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As climate change accelerates, fire regimes are increasingly disrupting ecosystems and carbon storage. A modelling study reveals that fire is already acting to substantially weaken global carbon sinks, potentially undermining efforts to limit warming.

Only about 1.07 °C of climate warming above the pre-industrial level is required for fire to substantially diminish the effectiveness of global carbon sinks, suggesting that climate change has already been weakening carbon storage through fire, according to integrated model simulations that consider the interaction between fire and vegetation.

Modelling of the evolution of the Kosi drainage basin near Chomolungma suggests that a river capture event occurred approximately 89 ka ago. Isostatic rebound due to this capture event could contribute 10–50% of the total rock uplift rate in the Chomolungma region and might partly explain Chomolungma’s renewed uplift rate and anomalous elevation.

The recent uptick in surface uplift of Chomolungma (Mount Everest) can be partly attributed to isostatic rebound due to increased erosion following a river capture event, according to river evolution and flexural modelling.

The biological pump may dominate ocean carbon uptake under net-negative CO₂ emissions, according to Earth system model simulations of temperature-overshoot scenarios.

A seismic tomographic model shows that the directional dependence of the travel time of seismic waves through Earth’s inner core can be explained by a spatially varying orientation of the transverse isotropy symmetry axis, which is simpler than other proposed structures.

A multiscale Earth system modelling approach that integrates machine learning could pave the way for improved climate projections and support actionable climate science.

Multidecadal declines in methanesulfonic acid in arctic ice cores reflect increasing anthropogenic pollution in the industrial era rather than declining marine primary production, according to analyses of a multi-century record of methanesulfonic acid from Alaska and atmospheric modelling.

An investigation of global trace-element data suggests that the parental melts of hotspot lavas are uniform in their elemental composition, consistent with derivation from a common depleted and outgassed mantle reservoir.

China’s second phase of clean air actions proved less effective than the first, highlighting the need to adapt and update policies to enable continued progress, according to an assessment combining chemical transport modelling and emission inventories.

Enhancing nitrogen use efficiency can effectively reduce soil nitrogen losses from fertilizer use in the production of maize and wheat, according to a global analysis of field measurement data on crop-specific soil nitrogen losses.

Anthropogenic ground-level ozone substantially reduces the productivity of tropical forests and so their carbon drawdown, according to ozone susceptibility experiments and dynamic global vegetation modelling.

Clinopyroxene offers clues about the inner workings of volcanic systems, as Teresa Ubide explains. Its ability to track where and when magma is stored may also help forecast eruptions.

Sand is an overlooked resource and is being depleted at an alarming rate. Improved management of sand extraction and consumption is imperative to protect sand resources and reduce the impacts of extraction.

Large-ensemble simulations suggest that strong regional trends in precipitation and temperature extremes will be common over the next two decades, even under stringent mitigation measures.

The processes that control the deformation and eventual destruction of Earth’s oldest continental crust are unclear. Mantle flow models suggest subduction played a role in the deformation of the North China Craton.

Summer snow accumulation and its albedo effect on Arctic sea ice are controlled by the Arctic Oscillation atmospheric circulation pattern, according to a combined modelling and remote sensing analysis.