Rechargeable solid-state sodium-ion batteries (SSSBs) hold great promise for safer and more energy-dense energy storage. However, the poor electrochemical stability between current sulfide-based solid electrolytes and high-voltage oxide cathodes has limited their long-term cycling performance and practicality. Here, we report the discovery of the ion conductor Na3-xY1-xZrxCl6 (NYZC) that is both electrochemically stable (up to 3.8 V vs. Na/Na+) and chemically compatible with oxide cathodes. Its high ionic conductivity of 6.6 × 10−5 S cm−1 at ambient temperature, several orders of magnitude higher than oxide coatings, is attributed to abundant Na vacancies and cooperative MCl6 rotation, resulting in an extremely low interfacial impedance. A SSSB comprising a NaCrO2 + NYZC composite cathode, Na3PS4 electrolyte, and Na-Sn anode exhibits an exceptional first-cycle Coulombic efficiency of 97.1% at room temperature and can cycle over 1000 cycles with 89.3% capacity retention at 40 °C. These findings highlight the immense potential of halides for SSSB applications.

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As valuation of ecosystem goods and services derived from ecological processes becomes increasingly important in environmental decision-making, the need to quantify how restoration activities influence ecosystem function has grown more urgent, particularly within income-generating or subsistence-providing landscapes where economic needs and biodiversity goals must be balanced. However, quantification of restoration effects is often hindered by logistical issues, which include (1) the difficulty of systematically monitoring responses over large areas and (2) lack or loss of comparison sites necessary for assessing treatment effect. We explored the use of remote sensing to quantify the effects of native grass seeding and prescribed burns on ecosystem forage provisioning services within a California (U.S.A.) rangeland landscape. We used Landsat time series to monitor forage (green biomass) dynamics within 296 ha of treatment areas-distributed throughout a 36-km 2 watershed-for 6 years and to identify post hoc comparison areas when a priori comparisons were lacking. Remote sensing analysis documented gains and losses in forage provisioning services due to restoration efforts and provided critical information for adaptive management. Our results demonstrate the degree to which invaded grasslands can be resistant to change and suggest that increasing the functional complexity of restoration mixes might help increase forage availability and reduce opportunities for weed reinvasion.

Abstract. Urban areas are hubs of international transport and therefore are major gateways for exotic pests. Applying an urban gradient to analyze this pathway could provide insight into the ecological processes involved in human-mediated invasions. We defined an urban gradient for agricultural and forest ecosystems in the contiguous United States to (1) assess whether ecosystems nearer more urbanized areas were at greater risk of invasion, and (2) apply this knowledge to enhance early detection of exotic pests. We defined the gradient using the tonnage of imported products in adjacent urban areas and their distance to nearby agricultural or forest land. County-level detection reports for 39 exotic agricultural and forest pests of major economic importance were used to characterize invasions along the gradient. We found that counties with more exotic pests were nearer the urban end of the gradient. Assuming that the exotic species we analyzed represent typical invaders, then early detection efforts directed at 21-26% of U.S. agricultural and forest land would likely be able to detect 70% of invaded counties and 90% of the selected species. Applying an urban-gradient framework to current monitoring strategies should enhance early detection efforts of exotic pests, facilitating optimization in allocating resources to areas at greater risk of future invasions.