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The potential of technology to help solve many of the world's most pressing problems – such as urbanisation, economic and demographic change, pollution and loss of ecosystems, uncertainties in our future climate, competition for resources and an increasingly interdependent network of infrastructure systems – is widely recognised. Clearly, engineers have a crucial role to play in the development and implementation of any response. However, from genes to the Internet, few aspects of the Earth system do not reflect humanity's presence. The dynamics of major cycles of key nutrients such as water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and flows of other materials are...