Nature Podcast |
Featured
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Article |
Delayed use of bioenergy crops might threaten climate and food security
Simulations of historical and future periods of climate change showed that delayed mitigation to limit global warming might reduce the capacity of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and threaten climate stability and food security.
- Siqing Xu
- , Rong Wang
- & Renhe Zhang
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: The risks of overstating the climate benefits of ecosystem restoration
- Bernardo B. N. Strassburg
- , Alvaro Iribarrem
- & Piero Visconti
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Research Highlight |
The world’s reservoirs are ageing — and belching out more methane
But carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the global reservoir-building spree in the 1960s and 1970s are falling.
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News |
Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year?
Huge swathes of the country are under water, following an intense heatwave and a long monsoon that has dumped a record amount of rain.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
Australia’s epic wildfires expanded ozone hole and cranked up global heat
Smoke from the unprecedented 2020 fires increased temperatures in the stratosphere by 3 °C in some places.
- Jude Coleman
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News |
Ocean ‘garbage patch’ is filled with fishing gear from just a few places
The bulk of large plastic bits in the North Pacific garbage patch have been lost or discarded by fishing vessels.
- Freda Kreier
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Article
| Open AccessComprehensive evidence implies a higher social cost of CO2
Coupling advances in socioeconomic projections, climate models, damage functions and discounting methods yields an estimate of the social cost of carbon of US$185 per tonne of CO2—triple the widely used value published by the US government.
- Kevin Rennert
- , Frank Errickson
- & David Anthoff
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Research Highlight |
Avalanches in remote peaks are revealed with old satellites’ aid
Archived data from Landsat 5, launched in 1984, and two newer sensors allow scientists to chart dangerous flows in Afghanistan.
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Research Highlight |
Tsunami from huge eruption was as tall as the Statue of Liberty
Tide gauges and tsunami buoys help scientists to estimate the amount of water displaced by the eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano.
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Article
| Open AccessEnhanced ocean oxygenation during Cenozoic warm periods
By using foraminifera-bound nitrogen isotopes, it is shown that, during two warm periods of the Cenozoic, oxygen-deficient zones contracted rather than expanded, suggesting that global warming may not necessarily lead to increased oceanic anoxia.
- Alexandra Auderset
- , Simone Moretti
- & Alfredo Martínez-García
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Article |
Africa’s oldest dinosaurs reveal early suppression of dinosaur distribution
A new Triassic dinosaur assemblage from Zimbabwe reveals that the earliest dinosaurs were confined to a temperate region in the far south of Pangaea.
- Christopher T. Griffin
- , Brenen M. Wynd
- & Hazel R. Taruvinga
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Editorial |
COP27 will be deadlocked if climate adaptation funding promise is broken
November’s climate summit in Egypt is heading for stalemate unless low- and middle-income countries can trust funding promises made by richer nations.
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World View |
To adapt to climate impacts, come to grips with politics
Good weather held back US climate action for decades. Responding to extreme events now requires a grasp of what’s politically possible.
- Megan Mullin
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News |
Impact report: how biodiversity coverage shapes lives and policies
Three cases reveal how Nature’s science journalism and opinion content help to bring about change.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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Article |
Integrated ozone depletion as a metric for ozone recovery
An integrated ozone depletion metric indicates the impact of any new emission and provides a useful complementary metric of the impact of specific emissions of an ozone depleting substance for both the scientific and policy communities.
- John A. Pyle
- , James Keeble
- & Paul T. Griffiths
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Correspondence |
Climate impact assessments should not discount ‘hot’ models
- Jonah Bloch-Johnson
- , Maria Rugenstein
- & Timothy Andrews
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News & Views |
From the archive: bacteriophage mystery, and air-pollution tests
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
Defence research, charm quark — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key graphics from the week in science and research.
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Book Review |
This naval oceanographer couldn’t go to sea but was key to planning wartime landings
Mary Sears led a mostly female research team that was crucial to US operations in the Pacific theatre in the 1940s.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
Continental configuration controls ocean oxygenation during the Phanerozoic
Analysis of a series of Earth system model experiments shows that continental rearrangement during the Phanerozoic had a marked influence on variations in ocean oxygenation, independent of atmospheric pO2.
- Alexandre Pohl
- , Andy Ridgwell
- & Christopher R. Scotese
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Spotlight |
What bats can teach us about urban design
Kate Jones thinks the natural world can inspire a dialogue about cities that are sustainable and healthy for humans and other animals.
- Rachael Pells
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Spotlight |
Cities embrace their water — and build resilience
Briony Rogers helps cities to connect to their environment to better survive drought and storm surges.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Spotlight |
Turning city planning into a game
Ursula Eicker lets people play around while designing the cities of the future.
- Brian Owens
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Spotlight |
Why Japan is building smart cities from scratch
Purpose-built sustainable communities can boost energy efficiency and support an ageing population.
- Tim Hornyak
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News & Views |
Plate tectonics controls ocean oxygen levels
Variations in ocean oxygen levels during Earth’s history have been linked to evolution and mass extinctions. Simulations now suggest that the configuration of the continents has a substantial impact on ocean oxygenation.
- Katrin J. Meissner
- & Andreas Oschlies
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Correspondence |
Energy security: step up the search for clean-energy minerals
- Mitali Das
- , Hailey Ordal
- & Samuel Kuersteiner
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Correspondence |
Europe’s energy crisis — climate community must speak up
- Haris Doukas
- & Alexandros Nikas
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News |
Scientists welcome ‘enormous’ US climate bill — but call for stronger action
Biden signs historic legislation to pour billions into fighting climate change as the global temperature continues to rise.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
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News |
Nuclear war between two nations could spark global famine
A pall of smoke from burning cities would engulf Earth, causing worldwide crop failures, models show.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Climate change is making hundreds of diseases much worse
Heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms push up the number of cases, make diseases more severe and hamper people’s ability to cope.
- McKenzie Prillaman
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News |
World’s largest ice sheet threatened by warm water surge
Shifting winds and ocean currents are pushing warm waters into East Antarctica, contributing to ice loss, an analysis finds.
- Clare Watson
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News |
Will a freeze in US–China climate talks threaten global action?
Researchers worry that a protracted stand-off could slow progress on tackling global warming and hamper research collaborations.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
Scientists have unearthed what could be the world’s oldest ice core
Antarctic sample dated to between three million and five million years old extracted as international ice-drilling teams race to extend Earth’s climate record.
- McKenzie Prillaman
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News & Views |
Low phosphorus levels limit carbon capture by Amazonian forests
Understanding the processes that affect carbon storage in tropical forests is crucial for assessing the effects of climate change. An experiment reveals that a nutrient shortfall is hampering such carbon capture.
- S. Joseph Wright
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News & Views |
The early arrival of spring doesn’t boost annual tree growth
Analysis of when and how fast temperate deciduous trees in North America grow suggests that the earlier onset of the growing season induced by climate change does not result in extra carbon sequestration from wood production.
- Cyrille B. K. Rathgeber
- & Patrick Fonti
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Research Briefing |
Boreal forest on the move
A newly discovered population of white-spruce trees is advancing northwards in Arctic Alaska, driven by ecological factors that are associated with climate change at this latitude — including stronger winter winds, deeper snow and greater nutrient availability in the soil.
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Nature Podcast |
Why low temperatures could help starve tumours of fuel
Cold exposure in mice activates brown fat to deny tumours glucose, and the future of extreme heatwaves.
- Benjamin Thompson
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Article |
Antarctic calving loss rivals ice-shelf thinning
Data from multiple satellite sensors show that Antarctica lost almost 37,000 km2 of ice-shelf area from 1997 to 2021, and that calving losses are as important as ice-shelf thinning.
- Chad A. Greene
- , Alex S. Gardner
- & Alexander D. Fraser
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Review Article |
Response of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to past and future climate change
Analysis of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet response to past warm periods and current observations of change highlight the importance of satisfying the Paris Climate Agreement to avoid a multi-metre contribution to sea level over the next few centuries.
- Chris R. Stokes
- , Nerilie J. Abram
- & Pippa L. Whitehouse
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Article
| Open AccessSufficient conditions for rapid range expansion of a boreal conifer
A boreal conifer is advancing northwards into Arctic tundra, with this treeline advance facilitated by climate warming together with winter winds, deeper snow and increased soil nutrient availability.
- Roman J. Dial
- , Colin T. Maher
- & Patrick F. Sullivan
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Correspondence |
Climate club ‘green certificate’ would boost membership
- Miquel Oliu-Barton
- & Simone Tagliapietra
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News & Views |
Atmospheric waves reinforced tsunami after Tongan eruption
The global tsunami and atmospheric waves that followed the eruption of the Tongan volcano Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai were observed around the world. Analysing the data could reshape our understanding of such events.
- Emily M. Lane
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Comment |
How climate change and unplanned urban sprawl bring more landslides
More settlements will suffer as heavy rains and unregulated construction destabilize slopes in the tropics, models show.
- Ugur Ozturk
- , Elisa Bozzolan
- & Thorsten Wagener
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Spotlight |
Fungal findings excite truffle researchers and gastronomes
A foraging dog has unearthed an Italian white truffle that had been cultivated, a feat that once seemed unattainable.
- Nic Fleming
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News Feature |
Extreme heatwaves: surprising lessons from the record warmth
Unprecedented temperatures are coming faster and more furiously than researchers expected, raising questions about what to anticipate in the future.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
How the biggest US energy bill ever could revive Biden’s climate agenda
Economic modelling shows that the compromise legislation might bring the United States within range of meeting its climate commitments.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News & Views |
Risk management alone fails to limit the impact of extreme climate events
An analysis of floods or droughts that hit the same place twice shows that using risk management alone does not reduce the effect of extreme events. Addressing the social drivers of hazard impact, equitably, is essential.
- Beth Tellman
- & Hallie Eakin