Global environmental change: taking stock at a time of transition

Next year Global Environmental Change will have been in existence for 25 years. This year sees a major change in the journal's editors, as Neil Adger and Kate Brown depart after a decade of leadership. As of January, four individuals have joined Declan Conway (London School of Economics, UK) as the new editorial team: Jon Barnett (University of Melbourne, Australia), Michele Betsill (Colorado State University, US), Louis Lebel (Chiang Mai University, Thailand) and Karen Seto (Yale University, US). This change does not signal a major shift in the journal's directions and scope. It does, however, provide an opportunity to reflect on the past and identify emerging frontiers in research on global environmental change, at least as reflected in the pages of this journal. We will use Global Environmental Change's anniversary next year to lay out our vision and plans for the future of the journal; here we reflect on some of the key contributions to understanding processes of global environmental change.