estimating lake emissions. Here we use Landsat imagery to monitor aquatic vegetation (mainly emergent and floating vegetation) in 2.7 million northern lakes from 1984 to 2021. Vegetation was observed in 1.2 million lakes, with a total maximum vegetation area of 12.0 × 104 km2, a mean vegetation occurrence of 1.68 ± 3.8% and a greenness of 0.66 ± 0.05. From the 1980s–1990s to 2010s, significant (P < 0.05) increases in maximum vegetation area (+2.3 × 104 km2) and vegetation occurrence (+73.7%) were observed and 72.5% of lakes experienced higher greenness. Vegetation expansion was affected by the temperature in sparsely populated regions, whereas lake area and fertilizer usage played vital roles in densely populated areas. The methane emission estimate that includes contributions from both aquatic vegetation and open water (1.31 [0.73, 1.89] Tg CH4 yr−1) is 13% higher than that calculated for open water (1.16 [0.63, 1.68] Tg CH4 yr−1). The long-term net increase in total methane emissions including aquatic vegetation is 125% higher than that of open water due to vegetation expansion. This highlights the necessity of incorporating aquatic vegetation in estimates of methane emissions from northern lakes. Areas of aquatic vegetation have expanded in northern lakes between 1984 and 2021, and this expansion is probably an additional climate feedback that enhances methane emissions, according to a monitoring study using Landsat imagery.

Mar 20, 2025 | nature.com | Peng Gong |T.W.J. Kwok |David Dye

AbstractFusion reactor materials for the first wall and blanket must have high strength, be radiation tolerant and be reduced activation (low post-use radioactivity), which has resulted in reduced activation ferritic/martensitic (RAFM) steels. The current steels suffer irradiation-induced hardening and embrittlement and are not adequate for planned commercial fusion reactors.

Dec 30, 2024 | mdpi.com | Peng Gong

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Dec 2, 2024 | nature.com | Peng Gong

The relationship between the United States and China stands at a crucial juncture. Given Donald Trump’s recent victory in the US election, the slowdown in China’s economy and rising tensions around trade and technology, productive cooperation between the two countries is far from guaranteed. President-elect Trump has already indicated that federal policy on climate and environmental issues, among others, might shift drastically.