Reviews & Analysis

Streamflow from northern Eurasia into the Arctic Ocean has been increasing since the 1930s. Research shows that increased poleward moisture transport is responsible for additional water in the region.

Carbon capture and storage is a climate mitigation technology designed to reduce emissions from fossil-fuel power plants and industrial sources. This Perspective argues that the very limited implementation of carbon capture and storage technology so far is largely the result of political, economic and social factors, rather than a technological inability to deliver.

Adaptation to climate change in fisheries is occurring very rapidly. Research now shows that it is a complex process whose outcomes can both mitigate and exacerbate impacts on fish populations.

The advancement of trees into Arctic tundra can increase total aboveground carbon storage. A study now shows, however, that greater plant growth also enhances belowground decomposition, resulting in a net loss of carbon from the ecosystem.

Historical evidence provides a valuable context for models that predict the biological impacts of climate change, but such long-term data sets are sparse for aquatic systems. This Review outlines the potential of aquatic biochronologies — generated from the hard parts of fish, molluscs and corals — to provide long-term ecological insights into marine and freshwater environments.

The high levels of water extraction from the Colorado, Murray, Orange and Yellow rivers are shown to be the main cause of reduced flows in these systems. Changes in governance are urgently required to preserve the health of these rivers, especially in light of the present and future impacts of climate change.

Groundwater is of crucial importance for water and food security and for sustaining ecosystems. This Review assesses the likely impacts of climate change on groundwater and groundwater-driven feedbacks to the climate system.

Society's response to climate change is inevitably mediated by culture. In a Review Article that analyses important new research from across the social sciences, climate change is shown to threaten important cultural dimensions of people's lives and livelihoods — including material and lived aspects of culture, identity, community cohesion and sense of place.

Snowpacks absorb more sunlight as they warm. The Antarctic Plateau may buck this trend over the twenty-first century as increased snowfall there inhibits the snowpack from dimming.

Successful nutrient management has helped many lakes recover from the effects of phosphorus pollution. Now research suggests that climate warming can cause some of the same problems to return.

Mangroves are being lost at an alarming rate as their conversion for aquaculture and other uses is profitable. Research, however, suggests that valuing the deep reserves of carbon in mangrove sediments may be the key to their survival.

As climate models improve, decision-makers' expectations for accurate climate predictions are growing. Natural climate variability, however, limits climate predictability and hampers the ability to guide adaptation in many regions such as North America. Scientists, policymakers and the public need to improve communication and avoid raising expectations for accurate regional predictions everywhere.

Mitigating climate change requires directed innovation efforts to develop and deploy energy technologies. An analysis of these directed efforts finds that efficient end-use technologies contribute large potential emission reductions and provide higher social returns on investment than do energy supply technologies. Yet public institutions, policies and financial resources pervasively privilege energy supply technologies.

This Review focuses on how policymakers and others deal with scientific information about the climate, with the aim of understanding how potentially useful information becomes used (or usable) in practice. A conceptual model of the path between usefulness and usability is presented.

Natural sciences analyse the biophysical effects of climate change, whereas social sciences estimate their consequences for humans. How we should respond to climate change depends on how we think we should live our lives, and there are many different opinions on this matter. Ethics can bring clarity and order to these ideas.

Assessment and managment of the impacts of climate change on Earth surface systems such as glaciers, rivers and mountains are somewhat neglected in national and international climate policy initiatives. It is argued in this Perspective that this is a critical omission because Earth surface systems provide water and soil resources, sustain ecosystem services, and influence biogeochemical cycles.

Communicators are convinced of the importance of emphasizing the scientific evidence about climate change risks. But research shows that science-literate individuals are not necessarily the most concerned about global warming.

The physical composition of the soil can determine grassland plant responses to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Most industrialized countries import more carbon emissions, through the products they buy abroad, than they export by selling domestic products overseas, with implications for global emissions and the design of carbon trade policies. A new method unravels the determinants of these emission transfers to understand how international trade affects global emissions and the associated policy implications.

The multitude of forest die-off events within the last decade strongly suggests that forest mortality is an emerging global phenomenon, constituting a major uncertainty in projections of climate impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, climate-ecosystem interactions, and carbon-cycle feedbacks. This Review considers the societal and ecological consequences of dying forests.