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Nonhuman primates deliver important ecological benefits to tropical ecosystems, but human-induced climate change is a growing threat to their survival. A trait-based approach is used to assess the vulnerability of 607 primate taxa to cyclones and droughts, extreme climatic events that are expected to increase or intensify in the coming decades.
Parties to the Paris Agreement must increase their ambition, but stringent climate policy has the potential to put sustainable development at risk. A collaborative effort is underway to identify potential trade-offs and to strengthen synergies between climate action and sustainable development.
Climate-smart food systems are needed to feed growing populations while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving natural resources. However, to be successful, climate-smart agriculture interventions must be equitable and inclusive to overcome trade-offs with other Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement share the purpose of creating a more resilient, productive and healthy environment for present and future generations. Nations must seize the opportunity to raise their ambition, realize synergies and minimize trade-offs.
In April 2019, the United Nations convened a Global Conference on Strengthening Synergies between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We asked five experts to discuss the challenges in dealing with the simultaneous goals of fostering sustainable development and combatting climate change.
Negative emotions around climate change may inhibit people’s capacity to affect change. New research on tourists’ perceptions of coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef suggests that loss associated with iconic places taps into protective sentiments and increases concern, which may encourage collective action.
With climate change, marine species are on the move and changing in abundance. Now, research shows that the ecological impacts of climate change will differentially affect fishing communities, even within the same region.
Top-down studies of climate change use climate projections and modelled impacts, whereas bottom-up assessments focus on the recent past and present vulnerability. This Perspective argues that these approaches must be integrated to address the needs of immediate adaptation decisions.
Climate change is projected to directly impact fishing communities through changes to habitat for marine species. A socio-ecological approach is developed to assess fishing community exposure to climate change risk and applied to New England and Mid-Atlantic (USA) fishing communities.
Observations of the tropical Pacific exhibit an increasing zonal sea surface temperature gradient, while climate models predict the opposite. This study shows that an increased gradient is consistent with greenhouse gas warming, and that climate model discrepancies arise from cold tongue biases.
Greenland Ice Sheet melt is contributing to sea-level rise; however, uncertainties exist about its future contributions. A regional climate model shows that clouds are the primary cause of this uncertainty, with melt varying significantly depending on the cloud water phase and atmospheric circulation.
Climate change is causing temperature records to be broken around the world with increased frequency. Under a business-as-usual scenario new records will be set every year for 58% of the world, whilst under heavy mitigation (RCP2.6) this would occur for 14% of the world.
Climate threats to iconic places may arouse public concern and protective sentiment. This study shows that mass coral bleaching influenced sentiments, threat perceptions and values associated with the Great Barrier Reef and climate change attitudes in Australian and international tourists.
Achieving the Paris Agreement goals may require complementary institutions such as climate clubs. Enhanced technological diffusion and the provision of low-cost climate finance are shown to support the creation of climate coalitions.
The combined impacts of climate change and deforestation are estimated to reduce Amazon tree species richness by up to 58% by 2050, whilst deforestation alone may cause 19–36%, and climate change alone 31–37%.
Non-human primates deliver ecological processes to tropical ecosystems. In this study, a trait-based approach is used to assess the vulnerability of 607 primate taxa to cyclones and droughts, extreme climatic events that are expected to increase or intensify in the coming decades.
Highly mobile taxa, like birds, occupy ecosystems that lack fixed boundaries, and tracking how these spatial regimes respond to environmental change is difficult. Avian route data show the spatial regimes of Great Plains bird communities have shifted poleward and reorganized over the past 46 years.