Understanding the impacts of climate change on circulation in the Southern Ocean is limited by its remoteness and the lack of historical observations. Writing in this issue, Shi et al. use a combination of observations, CMIP6 and eddy-resolving models to show that acceleration of Southern Ocean zonal flow has emerged in recent decades due to uneven ocean warming.

See Shi et al. and News & Views by Stewart

Roads and paths formerly lined with cacti are now buried under the sand in the desert regions of southern Madagascar. The hunger season, which usually ends in April, is becoming more critical each year; three consecutive years of drought have severely affected harvests and access to food. These and other impacts of climate change are being felt across the world, making effective adaptation critical. Writing in this issue, Berrang-Ford et al. take stock of the scientific literature on implemented adaptation, finding that it is mostly local and incremental, with evidence lacking for its impact on reducing risk.

See Berrang-Ford et al. and News & Views by Nalau

River floods are expected to increase under climate change, requiring adaptation measures. Writing in this issue, Masahiro Tanoue et al. estimate the damage from floods globally after adaptation measures have been implemented, known as residual flood damage, under different scenarios. Residual flood damage remains high in some Asian and African regions, suggesting a limit to flood adaptation in those areas.

See Tanoue et al. and News & Views by Eisenberg

It is unclear whether fish body size will decrease with future warming and, if so, what the ecological consequences of such changes will be. Writing in this issue of Nature Climate Change, Jorge Avaria-Llautureo and colleagues use phylogenetic data to show that, over the past ~150 million years, smaller fish occurred in warmer waters, moved shorter distances at low speed and had low speciation rates. Fish moved faster and evolved more quickly under periods of rapid change, which has implications for movement and survival under current climate change.

See Avaria-Llautureo et al. and Flannery-Sutherland

Global crop production is impacted by pathogens and pests which damage plants, such as these lesions on a rice leaf caused by brown spot disease. Writing in this issue, Bebber et al. model the impact of future temperature changes on infection risk for 12 major crop species by 80 major pathogens. They find increased risk tracks with increased yields at high latitudes, and predict shifts in pathogen assemblies in the USA, Europe and China.

See Editorial, Chaloner et al. and News & Views by Saunders

The climate impact of water-table drawdown in peatlands is unclear as carbon dioxide emissions increase and methane emissions decrease due to drying. Writing in this issue, Huang et al. show that decreasing water-table depth results in net greenhouse gas emissions from global peatlands, despite reducing methane emissions.

SeeHuang et al.and News & Views byMorris

Whether clouds will warm or cool the planet under climate change is uncertain. Writing in this issue, two separate studies investigate the climate impacts of clouds. Mülmenstädt et al. show that overestimates of precipitation from warm clouds lead to substantial biases in climate models. Myers et al. find that feedbacks from tropical and subtropical marine clouds are smaller than previously reported.

See Myers et al., Mülmenstädt et al. News & Views by Stephens.

[Updated to correct the spelling of author name Myers.]

Forests take up and store large amounts of carbon but are vulnerable to disturbances, such as this forest in West Virginia that is recovering from major deforestation and livestock grazing. In light of the growing importance of forests in the context of climate change, in this issue we present research and opinion pieces on the theme of forest carbon dynamics and their use in climate mitigation.

See Forest Carbon collection

To celebrate a decade of Nature Climate Change, experts highlight the exciting developments in their fields over the past 10 years, and past and present editors talk about some of the remarkable papers published in the journal.

See Editorial, Viewpoint and Feature.

In Russia, the first boletes (mushrooms) occur in early July each year, yet climate change impacts the timing of such events. In this issue, Tomas Roslin, Otso Ovaskainen and colleagues use an expansive dataset to investigate phenological shifts across taxa in the former USSR. Long-term mean temperature of a site emerged as a strong predictor of phenological change, with further imprints of trophic level, event timing, site, year and biotic interactions.

See Roslin et al.

Climate projections for built landscapes are needed to project risks from climate change in urban settings. In this issue, Lei Zhou and colleagues use an urban climate model emulator with a multi-model archive to estimate that many cities will warm over 4 °C during local summer in a high-emissions scenario. Decreases in near-global relative humidity highlight the mitigation potential of green infrastructure and more efficient urban cooling mechanisms.

See Zhao et al.

Sweet potato can grow at altitudes ranging from sea level to 2,500 m above sea level and come in varieties ranging in colour from white to yellow, orange or purple, such as those from Nyeri in the central highlands of Kenya. In this issue, Bettina Heider, Olivier Dangles and colleagues test heat tolerance in sweet potato to identify tolerant cultivars. Their findings reveal tolerance-predictive traits for breeding consideration and highlight the role of intraspecific diversity for crop resilience under climate change.

See Heider et al. and News & Views by Pironon