News & Views

Oxygen concentrations are a key aspect of water quality, with low levels linked to ecosystem stress. Research indicates that oxygen levels will decrease in hundreds of rivers across the USA and Central Europe under climate change.

Declining snow cover poses a substantial risk for many ski resorts that often counter this trend with snowmaking, leading to increasing emissions caused by ski tourism. Research now quantifies the risks of rising temperatures to the skiing industry at the pan-European level, together with the potential and emissions of snowmaking.

Amidst the Arctic sea-ice decline and the consequent increasing under-ice light transmittance, Arctic zooplankton face challenging times. The collection of a unique dataset in the central Arctic Ocean unravels the patterns of their vertical migration, signalling potential disruptions to the Arctic ecosystem.

Atmospheric observations can quantify anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, but variability in net land carbon exchange delays the detection of changes. Now, research improves understanding of this variability and allows earlier detection of emissions changes.

Climate change might alter mosquito-borne disease risk, but research now suggests that one emerging mosquito control approach might be largely resistant to warming temperatures.

Natural disasters can trigger conflictive behaviour among affected individuals. Now, research based on survey experiments with Syrian and Iraqi refugees shows how people behave altruistically after experiencing drought, but only towards ingroup members.

An endangered turtle population translocated to a higher-latitude (cooler) location grew inadequately. This calls into question the future viability of the population and highlights the difficulties in carrying out climate change-related translocations.

Greenland is central to climate research and research now shows that Greenlanders are far more aware of a rapidly changing Arctic climate than of the underlying global causes. However, their willingness to harness new opportunities exceeds fear of climate change’s consequences.

Museum collections are a source for monitoring population changes at an evolutionary timescale. A comparative genomic study across time and space of populations of willow flycatchers (Empidonax traillii) reveals evidence of genetic responses to climate change through adaptation in genes associated with changing climatic conditions in southwestern North America.

Decades of deforestation and climate change have led to the southeastern Amazon becoming a carbon source region. Now, research shows that this carbon source region still sustains its own biomass production, but further degradation would decrease moisture recycling and amplify carbon losses to the atmosphere.

The deepest reaches of the ocean are ventilated by sinking of cold and relatively saline seawater around Antarctica. Observations from the Australian sector of the Southern Ocean reveal a decline in sinking and abyssal ventilation, linked to dropping ocean salinity on the Antarctic shelf.

The ozone layer is slowly recovering due to the Montreal Protocol. The only exception is the ozone in the tropical lower stratosphere, which keeps decreasing. Now, a modelling study demonstrates that the tropical ozone loss is partly driven by ozone-depleting very short-lived substances that are not regulated by the Montreal Protocol.

At COP26 in Glasgow, major emitters significantly ratcheted up their climate commitments. Such increased ambition will substantially contribute to getting closer to the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement but more ambition is required, and mitigation might face different challenges in different regions.

Climate change mitigation politics is not delivering on climate targets. Recent research suggests that a general formal framework that represents the behaviour of citizens, consumers, firms and parties explains why.

The speed at which terrestrial organisms are shifting their ranges in response to climate is consistently lower than that predicted by models. However, the use of microclimate-based, rather than macroclimate-based, predictions virtually eliminates these discrepancies.

The rate of sea-level rise varies around the world, as do local infrastructure and standards for defending against the risks of flooding. Now research indicates that coastal communities can also have very different times left to act before defences fall short of those standards.

An immediate and rapid reduction in global emissions is required for many reasons. Integrated research supports the economic case for strong near-term climate action, even before accounting for expected negative impacts on biodiversity, health and tipping points.

Strong positive wetland methane climate feedbacks from global warming may occur but have not been accounted for in Earth system models. Now, model simulations show a substantial increase in methane emissions due to the stronger impact of warming over tropical wetlands.