Check out our recommended recent publications from the ESIIL Network!

Roadmap for the future of extreme wildfire events: ESIIL’s Modeling Extreme Wildfire working group recently published “Roadmap for the future of extreme wildfire events” in Fire Ecology. They found that adopting an interdisciplinary framework that integrates biophysical and social sciences will enhance the predictive capability of wildfire models and improve resilience planning and response strategies.

An interdisciplinary agenda to assess risks of climate extremes to nature’s contributions to people and press release: This perspective paper and press release highlight the importance of bringing together experts from different fields to assess risks of climate extremes to nature’s contributions to people. 

Earth Embeddings: Toward artificial intelligence-centric representations of our planet: Earth Embeddings represent the next abstraction layer for geospatial AI and have the potential to become a fundamental building block of the next generation of Earth Observation models. 

Why scientists should lead the shift away from AI mega data centres: Cassie Buhler and her collaborators share how science can progress beyond data centers with the use of open source AI models that can be run on your laptop. 

The true worth of America’s public lands: In his article in Scientific American, Kyle Manley uses established methods of data analysis and synthesis to assess publicly available datasets to illuminate the broader implications of using federal land for private interests. 

Tension between opportunities and risks of deep learning in social-ecological systems research: ESIIL affiliate Danyan Leng and colleagues outline the tension between opportunities and risks of deep learning in social-ecological systems research in this synthesis article.

Citations: 

• Lucash, M.S., Lamping, J.E., Nowell, B., Scheller, R.M., Banerjee, T., Buettner, W.C., Fawcett, J.E., Hurteau, M.D., Parks, S.A., Rancher, W. and Robbins, Z.J., 2026. Roadmap for the future of extreme wildfire events. Fire Ecology.

• Hülsen, S., Amaral, C., Bresch, D.N., Hayden, M.T., Kropf, C.M., LoPresti, A., Manley, K., McDonald, R.I., McIntosh, T.L., Nomura, K.J. and Ohlert, T.J., 2026. An interdisciplinary agenda to assess risks of climate extremes to nature’s contributions to people. Environmental Research: Climate, 5(3), p.033002.

• Klemmer, K., Rolf, E., Russwurm, M., Camps-Valls, G., Czerkawski, M., Ermon, S., Francis, A., Jacobs, N., Kerner, H., Mackey, L. and Mai, G., 2026. Earth Embeddings: Toward artificial intelligence-centric representations of our planet. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine.

• Buhler, C.K., Pérez, F. and Boettiger, C., 2026. Why scientists should lead the shift away from AI mega data centres.

• Manley, K., 2026. The True Worth of America's Public Lands. Scientific American, 334(3), p.60.

• Keller, A.G., McIntosh, T.L., Kimball-Rhines, C., Leng, D. and Nelson, K.S., 2026. Tension between opportunities and risks of deep learning in social-ecological systems research. Ecology and Society, 31(3).