S. McKenzie Skiles, University of Utah

Snow in the climate system

The November issue features a Special Collection describing the role snow plays in the climate system and how this may be modified with climate change.

Latest Research

  • Review Article |

    This Review examines the pathways through which humans are impacted by climate change and shows that by 2100 the world’s population will be simultaneously exposed to at least three hazards, and in some locations as many as six, under an RCP 8.5 scenario.

    • Camilo Mora
    • , Daniele Spirandelli
    • , Erik C. Franklin
    • , John Lynham
    • , Michael B. Kantar
    • , Wendy Miles
    • , Charlotte Z. Smith
    • , Kelle Freel
    • , Jade Moy
    • , Leo V. Louis
    • , Evan W. Barba
    • , Keith Bettinger
    • , Abby G. Frazier
    • , John F. Colburn IX
    • , Naota Hanasaki
    • , Ed Hawkins
    • , Yukiko Hirabayashi
    • , Wolfgang Knorr
    • , Christopher M. Little
    • , Kerry Emanuel
    • , Justin Sheffield
    • , Jonathan A. Patz
    •  & Cynthia L. Hunter
  • Letter |

    Model simulations with CO2 forcing prescribed in discrete geographical regions reveal that polar amplification arises primarily due to local lapse-rate feedback, with ice-albedo and Planck feedbacks playing subsidiary roles.

    • Malte F. Stuecker
    • , Cecilia M. Bitz
    • , Kyle C. Armour
    • , Cristian Proistosescu
    • , Sarah M. Kang
    • , Shang-Ping Xie
    • , Doyeon Kim
    • , Shayne McGregor
    • , Wenjun Zhang
    • , Sen Zhao
    • , Wenju Cai
    • , Yue Dong
    •  & Fei-Fei Jin
  • Letter |

    Ocean acidification will result in biological winners and losers. A mesocosm experiment shows that a toxic algal species is a winner under ocean acidification, with implications for the marine food web and, more generally, ecosystem services.

    • Ulf Riebesell
    • , Nicole Aberle-Malzahn
    • , Eric P. Achterberg
    • , María Algueró-Muñiz
    • , Santiago Alvarez-Fernandez
    • , Javier Arístegui
    • , Lennart T. Bach
    • , Maarten Boersma
    • , Tim Boxhammer
    • , Wanchun Guan
    • , Mathias Haunost
    • , Henriette G. Horn
    • , Carolin R. Löscher
    • , Andrea Ludwig
    • , Carsten Spisla
    • , Michael Sswat
    • , Paul Stange
    •  & Jan Taucher
  • Perspective |

    With warming, meltwater will play an increasingly important role in driving ice loss from Antarctica, raising global sea levels. This Perspective discusses the key process through which Antarctic surface hydrology impacts mass balance.

    • Robin E. Bell
    • , Alison F. Banwell
    • , Luke D. Trusel
    •  & Jonathan Kingslake
  • Article |

    Managed coastal wetlands have been included for the first time in the US Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Intact vegetated coastal wetlands are shown to represent a net greenhouse gas sink, but these are being lost to development, despite robust regulation, causing emissions.

    • Stephen Crooks
    • , Ariana E. Sutton-Grier
    • , Tiffany G. Troxler
    • , Nathaniel Herold
    • , Blanca Bernal
    • , Lisa Schile-Beers
    •  & Tom Wirth
  • Letter |

    Corporations are an important source of GHG emissions and an important climate-mitigation actor. An assessment of corporate climate action and systematic benchmarking against international targets is conducted for 138 companies in high-emitting sectors.

    • Simon Dietz
    • , Charles Fruitiere
    • , Carlota Garcia-Manas
    • , William Irwin
    • , Bruno Rauis
    •  & Rory Sullivan

News & Comment

  • News & Views |

    Recent, rapid and (in many cases) unprecedented climate changes in the Arctic continue to outpace all other regions. New research argues that local, not remote, mechanisms are responsible for amplifying polar climate change.

    • Patrick C. Taylor
  • News & Views |

    Urban development induces local warming in addition to climate change. New research shows that urban growth, climate change and urban adaptation interact nonlinearly and diurnally.

    • Lei Zhao
  • Comment |

    Extensive evidence reveals that Earth’s snow cover is declining, but our ability to monitor trends in mountain regions is limited. New satellite missions with robust snow water equivalent retrievals are needed to fill this gap.

    • Kat J. Bormann
    • , Ross D. Brown
    • , Chris Derksen
    •  & Thomas H. Painter
  • Feature |

    Piece by piece, scientists are gathering evidence of the growing threat of wet snow avalanches in a warmer world.

    • Olive Heffernan

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