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Volume 14 Issue 3, March 2024

Boreal–Arctic wetland methane emissions

Boreal–Arctic wetlands are vulnerable to climate change. Writing in this issue, Yuan and colleagues analysed two decades (2002–2021) of methane emissions from this region and show a robust increasing trend, with strong inter-annual variation. This analysis used eddy covariance and chamber observations, and highlights substantial impacts of warming and vegetation activity.

See Yuan et al. and News & Views by Christensen

Image: Jeremy Snyder, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Cover design: Valentina Monaco

Editorial

  • The impacts of climate change on food production will affect us all. It is important that research and funding are available to minimize these effects and support the most vulnerable.

    Editorial

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News & Views

  • Local governments need extensive funding to realize transformative climate ambitions and this raises the spectre of privileging outside interests over just transitions. Now, research unearths how such private financial interests shape city climate actions in ways both broader, and potentially more brittle, than previously understood.

    • David J. Gordon
    News & Views
  • Methane concentrations are rising faster than ever in the atmosphere. Now, a compilation of observations points towards increased methane emissions from Arctic wetlands as being partly responsible.

    • Torben R. Christensen
    News & Views
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Research Briefings

  • In a changing climate, tree trunks serve as crucial refuges for animals, particularly ectotherms, seeking to escape extreme climatic conditions. Therefore, while climate change could generally promote population growth among ectotherms, deforestation could reverse these positive effects in some populations or exacerbate the negative impacts of climate change in others.

    Research Briefing
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Review Articles

  • Children’s education outcomes are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This Review examines the impact of various climate stressors on children’s educations, develops a framework to understand these risks, and discusses methodological challenges and directions for future research.

    • Caitlin M. Prentice
    • Francis Vergunst
    • Helen L. Berry
    Review Article
  • River water quality affects water security and is expected to degrade under climate change—an issue that has garnered limited attention. Here the authors review the impacts of climate change and climate extremes on water quality, highlighting the pivotal role of land–river connectivity.

    • Li Li
    • Julia L. A. Knapp
    • Wei Zhi
    Review Article
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Brief Communications

  • International trade of used vehicles lacks regulation on emissions standards. This study shows that vehicles exported from Great Britain generate substantially higher carbon and pollution emissions than scrapped or on-road vehicles.

    • Saul Justin Newman
    • Kayla Schulte
    • Douglas R. Leasure
    Brief Communication Open Access
  • The authors conduct a systematic literature review on renewable energy expansion and biodiversity. Comparing renewable energy siting maps with the ranges of two threatened species under future climates, they highlight the potential conflict and need for consideration of climate-change-driven range shifts.

    • Uzma Ashraf
    • Toni Lyn Morelli
    • Rebecca R. Hernandez
    Brief Communication
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Articles

  • City fiscal and budgetary decisions play an essential role in the success of urban climate action. Using US cities as a case study, this Article reveals the interrelationship between urban climate finance, action and justice, as well as promising pathways to transform municipal finance practices.

    • Claudia V. Diezmartínez
    • Anne G. Short Gianotti
    Article
  • Global support and cooperation are necessary for successful climate action. Large-scale representative survey results show that most of the population around the world is willing to support climate action, while a perception gap exists regarding other citizens’ intention to act.

    • Peter Andre
    • Teodora Boneva
    • Armin Falk
    Article Open Access
  • Building additional water infrastructure such as wells is a key strategy to mitigate the impacts of severe droughts, particularly in drylands. This study shows, however, that this infrastructure can lead to loss of resilience under climate change due to erosion of traditional practices.

    • Luigi Piemontese
    • Stefano Terzi
    • Elena Bresci
    Article Open Access
  • Carbon sequestration in mangroves has been proposed as a mitigation strategy for climate change, yet the benefits of carbon burial may be offset by methane emissions. This study shows that methane offsets are small in saline and tropical mangroves, leading to greater net carbon sequestration.

    • Luiz C. Cotovicz Jr
    • Gwenaël Abril
    • Isaac R. Santos
    Article
  • Whether methane emissions from the Boreal–Arctic region are increasing under climate change is unclear, but critical for determining climate feedbacks. This study uses observations and machine learning to show an increase in wetland methane emissions over the past two decades, with inter-annual variation.

    • Kunxiaojia Yuan
    • Fa Li
    • Qing Zhu
    Article Open Access
  • The authors develop a biophysical model to understand the impacts of tree loss and climate change on the activity patterns and population trends of a diurnal ectotherm (lizard). They show that deforestation can reverse the positive effects of climate change and even accelerate population declines.

    • Omer B. Zlotnick
    • Keith N. Musselman
    • Ofir Levy
    Article
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Amendments & Corrections

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