Climate-change ecology articles from across Nature Portfolio

As climate change redirects migration patterns of marine species towards the extremes of their geographic range, sharks find themselves stunned by rising cold upwelling currents.

Global greening continued into 2023, reaching near-record values that were dominated by regional enhancement in the mid-western USA, Europe, northern Australia and parts of equatorial Africa. In contrast, climatic events contributed to browning signals in Russia, Canada, Mexico and tropical drylands.

The fire ban implemented during burning seasons in the Brazilian Amazon helped reduce the number of fires in 2019 but proved largely ineffective in 2020 and 2021, according to an analysis of observed fires activity and model simulations of expected fires in the absence of a ban over 2019–2021.

Warming temperatures driven by climate change are causing species geographic ranges to shift, but factors such as habitat characteristics and species interactions impact these changes. This Review examines range shift documentation, how shifts differ from temperature-based expectations, and the effects of range shifts on natural and human systems.

Hueholt et al. find that considering how the rate of temperature change contributes to ecosystem risk helps inform future hypothetical design of climate intervention scenarios

Datasets from in situ warming experiments across 28 arctic and alpine tundra sites covering  a span of less than 1 year up to 25 years show the importance of local soil conditions and warming-induced changes therein for future climatic impacts on ecosystem respiration.  

As climate change redirects migration patterns of marine species towards the extremes of their geographic range, sharks find themselves stunned by rising cold upwelling currents.

Global greening continued into 2023, reaching near-record values that were dominated by regional enhancement in the mid-western USA, Europe, northern Australia and parts of equatorial Africa. In contrast, climatic events contributed to browning signals in Russia, Canada, Mexico and tropical drylands.

Climate warming is triggering a steady increase in the mean thermal optimum of plant communities. We show that this increase reflects the dieback of cold-adapted species rather than the arrival of warmer-adapted species, with negative effects on local diversity and mutually cancelling effects on community heterogeneity.

Combining species range-shift estimates with population trends for 146 marine species reveals that population abundances tend to decline as the velocity with which the species’ range is shifting poleward increases. The findings suggest widespread transient population dynamics rather than a simple dichotomy between climate-change ‘winners’ and ‘losers’.

In a changing climate, tree trunks serve as crucial refuges for animals, particularly ectotherms, seeking to escape extreme climatic conditions. Therefore, while climate change could generally promote population growth among ectotherms, deforestation could reverse these positive effects in some populations or exacerbate the negative impacts of climate change in others.