Susanna Gartler, Johanna Scheer, Alexandra Meyer, Khaled Abass, Annett Bartsch, Natalia Doloisio, Jade Falardeau, Gustaf Hugelius, Anna Irrgang, Jón Haukur Ingimundarson, Leneisja Jungsberg, Hugues Lantuit, Joan Nymand Larsen, Rachele Lodi, Victoria Sophie Martin, Louise Mercer, David Nielsen, Paul Overduin, Olga Povoroznyuk, Arja Rautio, Peter Schweitzer, Niek Jesse Speetjens, Soňa Tomaškovičová, Ulla Timlin, Jean-Paul Vanderlinden, Jorien Vonk, Levi Westerveld, Thomas Ingeman-Nielsen
{"title":"A transdisciplinary, comparative analysis reveals key risks from Arctic permafrost thaw.","authors":"Susanna Gartler, Johanna Scheer, Alexandra Meyer, Khaled Abass, Annett Bartsch, Natalia Doloisio, Jade Falardeau, Gustaf Hugelius, Anna Irrgang, Jón Haukur Ingimundarson, Leneisja Jungsberg, Hugues Lantuit, Joan Nymand Larsen, Rachele Lodi, Victoria Sophie Martin, Louise Mercer, David Nielsen, Paul Overduin, Olga Povoroznyuk, Arja Rautio, Peter Schweitzer, Niek Jesse Speetjens, Soňa Tomaškovičová, Ulla Timlin, Jean-Paul Vanderlinden, Jorien Vonk, Levi Westerveld, Thomas Ingeman-Nielsen","doi":"10.1038/s43247-024-01883-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-024-01883-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Permafrost thaw poses diverse risks to Arctic environments and livelihoods. Understanding the effects of permafrost thaw is vital for informed policymaking and adaptation efforts. Here, we present the consolidated findings of a risk analysis spanning four study regions: Longyearbyen (Svalbard, Norway), the Avannaata municipality (Greenland), the Beaufort Sea region and the Mackenzie River Delta (Canada) and the Bulunskiy District of the Sakha Republic (Russia). Local stakeholders' and scientists' perceptions shaped our understanding of the risks as dynamic, socionatural phenomena involving physical processes, key hazards, and societal consequences. Through an inter- and transdisciplinary risk analysis based on multidirectional knowledge exchanges and thematic network analysis, we identified five key hazards of permafrost thaw. These include infrastructure failure, disruption of mobility and supplies, decreased water quality, challenges for food security, and exposure to diseases and contaminants. The study's novelty resides in the comparative approach spanning different disciplines, environmental and societal contexts, and the transdisciplinary synthesis considering various risk perceptions.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"21"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11738985/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143001476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Madeleine Fol, Bruno Tremblay, Stephanie Pfirman, Robert Newton, Stephen Howell, Jean-François Lemieux
{"title":"Revisiting the Last Ice Area projections from a high-resolution Global Earth System Model.","authors":"Madeleine Fol, Bruno Tremblay, Stephanie Pfirman, Robert Newton, Stephen Howell, Jean-François Lemieux","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02034-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02034-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Last Ice Area-located to the north of Greenland and the northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago-is expected to persist as the central Arctic Ocean becomes seasonally ice-free within a few decades. Projections of the Last Ice Area, however, have come from relatively low resolution Global Climate Models that do not resolve sea ice export through the waterways of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Nares Strait. Here we revisit Last Ice Area projections using high-resolution numerical simulations from the Community Earth System Model, which resolves these narrow waterways. Under a high-end forcing scenario, the sea ice of the Last Ice Area thins and becomes more mobile, resulting in a large export southward. Under this potentially worst-case scenario, sea ice of the Last Ice Area could disappear a little more than one decade after the central Arctic Ocean has reached seasonally ice-free conditions. This loss would have profound impacts on ice-obligate species.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"46"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11754091/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143045770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ryan S Williams, Amanda C Maycock, Vincent Charnay, Jeff Knight, Inna Polichtchouk
{"title":"Strong polar vortex favoured intense Northern European storminess in February 2022.","authors":"Ryan S Williams, Amanda C Maycock, Vincent Charnay, Jeff Knight, Inna Polichtchouk","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02175-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02175-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>February 2022 was an unusually stormy month over Northern Europe, including three extratropical cyclones impacting the United Kingdom and Ireland within a single week. The month also experienced an exceptionally strong stratospheric polar vortex; however, the role of this in preconditioning the risk of extratropical cyclone hazards has not been explored. Here we use constrained subseasonal forecasts to isolate the effect of the strong stratospheric polar vortex on the North Atlantic storm track in February 2022. We estimate the strong polar vortex led to a 1.5-3-fold increase in the likelihood of a cyclone with comparable intensity to the most intense storm that impacted the United Kingdom. We also show an increased likelihood of 3 or more storms reaching the United Kingdom in a single week by ~80% compared to if the polar vortex had been of average intensity. Using a storm severity index, we estimate a 3-4-fold increase in wind gust hazards over Scandinavia and Scotland and increases in monthly precipitation over Scotland, northern England and Ireland, and Scandinavia. The results show that the strengthened stratospheric polar vortex enhanced the risk of extreme North Atlantic extratropical cyclones, serial cyclone clustering, and their associated impacts over northern Europe in February 2022.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"226"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11949832/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143751285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Junjie Zhang, Giorgio Arriga, Federico Rossetti, Valentina Argante, Dennis Kraemer, Mariana Sontag-González, Domenico Cosentino, Paola Cipollari, Sumiko Tsukamoto
{"title":"Dolomite luminescence thermochronometry reconstructs the low-temperature exhumation history of carbonate rocks in the central Apennines, Italy.","authors":"Junjie Zhang, Giorgio Arriga, Federico Rossetti, Valentina Argante, Dennis Kraemer, Mariana Sontag-González, Domenico Cosentino, Paola Cipollari, Sumiko Tsukamoto","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02216-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02216-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The lack of available thermochronological methods has so far hampered reconstructions of the cooling and exhumation histories in carbonate rock regions. Here we develop a new trapped charge thermochronometry tool based on the thermoluminescence signal of dolomite. It has a closure temperature range of 45-75 °C and is applicable to carbonate domains with cooling rates of 2-200 °C per million years. This new thermochronometric technique is tested in the central Apennines, where seismogenic, carbonate-hosted normal faulting controls regional neotectonics. Thermoluminescence dating is applied along the northeastern shoulder of the Late Pliocene-Quaternary L'Aquila Intermontane Basin, at the footwall of the extensional Monte Marine Fault. Dolomite samples from the bedrock have a mean thermoluminescence age of 4.60 ± 0.35 millions of years, whereas dolomite clasts within the fault damage zone have a mean thermoluminescence age of 2.53 ± 0.13 millions of years. These new thermoluminescence ages, corroborated by the existing stratigraphic constraints, (i) provide the first direct, low-temperature exhumation ages of the carbonate bedrocks in the central Apennines; (ii) constrain the activity of the basin boundary faults along the northeastern shoulder of the L'Aquila Intermontane Basin. Our study demonstrates the potential of dolomite luminescence thermochronometry in reconstructing the low-temperature cooling/exhumation history of carbonate bedrocks.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"252"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11964923/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143794847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joshua Lanham, Matthew Mazloff, Alberto C Naveira Garabato, Martin Siegert, Ali Mashayek
{"title":"Seasonal regimes of warm Circumpolar Deep Water intrusion toward Antarctic ice shelves.","authors":"Joshua Lanham, Matthew Mazloff, Alberto C Naveira Garabato, Martin Siegert, Ali Mashayek","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02091-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02091-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves is primarily driven by heat delivery from warm Circumpolar Deep Water. Here we classify near-shelf water masses in an eddy-resolving numerical model of the Southern Ocean to develop a unified view of warm water intrusion onto the Antarctic continental shelf. We identify four regimes on seasonal timescales. In regime 1 (East Antarctica), heat intrusions are driven by easterly winds via Ekman dynamics. In regime 2 (West Antarctica), intrusion is primarily determined by the strength of a shelf-break undercurrent. In regime 3, the warm water cycle on the shelf is in antiphase with dense shelf water production (Adélie Coast). Finally, in regime 4 (Weddell and Ross seas), shelf-ward warm water inflow occurs along the western edge of canyons during periods of dense shelf water outflow. Our results advocate for a reformulation of the traditional annual-mean regime classification of the Antarctic continental shelf.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"168"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11872733/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143556084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Poor air quality raises mortality in honey bees, a concern for all pollinators.","authors":"Nico Coallier, Liliana Perez, Maxime Fraser Franco, Yenny Cuellar, Julien Vadnais","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02082-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02082-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human well-being relies on the presence and role of pollinators, as they contribute to the vitality of ecosystems, support the reproduction of wild plants, increase crop yields, and strengthen overall food security. While wild bee populations are dwindling due to climate and environmental change, there has been a notable 45% rise globally in the number of managed honey bee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) colonies over the past five decades. Given their economic significance and their relative ease of tracking, honey bees have the potential to serve as bioindicators of global pollinator health. Consequently, honey bees have emerged as a keystone species requiring protection and conservation efforts. Here, we investigate the intricate relationship between air quality, environmental factors, and honey bee mortality across Canada and the United States. Using statistical and machine learning modeling, our findings underscore the honey bee's role as a bioindicator. We found that air quality is an important predictor of honey bee mortality. The risk of honey bee mortality increased with poor air quality (ozone and Air Quality Health Index) but was substantially reduced in regions with greater vegetation availability (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). Therefore, our study offers a beacon of hope: improving management practices by increasing greenery can significantly mitigate the impact of deteriorating air quality on honey bees, providing a vital solution to safeguard our essential pollinators.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"126"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11845317/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143482411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An interpretable machine learning model for seasonal precipitation forecasting.","authors":"Enzo Pinheiro, Taha B M J Ouarda","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02207-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02207-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Seasonal climate forecasting is important for societal welfare, as it supports decision-makers in taking proactive steps to mitigate risks from adverse climate conditions or to take advantage of favorable ones. Here, we introduce TelNet, a sequence-to-sequence machine learning model for short-to-medium lead seasonal precipitation forecasting. The model takes past seasonal precipitation values and climate indices to predict an empirical precipitation distribution for every grid point of the target region for the next six overlapping seasons. TelNet has a simple encoder-decoder-head architecture, allowing the model to be trained with a limited amount of data, as is often the case in climate forecasting. Its deterministic and probabilistic performance is thoroughly evaluated and compared with state-of-the-art dynamical and deep learning models in a prominent region for seasonal forecasting studies due to its high climate predictability. The training, validation, and test sets are resampled multiple times to estimate the uncertainty associated with a small dataset. The results show that TelNet ranks among the most accurate and calibrated models across multiple initialization months and lead times, especially during the rainy season when the predictable signal is strongest. Moreover, the model allows instance- and lead-wise forecast interpretation through its variable selection weights.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"222"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11928313/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143691156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, Vivek K Arora, Chris D Jones, Victor Brovkin, Tomohiro Hajima, Michio Kawamiya, Spencer K Liddicoat, Alexander J Winkler, Sönke Zaehle
{"title":"Rising nitrogen deposition leads to only a minor increase in CO<sub>2</sub> uptake in Earth system models.","authors":"Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, Vivek K Arora, Chris D Jones, Victor Brovkin, Tomohiro Hajima, Michio Kawamiya, Spencer K Liddicoat, Alexander J Winkler, Sönke Zaehle","doi":"10.1038/s43247-024-01943-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-024-01943-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Current frameworks for evaluating biogeochemical climate change feedbacks in Earth System Models lack an explicit consideration of nitrogen cycling in the land and ocean spheres despite its vital role in limiting primary productivity. As coupled carbon-nitrogen cycling becomes the norm, a better understanding of the role of nitrogen cycling is needed. Here we develop a new framework for quantifying carbon-nitrogen feedbacks in Earth System Models and show that rising nitrogen deposition acts as a negative feedback over both land and ocean, enhancing carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) fertilisation in a model ensemble. However, increased CO<sub>2</sub> uptake due to rising nitrogen deposition is small relative to the large reduction in CO<sub>2</sub> uptake when coupled carbon-nitrogen cycling is implemented in Earth System Models. Altogether, rising nitrogen deposition leads to only a minor increase in CO<sub>2</sub> uptake but also enhances nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) emissions over land and ocean, contributing only marginally to mitigating climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"216"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11922751/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143691176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thomas J Ryan-Keogh, Alessandro Tagliabue, Sandy J Thomalla
{"title":"Global decline in net primary production underestimated by climate models.","authors":"Thomas J Ryan-Keogh, Alessandro Tagliabue, Sandy J Thomalla","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02051-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02051-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Marine net primary production supports critical ecosystem services and the carbon cycle. However, the lack of consensus in the direction and magnitude of projected change in net primary production from models undermines efforts to assess climate impacts on marine ecosystems with confidence. Here we use contemporary remote sensing net primary production trends (1998-2023) from six remote sensing algorithms to discriminate amongst fifteen divergent model projections. A model ranking scheme, based on the similarity of linear responses of net primary production to changes in sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-<i>a</i> and the mixed layer, finds that future declines in net primary production are more likely than presently predicted. Even the best ranking models still underestimate the sensitivity of declines in net primary production to ocean warming, suggesting shortcomings remain. Reproducing this greater temperature sensitivity may lead to even larger declines in future net primary production than presently considered for impact assessment.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"75"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11785529/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143078803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nina Zachlod, Michael Hudecheck, Charlotta Sirén, Gerard George
{"title":"Sustainable palm oil certification inadvertently affects production efficiency in Malaysia.","authors":"Nina Zachlod, Michael Hudecheck, Charlotta Sirén, Gerard George","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02150-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02150-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sustainability certifications have rapidly gained prominence and become standards across many industries, yet knowledge about the potential unintended consequences of their criteria remains limited. Here, we use European Space Agency multispectral imagery satellite data in combination with economic and location data to investigate whether the certification process for palm oil production results in unintended consequences. Our results indicate decreases in plantation efficiency both prior to and following the certification obtainment. Our findings highlight the importance of considering possible unintended consequences of sustainability certifications beyond their immediate goals and criteria.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"200"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11903298/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143647583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}