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A series of papers on studies of pandemics from an environmental perspective, have been requested for Science Advances. The aim of this series is to investigate the impact of a pandemic on the environment and the influence of environmental conditions on the spread and severity of the infection. The COVID19 pandemic has pushed governments to apply strict control measures such as lockdowns. In the context of environmental change, those measures brought dramatic reductions in air and water pollution in many countries and the decline of nitrogen dioxide over China. These observations show the negative impact of usual human activities on the global environment and provides us with an opportunity to rethink our economies without endangering the environment. They also underline the importance of understanding how Earth and the societies that inhabit it co-evolve and the connections between biological, chemical, and physical processes. 

Link: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/06/12/sciadv.abd1325