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As artificial light encroaches upon cities and countryside, natural darkness recedes and circadian rhythms shift in regions worldwide. Now, a study reveals that bright nights are negatively impacting the carbon sinks of ecosystems.

The authors combine light intensity data with eddy covariance observations from 86 sites to show that artificial light at night increases ecosystem respiration and alters carbon exchange, with impacts shaped by diel cycles and seasonal dynamics.

Dissolved oxygen concentrations are expected to decline with rising water temperatures under climate change. This study projects declining oxygen levels for most rivers globally and an increase in hypoxic days by the end of the century, with implications for ecosystem and fish health.

Using population and ecological genomic approaches, the authors demonstrate the potential for interspecific introgression—the transfer of genetic material following hybridization—to reduce climate change vulnerability. Their findings emphasize the importance of preserving interspecific connectivity.

Natural patterns of climate variability, such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), strongly influence regional climate. This study shows that anthropogenic warming now has greater influence than the PDO on North Pacific sea surface temperatures, with implications for predictability and impacts.

Effective communication of uncertainty is vital for public accurate understanding of climate science. Here the authors find that projections using positive probability terms (for example, a small probability) are perceived as more scientific and trustworthy than those using negative terms (for example, unlikely).

A decade ago, the Paris Agreement was adopted, which was a landmark for international climate governance. In this infographic, we reflect on the progress that has been made as well as some of the challenges that still lie ahead, such as policy agenda, social change and technology development.

December 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of adoption of the Paris Agreement. Although we have seen both achievements and disappointments in the past decade, we believe that the Paris Agreement will keep playing a key role in international climate actions.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Nature Climate Change asked experts to reflect on the progress of and barriers to several of its key Articles. They share their thoughts on important policy implications, what has been achieved and missed, as well as future directions.

How mesoscale horizontal stirring changes with warming is not well understood. Here the authors present high-resolution simulations that show that mesoscale horizontal stirring increases in the Arctic Ocean and around Antarctica, mainly due to sea ice reduction.

Human greenhouse gas emissions are raising temperatures and sea levels, collapsing ice sheets and acidifying oceans. Now, research maps out the range of emissions pathways that can limit these changes.

This study explores pathways of emissions and mitigation compatible with four climate boundaries—planetary boundaries for the climate system. The results highlight the importance of peak emission timing, limitation of carbon budgets as a sole indicator and trade-offs between mitigation options.

Antarctic ice shelves affect the mass loss of the Antarctic ice sheet and are vulnerable to damage from crevasses and rifts. Decades of satellite observations link this damage to past thinning and retreat of ice shelves. Damage is projected to intensify under future high-emission climate scenarios, further weakening ice shelves and accelerating ice loss.

Restrictions on civil society may drive climate activists to shift from protest to litigation. However, challenges to judicial independence, deregulation and anti-climate litigation mean that activists need to consider the conditions under which litigation leads to strengthened climate ambition and implementation.

Climate change influences not only crop yields but also crop nutritional content, which is currently not simulated by process-based crop models. This Perspective proposes a way forward to integrate nutrients into crop models to assess climate impacts and highlights data needs.

A human-driven increase in upwelling of carbon-rich deep waters threatens the efficiency of the Southern Ocean carbon sink, which substantially mitigates global warming. Long-term observations reveal that surface freshening since the 1990s has acted as a barrier, preventing CO₂ release to the atmosphere and, temporarily, preserving the Southern Ocean’s role in slowing down climate change.