Reviews & Analysis

Warming can change the vegetation growing season, but the response of autumn phenology to warming remains uncertain. Now research shows warming can lead to autumn greening by delaying leaf senescence, but carbon uptake is constrained by radiation.

The Madden–Julian oscillation causes teleconnections that impact mid-latitudes. Now research predicts dramatic eastward shifts of these impacts in the Pacific–North America region as the climate warms, leading to higher winter rainfall variability along the US West Coast and California in particular.

Pacific Islands are already responding to the adverse effects of climate change, but it is unclear to what extent these responses effectively and sustainably improve local resilience. New research seeks to understand how local beneficiaries evaluate adaptation projects and what this teaches us for future adaptation.

Over the last half of the twentieth century, surface temperature over the South Pole was steady if not slightly cooling, suggesting the high Antarctic interior might be immune to warming. Research now shows a dramatic switch; in the past 30 years, the South Pole has been warming at over three times the global rate.

Reference scenarios are used to evaluate different mitigation scenarios, allowing understanding of their relative strengths and weaknesses. This Perspective considers the appropriate use of reference scenarios in mitigation analysis across different policy contexts.

Migrants arriving in cities must overcome many challenges, including gaining acceptance from established residents. New research from Kenya and Vietnam shows urbanites accept climate hazards as being as legitimate as economic, political or social motivations for rural-to-urban migration.

The impacts of extreme weather and climate can be amplified by physical interactions among events and across a complex set of societal factors. This Perspective discusses the concept and challenge of connected extreme events, exploring research approaches and decision-making strategies.

Ocean acidification is changing the productivity and composition of phytoplankton communities at the base of the aquatic food web. Now a study shows that acidification impairs the swimming ability of flagellated microalgae, suggesting that their capacity to survive is threatened in a high CO₂ world.

International efforts to expand access to safely managed sanitation provide an opportunity to introduce new models for sanitation infrastructure with lower environmental impacts than existing systems. Now, measurements in Haiti show that composting of human waste reduces GHG emissions compared to existing methods.

The influence of the changing climate on individual snowstorms has been uncertain, in part due to the use of coarse model simulations. Now, research employing more detailed simulations finds fewer and smaller snowstorms as a result of warming, with a reduction in the amount and extent of extreme snowfall.

Climate migration involves complex interactions of environmental, social, political and economic factors. New research suggests that although wealthy global citizens try to prevent climate migration, they are willing to shoulder a greater share of the climate mitigation burden when extreme climate events hit poor countries.

Phenological shifts due to climate change can desynchronize the timings of life history events between species, but predicting the consequences is challenging. Changes to current methodologies would allow testing of the widely used Cushing hypothesis and improve predictions of climate change impacts.

Climate change will cause species to shift their ranges to persist. This Review uses invasion ecology theory to consider the impacts of shifting species and how to manage these shifts to protect the recipient communities as well as the survival of the shifters.

Antarctic krill play a key role in Southern Ocean food webs but are vulnerable to climate change, with habitat shifts predicted in response. Now, a study of climate change impacts on a krill-specialist predator — the crabeater seal — suggests that this abundant marine mammal may be forced southwards with its prey.

Snow in the mountains provides a natural reservoir, storing water in the cold season for use later in the year. Now research demonstrates that reduced mountain snowpack due to rising temperatures makes drought harder to predict and jeopardizes irrigated agriculture throughout the world.

Policy makers debate whether responding to climate change can be complementary to economic growth. New research tracking competing economic ideas across the environmental debate shows that climate change is increasingly seen as an opportunity; however, many still argue that growth and climate action are in conflict.

This Perspective maps the history of climate targets and shows how the international goal of avoiding dangerous climate change has been reinterpreted in the light of new modelling methods and technological promises, ultimately enabling policy prevarication and limiting mitigation.

Since 1980, European nations have made a tremendous effort to mitigate ozone pollution by reducing emissions, only to achieve limited success. Research now shows that vegetation stressed by heat and drought conditions has partly thwarted these actions.

In order to limit warming and the most severe consequences of climate change, net global carbon emissions must reach zero by 2050. Many ecosystems contain carbon that would be irrecoverable on this timescale if lost and must be protected to meet climate goals.

Climate change and other human activities are decreasing ocean oxygen content. This Perspective considers the limited data on effects to coral reefs, including oxygen thresholds for lethal and sub-lethal effects in coral reef taxa, and proposes key research questions to address this critical issue.