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It is assumed that the monsoon is the dominant influence on Himalayan glaciers. However, a study now investigates the importance of the mid-latitude Westerlies and shows that glacier changes can be triggered from afar.
Recent studies have produced conflicting results about the impacts of climate change on drought. In this Perspective, a commonly used drought index and observational data are examined to identify the cause of these discrepancies. The authors indicate that improvements in the quality and coverage of precipitation data and quantification of natural variability are necessary to provide a better understanding of how drought is changing.
This Review considers the evolving relationship between land-use change and greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil. Despite the intensification of agriculture over the past decade or so, deforestation has decreased, resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. However, inequality in land ownership and city growth fuelled by rural–urban migration remain pressing issues for policymakers.
Evidence indicates that the continued loss of Arctic sea-ice and snow cover may influence weather at lower latitudes. Now correlations between high-latitude cryosphere changes, hemispheric wind patterns and mid-latitude extreme events are shown for the Northern Hemisphere.
Early warning systems can alert societies about coming irreversible climatic changes, but can they trigger action to avoid them? Research now suggests that to prompt social action, uncertainty about when the changes will occur must be reduced.
Analyses of changes in climate extremes at the local scale are affected by large uncertainties related to climate variability. Now research finds that integration over larger areas reveals consistent intensification of heat and precipitation extremes in projections of the near future.
This Perspective considers the extent to which early action to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane and black carbon, would help to limit global warming. Although decreasing emissions of these pollutants would have short-term benefits, simultaneous CO2 reductions are urgently required to mitigate the risk of dangerous climate change in the longer term.
Recent reports of a lower climate sensitivity to CO2 emissions have been used to suggest that the need for mitigation is not as urgent as previously thought. This Perspective investigates how quickly committed peak warming would increase ifmitigation is delayed. Peak warming is found to increase in line with cumulative CO2 emissions, faster than current observed warming.
Phytoplankton drive productivity in the global ocean, but are sensitive to changes in temperature. Research now demonstrates how phytoplankton cells respond to an increase in seawater temperature and uses this knowledge to predict the resultant impacts on global marine biogeochemistry.
The effects of climate change on vulnerable communities raise ethical concerns about who should help them cope and how. Research suggests that fair and beneficial solutions are possible, but they always come with risks.
Pests and diseases reduce agricultural yields and are an important wildcard in the evaluation of future climate impacts. A unique global record of pests and diseases provides evidence for poleward expansions of their distributions.
A study reveals that recent warming in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific 'warm pool' has caused a cooling near the top of the tropical troposphere above, leading to less water vapour entering the stratosphere.
Marine vegetated habitats occupy a small fraction of the ocean surface, but contribute about 50% of the carbon that is buried in marine sediments. In this Review the potential benefits of conservation, restoration and use of these habitats for coastal protection and climate change mitigation are assessed.
The traditional view of the open ocean is that surface waters should change faster and that the deep waters should be relatively stable. Now research shows that the depths of the Southern Ocean are also rapidly freshening and warming, and that these changes are spreading towards the Equator.
Efforts to tackle climate change have met significant financial and political barriers that have been difficult to overcome. Research now shows that such measures are justified on grounds other than mitigation of climate change.
The amount of organic material that microbes assimilate into their biomass is critical in regulating whether soils, the planet's main pool of organic matter, will absorb or emit carbon in a warmer world.
