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Water levels in inland seas and lakes globally will drop, often dramatically, over the 21st century in response to climate change. Based on the case of the Caspian Sea, we argue for a concerted campaign to raise awareness of threats to people, biodiversity and geopolitical stability.
Global mean sea level was 28.4 ± 11.7 m higher than at present during the Early Pliocene, at atmospheric CO2 levels of no more than 450 ppm and temperatures of 2–3 ∘C above preindustrial levels, suggests a reconstruction from Patagonia.
Airborne microplastic particles with a possible oceanic origin were identified in the marine atmosphere, far from the coast, using micro-Raman spectroscopy analyses of air samples, during a transect across the North Atlantic Ocean in 2016.
Loss and fragmentation of contiguous tracts of primary forest enhances the susceptibility of tropical peatland and forest to fires triggered by frequent droughts, according to satellite-based remote sensing of Sumatra and Kalimantan from the past two decades
The disparity in predicted and observed till transport rates beneath flowing ice is partially explained by water pressure fluctuations which alter the rate and depth of slip in the sediments, according to a coupled ice-meltwater-till continuum model
Stratospheric solar geoengineering using calcium carbonate particles might have little impact on ozone, according to simulations with an atmospheric chemistry model using experimental reaction rates.
Whether Earth remained habitable for over 3 billion years was probably determined by chance as well as by stabilising mechanisms, according to a simulation of thousands of planets each given randomly determined climate feedbacks
Long-term changes in future snow accumulation in Antarctica are influenced more strongly by changes in storm systems than the large-scale circulation, according to an analysis of the Antarctic moisture budget from climate simulations and reanalysis data.
Coupling between the stratosphere and the troposphere contributes to extreme events at the Earth’s surface, and can help with predictability on timescales from weeks to decades, according to a synthesis of the influence of the stratosphere on surface climate.
Warmer periods correspond with poleward migration of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds over the past 700 years and vice versa, according to multi-proxy records from a lake sediment core on sub-Antarctic Marion Island.
Air temperatures in the European Alps during the Last Interglacial were up to 4 °C higher than at present, which could suggest amplified warming at high elevations, according to fluid inclusion data from Swiss speleothems.
Colder, snow-dominated regions are more likely to experience greater changes in water availability with warming, suggests an analysis that explicitly includes snow cover in potential evaporation estimates.
Carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies entered the inner solar system earlier than 4562 million years ago and were magnetized by the solar wind rather than in differentiated objects, according to paleomagnetic analyses of Vigarano and Mighei type meteorites
Uncoupling of calcification from calcifier biomass could accelerate coral reef degradation under the combined impact of warming and ocean acidification, suggests an 18-month long mesocosm experiment.
Land cover change has accelerated in West Africa between 1975 and 2013 as human-dominated land area more than doubled, suggest analyses of Landsat based land cover data sets.
Deep-sea hydrothermal systems are episodically flushed by fluids of magmatic origin, as revealed by the chemical signatures of zoned epidote crystals from the Troodos Ophiolite, Cyprus
The location of orogenic belts has a strong influence on the rifting of supercontinents after mantle plumes trigger the initial break-up and contribute to lithospheric weakening, according to numerical simulations of the break-up of Pangea.
Shrub canopy height and density is greater along Arctic streams that lose water into unfrozen ground than along gaining streams, suggest analyses of field measurements from Toolik, Alaska.