Reviews & Analysis

Constraining climate sensitivity is a top priority for climate science. Now research shows that the details of how stratospheric ozone is represented in models can have a strong influence on warming projections.

Global models highlight that environmental change in marine ecosystems is caused by multiple stressors. Now a study puts these projections into a biogeographical framework suitable for integration with wider biological understanding and more robust impact assessment.

Those concerned with human responses to climate-related impacts increasingly use resilience as a framing concept. This Perspective critiques dominant approaches to resilience building and advocates a human livelihoods-based path.

Tropical forests provide many ecosystem and climatic services. This Review provides a synthesis of the effects of tropical deforestation on climate and implications for agriculture, both in the tropics and worldwide.

Experts using integrated assessment models to analyse the effects of climate change policy, have recently engaged in model inter-comparison projects (MIPs) to generate conclusions robust to different models' specifications. This Review synthesises results from the most comprehensive MIP that focuses on the different possible outcomes of post-2020 climate negotiations, recently announced pledges and their relation to the 2°C target.

Non-genetic transgenerational acclimation cannot always be relied upon to provide populations with an effective, short-term response to climatic changes.

Interactions between soil microbes, the physical soil environment and vegetation will determine the magnitude of the terrestrial carbon sink under climate change.

Direct experience of global warming is expected to increase the number of people who accept that it is real and human-caused. A study now shows that people's perceptions about abnormal temperatures mostly match actual measurements but do not affect climate change beliefs.

The linkage of bottom-up climate policies is now widely favoured over the top-down approach exemplified by the Kyoto Protocol. This Perspective critiques this new received wisdom, and argues for a balance of top-down and bottom-up approaches.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach to the development of agricultural systems intended to help support food security under climate change. This Perspective outlines a set of CSA actions needed from public, private and civil society stakeholders: building evidence; increasing local institutional effectiveness; fostering coherence between climate and agricultural policies; and linking climate and agricultural financing.

Climate change research is necessarily interdisciplinary in nature. This Perspective takes stock of research done at the cutting edge of economics and ecology with the aim of stimulating future collaborative work through the sharing of research methods and insights.

Many international river basins are suffering from climate-driven impacts, with implications for national security. Now, research highlights the need to analyse shifting river boundaries to better understand potential socio-political threats.

Natural climate variability complicates the detection of anthropogenic climate change in the twenty-first century. Now, research shows that evidence of human influence first emerges from sea level rather than temperature rise.

The regular beat of the seasons and between day and night are far more noticeable than recent increases in surface temperature. Researchers now show that these rhythms are changing in a way that parallels the pattern of long-term surface warming.

Energy use is crucial for economic development, but drives greenhouse-gas emissions. A low-carbon growth path requires a radical transformation of the energy system that would be too costly for developing nations. Efforts should focus on feasible mitigation actions such as fossil fuel subsidy reform, decentralized access to modern energy and fuel switching in the power sector.

The authors of this Review argue that changes to carbonate dissolution in an acidifying ocean, which have been relatively overlooked, are potentially more important than calcification for the future accretion and survival of coral reef ecosystems.

In recent decades, over nine-tenths of Earth's top-of-the-atmosphere energy imbalance has been stored in the ocean, which is rising as it warms. Combining satellite sea-level data with ocean mass data or model results allows insights into ocean warming.

Climate change mitigation can benefit human health by reducing air pollution. Research now shows that the economic value of health improvements can substantially outweigh mitigation costs, and that more flexible policies could have higher benefits.

Low oxygen levels in tropical oceans shape marine ecosystems and biogeochemistry, and climate change is expected to expand these regions. Now a study indicates that regional dynamics control tropical oxygen trends, bucking projected global reductions in ocean oxygen.

Land-use change from pre-industrial times to the present day has altered Earth's surface energy balance. Until now, the role of volatile hydrocarbons, emitted by plants, in controlling this balance and driving climate change has been overlooked.