Since our first issue in 1972, Ambio has published 377 regular print issues until the end of 2021. Each print issue had a separate cover illustration; the more recent ones can be seen in the cover gallery below. However, from January 2022 regular issues of Ambio will have a permanent cover.
In 2020, Ambio full-text articles were downloaded more than 1.5 million times compared to less than 50 printed copies of each issue. The new permanent cover emphasizes the duality of human actions and that our shared future is quite literally in our own hands. The Earth is displayed against the background of one of the logos of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the home of Ambio since the beginning.
Cover illustration: Old-growth forests at the Evo nature conservation and research area, southern Finland. Data from Evo has been used in many of the articles of this special issue (Photo: Jorma Keskitalo).
Cover illustration: Clockwise starting from top left: Logging in an intact forest landscape in Jämtland county, Central Sweden, photo Per Angelstam, 2020; Dead spruce trees (killed by a bark beetle infestation) in the National Park Bavarian Forest, Germany, photo Ulrich Schraml, 2011; Forest fire in Oregon, USA, photo Marcus Kauffman, 2020; Damage by Driftwood in Masue Community, Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, photo Noriko Sato, 2017; Center: The agriculture-forest frontier with tea plantations vis a vis forests in Cameron Highlands, Pahang district, Malaysia, photo Chris Seijger, 2018.
Cover illustration: Siberian environments are diverse: here, the arid steppes meet a rapidly thawing permafrost palsa against the backdrop of forest steppe and mountains with rapidly melting glaciers. Altai Mountains, Siberia, 2013. Photo: Terry V. Callaghan.
Cover illustration: The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimated that 2.7 billion people worldwide were directly affected by droughts since 1900, with devastating and disproportionate impacts on poor and marginalized people. In the Anthropocene, drought losses result from a complex web of interactions between hydroclimatic and socioeconomic processes mediated by large water infrastructure, such as dams and reservoirs. Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, USA. Photo credit: Maria Rusca.
Cover illustration: A wide range of topics has been covered in environmental crowdfunding in Japan. Examples include management of coastal marine debris (upper left), sustainable use of sika deer (lower left), and feral cat management (right). Photos by Takahiro Kubo (Left) and Seiji Narita (Right).
Cover illustration: River landscape in the Metropolitan Area of San José, Costa Rica, where prototypes of nature-based solutions are currently tested in an urban neighborhood and where potential sites for upscaling are investigated to reduce flooding and enhance human well-being. Photo credit: Dennis Jöckel/SEE-URBAN-WATER.
Cover illustration: How are development pathways of persistence, adaptation and transformation shaped? Coevolving pathways of development are filtered by a set of constraints, opportunities and choices defined by a myriad of factors, ranging from social to ecological, endogenous to exogenous and active to passive. Resilience capacities shape each filtering process and enable or constrain the conditions for new development pathways to emerge. The filter is drawn as a traditional winnowing basket from the Pamir Mountains. Photos: Jamila Haider & Judith Quax. Illustration: J Lokrantz/Azote.
Cover illustration: The World Health Organisation estimates that outdoor air pollution is responsible for approximately 3.5 million yearly premature deaths worldwide, with around 480 000 in the European Union countries alone. Outdoor air pollution is caused by multiple sources. The public perception among the European population points to industry and traffic as the major sources of air pollution, while the important contribution of agricultural practices is strongly underestimated. Image by Officina Immagine, Bologna, Italy.
Cover illustration: Dried fish for sale at the fish market in Lilongwe, Malawi. Dried fish from the African Great Lakes are traded throughout the region and beyond, providing affordable, nutrient-rich animal protein crucial to food and nutrition security and supporting the livelihoods of fishers, processors, and traders, many of whom are women. Recognizing fish as food can lead to policy and action to support fish food systems like this around the world. Photo credit: Abigail Bennett.
Cover illustration: Distribution of chinstrap penguin Pygoscelis antarcticus breeding colonies along the western Antarctic Peninsula overlapped with the Antarctic krill accumulated fishing catch between 1980 and 2017. Map illustration and photo by Lucas Krüger.
Cover illustration: In the 1970s it was discovered that rapid acidification of the environment led to increasing numbers of barren lakes in Scandinavia and in the eastern North America. In a review paper published 1976 in Ambio, Carl Schofield concluded that the youngest life stages, egg to larvae were the most sensitive, leading to reproduction failure and lacking year-classes. One of the most sensitive species is the brown trout (Salmo trutta). Photo: “Brown trout” by USFWS Mountain Prairie, CC PDM 1.0. To view the terms, visit: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ (this opens in a new tab).
Cover illustration: The Agenda 2030 decade of action has begun and the global challenges are bigger than ever. Ambio’s focus on environment and society is highly relevant for understanding these challenges, and ultimately helping towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. The very first Ambio issue cover 50 years ago was an evocative image portraying the human pressure on the planet (see Fig. 1 in Sörlin, this issue). This anniversary cover emphasizes the duality of human actions and that our shared future is quite literally in our own hands. Illustration: Anders Rådén.
Cover illustration: Bioeconomy is envisioned as a future in which food, fodder, fiber and fuel will increasingly be provided by renewable resources, but the subsequent need for biomass may change both land use and management practices in rural areas. How will this, in combination with climate change, affect water quantity and quality, aquatic ecology and related ecosystem services? This special issue, organized by the Nordic Center of Excellence BIOWATER (www.biowater.info), offers the first tentative answers to these questions, mainly based on research in Nordic countries but of significant relevance for a wider audience. Photo by Lieke Vermaat.
Cover illustration: The municipality of Formosa do Rio Preto, in the State of Bahia, Brazil, in September 2018. The Matopiba region, where Formosa do Rio Preto is located, faces drastic land use changes by expansion of intense agriculture (particularly soy beans, corn, cotton and rice). The soil carbon consequences of many land use operations remain poorly accounted in national greenhouse gas inventories. Photo credit: Yara da Cruz Ferreira.
Cover illustration: Workshop with local non-governmental organizations driving sustainability initiatives that focus on the conservation of the unique natural and cultural heritage, support of small-scale farmers, and promotion of eco-tourism and rural education in Southern Transylvania (upper photo). Southern Transylvania is home to a great natural and cultural diversity. The hilly landscapes are a heterogeneous mosaic of relatively similar proportions of grasslands, arable fields and forests. The region is currently threatened by changes such as draining migration and tenure changes. The village of Alma Vii (lower photo). Photos by David Lam and Andra Horcea-Milcu.
Cover illustration:Guadua bamboo dominates 180 000 km2 of southwestern Amazonian forest. Anthropogenic disturbances benefit the bamboo as it easily refills burned areas from its rhizome (upper left) and vigorously occupies light gaps like margins of logging roads (upper right). The bamboo flowers (lower left) simultaneously over large areas and after shedding the fruits, all individuals die (lower right). If global climate change and human forest clearance make dry seasons more pronounced in the future, the dead bamboo may catch fi re and trigger a change from forest to savanna. Photos by Risto Kalliola.
Cover illustration: Mosquito nets being used for fishing is a growing phenomenon. New research shows that mosquito net fishers remove vast amounts of juvenile fish species from coastal seagrass meadows in Mozambique. Many fish are removed before they reach sexual maturity, potentially threatening the sustainability of the resource for the future. Photo by Benjamin Jones.
Cover illustration: This private reserve in South Africa’s Kalahari region is large enough to support a free-ranging lion population. Photo: Michael ’t Sas-Rolfes.
Cover illustration: The birth of a convention – The 1979 meeting of the delegations of Norway and the USSR on the preparation of a future Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. On the left, the delegation from Norway with the Minister of Environment Gro Harlem Brundtland in the foreground. On the right, the USSR delegation with First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology L.N. Efremov in the foreground and Mr. V. Sokolovski, who became the first chair of the Convention’s Executive Body, as number three. Photo with permission from Mr. Sokolovski.
Cover illustration: The Arctic is home to a unique set of species and communities, well adapted to life under the extreme harsh conditions of the far North. The Arctic is however rapidly changing and arctic species are becoming increasingly pressured. The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme (CBMP) of the Arctic Council biodiversity working group, Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), has developed a circum-Arctic monitoring plan, aiming at improving our ability to detect, understand and report on long-term change in Arctic terrestrial biodiversity. Photos by Lars Holst Hansen.
Cover illustration: A typical headwater stream in Småland, southern Sweden, draining coniferous forests dominated by Norway spruce (Picea abies, L.) and sensitive to brownification. Photo by Stefan Löfgren.
Cover illustration:Top left: Small field agriculture dominates India, the World’s largest cotton producer. Photo: Digital Buggu. Top right: Picking cotton near Nagarjuna Sagar, Andhra Pradesh, India. Photo: Claude Renault. Bottom left: Industrial production in the vast cotton lands of Bahia, Brazil. Photo: Associação Baiana dos Produtores de Algodão – ABAPA. Bottom right: Pink bollworm has evolved resistance to genetically modified cotton in India, but not in Arizona where farmers have planted refuges of conventional cotton alongside their large modified fields to reduce selection for resistance. Photo: Alex Yellich, University of Arizona.
Cover illustration: Cases of autochthonous adaptation to biodiversity change. Upper left: Afar pastoralists affected by Prosopis juliflora invasion and other drivers, resettling in the Awash Basin, Ethiopia - Photo: Wolfgang Bayer. Upper right: Soliga women crafting baskets in the Male Mahadeshwara Hills, India, using invasive Lantana camara as a rattan (Calamus) substitute – Photo: Shonil Bhagwat. Lower left: Sami elder unloading invasive Red King crabs – Porsanger fjord, Norway – Photo: Mearrasiida/Svanhild Andersen. Lower right: Bribri women selecting pathogen-resistant cacao pods, Talamanca region, Costa Rica - Photo: Miguel Angel Cetina Muñoz.
Cover illustration:Upper left: Grazing cattle in a river valley; BONUS SOILS2SEA. Photo by Peter Warna-Moors, GEUS. Upper right: Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve, case catchment in BONUS MIRACLE. Photo by Karin Tonderski. Lower left: Recreation at the Baltic Sea coast; BONUS BALTIC APP. Photo by Colourbox (1833382). Lower right: Slurry Storage Tank, Denmark; BONUS GO4BALTIC. Photo by Britta Munter.
Cover illustration: Fishing is one of the main sources of livelihood for communities in the Omo-Turkana Basin (in Ethiopia and Kenya). The people of this region are adapting to a landscape-scale transformation following the completion of the Gibe III dam and associated large-scale commercial farming, with cascading effects on livelihoods, patterns of migration, and conflict dynamics. Photo: Jennifer Hodbod.
Cover illustration: The highly toxic effects of lead gunshot to waterbirds have long been recognized. Many non-wetland species are also prone to ingesting gunshot. Predators and scavengers are poisoned when they consume meat from animals shot with lead gunshot or fragmented lead rifle bullets. Effective non-lead and non-toxic alternatives to lead ammunition are widely available at market prices comparable with lead ammunition. The benefits of transition from lead ammunition will promote the interests of hunters both directly, through the survival of quarry animals, and indirectly, through stimulating a positive public perception of hunting. Photos: Niels Kanstrup (bottom, upper left), Anna Trinogga (middle left), Oliver Krone (upper right).
Cover illustration: Seagrass meadows are beautiful habitats containing biodiverse faunal communities such as the Spiny Seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus. Unfortunately, they remain marginalised in conservation and are under threat around the world. In this volume of Ambio, Unsworth et al. outline strategies required for the global conservation of seagrass ecosystems. Photo: Neil Garrick-Maidment.
Cover illustration: Murky water in a marina in the northern Baltic Proper. Recreational boating is an increasingly popular leisure activity. Large parts of the recreational boat traffic and its associated moorings are located to shallow wave-protected areas, which constitute important habitats for many coastal organisms. Intense boating results in degraded aquatic vegetation with negative effects on ecosystem functions, such as production of coastal fish. Balancing the use and protection of coastal habitats is critical to ensure a sustained delivery of ecosystem services and benefits for human well-being. Photo: Ulf Bergstrom.
Cover illustration: Photos by (from top left to bottom right): 1) Taipei: Marc Wolfram; 2) Seoul: Marc Wolfram; 3) Cape Town: Gina Ziervogel; 4) Portland: https://www.wattson.pt; 5) Stockholm: Maria Nordström; 6) Havanna: JMAN94707, https://www.flickr.com; 7) Suwon: Marc Wolfram; 8) Paris: Jenna Beekhuis, https://unsplash.com; 9) Brisbane: Zachary Staines, https://unsplash.com (this opens in a new tab)
Cover illustration: As many goose populations across the northern Hemisphere continue to rise, the role of hunters to manage these populations is increasingly being considered. In this article, we detail fi ndings of a study investigating the behavioural and motivational characteristics of recreational goose hunters in Denmark, and their ability to act as stewards of a rapidly increasing goose population. Cover photographs of geese in fl ight, courtesy of Jørgen Peter Kjeldsen (ornit.dk), and of a specialist goose hunter using a layout blind and decoys, courtesy of Ove Martin Gundersen.
Cover illustration: The cover photo illustrates the essential meaning of phosphorus (P) to life; plants and other organisms cannot grow without P. Phosphorus is a scarce and critical raw material needed, e.g., as fertilizer in agricultural production. However, excessive P emissions to natural ecosystems enhance growth up to eutrophic conditions that in turn result in strong negative environmental impacts. We call it the P paradox that must be handled by a sustainable management including, e.g., efficient P use and recycling. These topics were in focus at the 8th International Phosphorus Workshop (IPW8) in which this Special Issue of Ambio is based on. Photo by Inga Krämer.
Cover illustration: The Kosterhavet is part of the characteristic archipelago landscape of northern Bohuslän with its bare rocks, steep cliffs, rift valleys, islands and skerries. The Kosterhavet is Sweden’s only real marine sea area with almost oceanic conditions. There is a rich marine life with a wide variety of habitats and species. Requirements for protection of the marine life in Kosterhavet had been discussed for a long time, but it was not until 2009 that Kosterhavet National Park was established. Photo of Ursholmen taken by Thomas Eliasson, Geological Survey of Sweden, on August, 21 2008. Creative Commons license CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.com
Cover illustration: A small-scale gold miner in Tanzania using mercury to extract gold from the ore concentrate. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest intentional use of mercury in the world, and also the largest source of mercury emissions to the atmosphere. Photo: Courtesy of Susan Keane, Natural Resources Defense Council.
Cover illustration: Photo taken by occupational hunter Ole Kristensen, Savissivik, on a seal hunting trip on the landfast sea ice in late May 2015. Ole participated in the Piniariarneq project, in which occupational hunters used hand-held GPS devices to map their hunting activities in the landscape through a full year (see Flora et al. this volume). The photo is taken with the GPS approx. 4 km northeast of Savissivik in an area, which was documented as a rich seal hunting ground through the hunters’ recordings.
Cover illustration: Soil depletion. Soil profiles are represented in the lower half with vegetation and the atmosphere above. Time moves towards the future from left to right. This represents a temporal connection to the soil and is shown by the progressive degradation of the soil by loss of nutrients as gases and leaching and by thinning of the topsoil. The increase in red tone indicates loss of stored water and a move to a less secure future. Acrylic and plastic on canvas by Bruce Ball and Tom Henry.
Cover illustration: The harbour porpoise occasionally ingests marine plastic litter. This is mostly an accidental event when they catch fish near the bottom. In a study of beached harbour porpoises from the Netherlands, about 15% of the animals contained plastic debris: mostly small items, but occasionally larger. Photos by Salko de Wolf and Jan van Franeker (inset).
Cover illustration: Ditch network maintenance is necessary to maintain and improve tree growth on forestry-drained peatlands, but is also a major source of nutrients and sediments in receiving water courses. Reducing the strain on water bodies is addressed in operational peatland forestry by implementing various water quality management measures. Review of the literature on the performance of these measures indicated that water quality management in conjunction with ditch network maintenance should focus on measures that decrease erosion and nutrient release rather than on structures aiming to trap already released materials. Photo: Markku Saarinen.
Cover illustration: A segment of dike system for protecting rice crop during flood season, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Photo by Tien Pham Duy, An Giang University, Vietnam.
Cover illustration: The Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus is an iconic migratory species, linking by its movements processes in grasslands and forests of Canada, the United States and Mexico. The Monarch is the only insect listed in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS). The astonishing migration of the Monarch is threatened by forest clearings in Mexico, by widespread use of herbicides in the United Sates, and by climate change. It represents a good example of the challenges of the CMS. These were spotted roosting in Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa. Photo by Jessica Bolser/USFWS. From flickr.com (this opens in a new tab), CC BY 2.0.
Cover illustration: Chileno Lake in Patagonia. The lake was affected by an outburst flood in 2015 as dozens of other glacial lakes in the region since the 20th century. Managing glacier hazards might require intervening pristine landscapes and National Parks prompting socioenvironmental conflicts. Photo by Ryan Wilson.
