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Ocean eddies impact circulation, heat and gas fluxes between the ocean and the atmosphere. Modelling how warming will alter their occurrence in the Arctic shows that sea ice decline and increased baroclinic instability drive an increase in eddy kinetic energy.
Oxygen loss has been observed in the world’s oceans, due mainly to warming temperatures that reduce oxygen solubility and increase stratification. This study shows climate-induced salinity changes also impact oxygen patterns with effects either accelerating or counteracting warming-driven changes.
The increase in atmospheric methane has been accelerating since 2007, and identifying drivers is critical for climate mitigation. In this study, the authors show that the expansion of rice cultivation in Africa accounts for 7% of rising emissions.
The authors quantify changes in carbon flow to Arctic tundra and boreal forest consumers under warming. Small-mammal specimens separated by 30 years and wolf spiders from short-term warming experiments show similar patterns of change, switching from plant-based to fungal-based food webs.
Hydrofluorocarbons are a class of important greenhouse gases, and quantitative estimates of their social cost are still lacking. This research develops a set of direct estimates of their economic costs and shows their rapid phase-down could lead to large climate benefits.
Warming temperatures associated with climate change are expected to impact soil carbon stocks, yet the effect of more frequent and intense extreme climate events on soil carbon is yet unclear. This study shows that most extremes enhance soil carbon loss globally, with variation across ecosystems.
The Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a key feature of tropical weather on a multi-weekly timescale. Here, the authors show that the MJO becomes more predictable with climate change, potentially allowing better subseasonal-to-seasonal forecasting.
The authors use experimental data from 332 sites across all major global biomes to evaluate the drivers of soil microbial respiration response to warming. They demonstrate a key role of the soil microbiome, highlighting the need to account for this in assessments of soil respiration under change.
It has been suggested that Antarctic ice sheets can become unstable and undergo irreversible retreat, but so far observational evidence for this mechanism is missing. Here, the authors show evidence that such an irreversible retreat occurred at Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica in the 1970s.
Climate change is expected to strengthen atmospheric jet streams. Here the authors show that the fastest upper-level jet stream winds accelerate about 2.5 times faster under climate change than average winds, which could influence aviation and severe weather events.
Negative emissions technologies at scale are seen as essential for the overall decarbonization effort to achieve the Paris Agreement targets. However, private ownership of these technologies could largely increase regional or international inequality by financing them through carbon markets.
The authors incorporate terrestrial biosphere models with ecological optimality theory, remote sensing and global carbon budget estimates to constrain the historical effects of CO2 on photosynthesis. They show that CO2 fertilization likely increased global photosynthesis by 13.5% between 1981 and 2020.
Rice paddies are a source of the potent greenhouse gas methane. The authors demonstrate that a rice variety containing naturally lost function in the gene GS3 has reduced allocation of photosynthates to roots, which results in a reduction of methane emissions during growth.
Forest restoration is emerging as a key climate mitigation strategy. In this study, the authors find that formalized local control and substantive involvement in rule-making are associated with synergies for carbon sequestration, biodiversity and rural livelihoods.
The impact of climate change on soil carbon remains uncertain. This study shows that soil carbon in forests increases in response to elevated CO2, but the response to warming and nitrogen deposition depends on mycorrhizal associations, indicating a trade-off between soil and plant carbon.