Climate change, biodiversity loss, and chemical pollution are planetary‐scale emergencies requiring urgent mitigation actions. As these “triple crises” are deeply interlinked, they need to be tackled in an integrative manner. However, while climate change and biodiversity are often studied together, chemical pollution as a global change factor contributing to worldwide biodiversity loss has received much less attention in biodiversity research so far. Here, we review evidence showing that the multifaceted effects of anthropogenic chemicals in the environment are posing a growing threat to biodiversity and ecosystems. Therefore, failure to account for pollution effects may significantly undermine the success of biodiversity protection efforts. We argue that progress in understanding and counteracting the negative impact of chemical pollution on biodiversity requires collective efforts of scientists from different disciplines, including but not limited to ecology, ecotoxicology, and environmental chemistry. Importantly, recent developments in these fields have now enabled comprehensive studies that could efficiently address the manifold interactions between chemicals and ecosystems. Based on their experience with intricate studies of biodiversity, ecologists are well equipped to embrace the additional challenge of chemical complexity through interdisciplinary collaborations. This offers a unique opportunity to jointly advance a seminal frontier in pollution ecology and facilitate the development of innovative solutions for environmental protection.

A quantification of carbon fluxes in the coastal ocean and across its boundaries with the atmosphere, land, and the open ocean is important for assessing the current state and projecting future trends in ocean carbon uptake and coastal ocean acidification, but this is currently a missing component of global carbon budgeting. This synthesis reviews recent progress in characterizing these carbon fluxes for the North American coastal ocean. Several observing networks and high-resolution regional models are now available. Recent efforts have focused primarily on quantifying the net air–sea exchange of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Some studies have estimated other key fluxes, such as the exchange of organic and inorganic carbon between shelves and the open ocean. Available estimates of air–sea CO₂ flux, informed by more than a decade of observations, indicate that the North American Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) acts as a sink of 160±80 Tg C yr⁻¹, although this flux is not well constrained. The Arctic and sub-Arctic, mid-latitude Atlantic, and mid-latitude Pacific portions of the EEZ account for 104, 62, and −3.7 Tg C yr⁻¹, respectively, while making up 51 %, 25 %, and 24 % of the total area, respectively. Combining the net uptake of 160±80 Tg C yr⁻¹ with an estimated carbon input from land of 106±30 Tg C yr⁻¹ minus an estimated burial of 65±55 Tg C yr⁻¹ and an estimated accumulation of dissolved carbon in EEZ waters of 50±25 Tg C yr⁻¹ implies a carbon export of 151±105 Tg C yr⁻¹ to the open ocean. The increasing concentration of inorganic carbon in coastal and open-ocean waters leads to ocean acidification. As a result, conditions favoring the dissolution of calcium carbonate occur regularly in subsurface coastal waters in the Arctic, which are naturally prone to low pH, and the North Pacific, where upwelling of deep, carbon-rich waters has intensified. Expanded monitoring and extension of existing model capabilities are required to provide more reliable coastal carbon budgets, projections of future states of the coastal ocean, and quantification of anthropogenic carbon contributions.

Pollution by chemicals and waste impacts human and ecosystem health on regional, national, and global scales, resulting, together with climate change and biodiversity loss, in a triple planetary crisis. Consequently, in 2022, countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental science-policy panel (SPP) on chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention, complementary to the existing intergovernmental science-policy bodies on climate change and biodiversity. To ensure the SPP's success, it is imperative to protect it from conflicts of interest (COI). Here, we (i) define and review the implications of COI, and its relevance for the management of chemicals, waste, and pollution; (ii) summarize established tactics to manufacture doubt in favor of vested interests, i.e., to counter scientific evidence and/or to promote misleading narratives favorable to financial interests; and (iii) illustrate these with selected examples. This analysis leads to a review of arguments for and against chemical industry representation in the SPP's work. We further (iv) rebut an assertion voiced by some that the chemical industry should be directly involved in the panel's work because it possesses data on chemicals essential for the panel's activities. Finally, (v) we present steps that should be taken to prevent the detrimental impacts of COI in the work of the SPP. In particular, we propose to include an independent auditor's role in the SPP to ensure that participation and processes follow clear COI rules. Among others, the auditor should evaluate the content of the assessments produced to ensure unbiased representation of information that underpins the SPP's activities.

Future climate warming may increase water temperature, stratification, and the occurrence of cyanobacteria blooms in drinking water reservoirs. Herein, past relationships between air temperature, water temperature, thermal stratification, and cyanobacteria prevalence are quantified in six Connecticut, U.S.A., reservoirs. Lake‐specific empirical models were developed and used to project historical (1971–2000) and future (mid‐century, 2041–2070) water temperature and thermal stratification in the study lakes. Projections are driven with downscaled air temperature projections from three general circulation models (i.e., HadGEM2‐CC365, CCSM4, and GFDL‐ESM 2M) under Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5. Results suggest that reservoirs in Connecticut are warming relatively quickly over time and that surface, average, and bottom water temperatures may continue to increase by 0.44°C, 0.30°C, and 0.16°C per decade, respectively. Future projections of thermal stratification indicate that significant increases may occur in July–September and that stratification is likely to begin 2–4 weeks earlier and last 2–4 weeks longer by mid‐century. High‐risk cyanobacteria blooms, defined as those exceeding 70,000 cells ml⁻¹, historically occurred in three of the study reservoirs and are correlated with the occurrence of high surface water temperatures, cool bottom water temperatures, and high total Relative Thermal Resistance to Mixing (RTRM). Days per year with extreme high water temperatures and total RTRM are projected to increase significantly in the future. This shift may favor increased dominance of certain cyanobacteria species that tend to grow best in these extreme conditions, especially in reservoirs where cyanobacteria blooms are already a concern.