Catriona L Fyffe, Emily Potter, Evan Miles, Thomas E Shaw, Michael McCarthy, Andrew Orr, Edwin Loarte, Katy Medina, Simone Fatichi, Rob Hellström, Michel Baraer, Emilio Mateo, Alejo Cochachin, Matthew Westoby, Francesca Pellicciotti
{"title":"Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes.","authors":"Catriona L Fyffe, Emily Potter, Evan Miles, Thomas E Shaw, Michael McCarthy, Andrew Orr, Edwin Loarte, Katy Medina, Simone Fatichi, Rob Hellström, Michel Baraer, Emilio Mateo, Alejo Cochachin, Matthew Westoby, Francesca Pellicciotti","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The snow and glaciers of the Peruvian Andes provide vital water supplies in a region facing water scarcity and substantial glacier change. However, there remains a lack of understanding of snow processes and quantification of the contribution of melt to runoff. Here we apply a distributed glacio-hydrological model over the Rio Santa basin to disentangle the role of the cryosphere in the Andean water cycle. Only at the highest elevations (>5000 m a.s.l.) is the snow cover continuous; at lower elevations, the snowpack is thin and ephemeral, with rapid cycles of snowfall and melt. Due to the large catchment area affected by ephemeral snow, its contribution to catchment inputs is substantial (23% and 38% in the wet and dry season, respectively). Ice melt is crucial in the mid-dry season (up to 44% of inputs). Our results improve estimates of water fluxes and call for further process-based modelling across the Andes.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"434"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12141031/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144246820","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":"Foliar methane and nitrous oxide fluxes in <i>Salix bebbiana</i> respond to light and soil factors.","authors":"Md Rezaul Karim, Md Abdul Halim, Sean C Thomas","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02453-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02453-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Foliar exchange of methane and nitrous oxide is a significant yet poorly understood component of global greenhouse gas budgets. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated foliar methane and nitrous oxide fluxes in <i>Salix bebbiana</i>, under varying light conditions (0-2000 μmol·m<sup>-2</sup>·s<sup>-1</sup>), soil aeration, and nitrogen availability, manipulated via biochar incorporation and nitrogen additions. Using rapid spectroscopic gas analysers, we observed consistent net foliar methane oxidation and nitrous oxide emission across all light conditions, demonstrating saturating light response patterns. Maximum flux rates were significantly more sensitive to soil conditions than carbon dioxide or water vapour exchange. Analysis revealed foliar methane and nitrous oxide fluxes overwhelmingly regulated by internal leaf processes like xylem transport, with modulation by external light intensity. These predictable light-response patterns provide a basis for scaling leaf-level methane and nitrous oxide fluxes, enhancing accuracy in predicting biogenic greenhouse gas fluxes within ecosystem and biosphere models.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"493"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12182443/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144474149","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}
M Madankan, E P Kantzas, R M E Espinosa, S H Vetter, L Koh, P Smith, D J Beerling, P Renforth
{"title":"Larger rock extraction sites could improve the efficiency of enhanced rock weathering in the United Kingdom.","authors":"M Madankan, E P Kantzas, R M E Espinosa, S H Vetter, L Koh, P Smith, D J Beerling, P Renforth","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02656-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02656-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Large-scale removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is required to meet net-zero targets. Enhanced rock weathering, in which crushed silicate minerals are spread on cropland soils, is a promising approach, but the logistics of its supply chain are poorly understood. Here, we use a numerical spatio-temporal allocation model that links potential rock extraction sites in the United Kingdom with croplands, modelling deployment pathways over the period 2025-2070. We find that expanding individual quarries (up to 20 times larger than the current average) and prioritising supply timing and location can increase carbon-removal efficiency by 20%, cut transport demand by 60% and reduce the number of operating quarries four-fold, while enabling up to 700 million tonnes of carbon dioxide removal by 2070. However, these large sites may face stronger local opposition and planning challenges, underscoring the critical role of policy in enabling feasible deployment.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"666"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12356697/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144871805","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}
Yanni Chen, Logan Monks, Vanessa E Rubio, Alexander J Cox, Nathan G Swenson
{"title":"Linking leaf hyperspectral reflectance to gene expression.","authors":"Yanni Chen, Logan Monks, Vanessa E Rubio, Alexander J Cox, Nathan G Swenson","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02696-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02696-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Forest diversity and dynamics are governed by the interactions between organismal function and the abiotic and biotic environment. Functional traits have been widely employed in forest ecology to estimate key functional tradeoffs related to tree performance in a given environment. Hyperspectral reflectance data are utilized in ecology to predict functional trait values at the individual tree or pixel scale on broad spatial extents, but the diversity of functions captured by these traits is limited. Here, we demonstrate a novel integration of reflectance and to gene expression data for processes of interest to ecologists. We show linkages between the expression of ecologically important genes and reflectance data and the potential to transform the depth at which ecologists can rapidly estimate functional diversity.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"694"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12374840/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144945742","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":"Private investments in climate change adaptation are increasing in Europe, although sectoral differences remain.","authors":"Ignasi Cortés Arbués, Theodoros Chatzivasileiadis, Servaas Storm, Olga Ivanova, Tatiana Filatova","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02454-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02454-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Climate-induced hazards are becoming more frequent and severe, causing escalating economic losses worldwide. Consequently, climate change adaptation is increasingly necessary to protect people, nature and the economy. However, little is known about who is adapting and how much they spend on adaptation measures, especially in the private sector. This article focuses on firms-the backbone of economic development, yet understudied in climate adaptation research. Here we present insights from a unique panel dataset detailing businesses' adaptation investments across 28 European countries (2018-2022), 5 hazard types, and 19 economic sectors. Our descriptive analysis reveals low but increasing adaptation investments across Europe (0.15-0.92% of national gross domestic product, annually increasing by 30.6-37.4%). Moreover, we highlight considerable differences in adaptation intensity across sectors, including low adaptation intensity in manufacturing and retail trade. Additionally, our econometric analysis indicates that public adaptation spending crowds in private investments in adaptation, highlighting opportunities to facilitate autonomous adaptation.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"470"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12173939/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144332593","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}
Julio Mercader, Pamela Akuku, Nicole Boivin, Alfredo Camacho, Tristan Carter, Siobhán Clarke, Arturo Cueva Temprana, Julien Favreau, Jennifer Galloway, Raquel Hernando, Haiping Huang, Stephen Hubbard, Jed O Kaplan, Steve Larter, Stephen Magohe, Abdallah Mohamed, Aloyce Mwambwiga, Ayoola Oladele, Michael Petraglia, Patrick Roberts, Palmira Saladié, Abel Shikoni, Renzo Silva, María Soto, Dominica Stricklin, Degsew Z Mekonnen, Wenran Zhao, Paul Durkin
{"title":"<i>Homo erectus</i> adapted to steppe-desert climate extremes one million years ago.","authors":"Julio Mercader, Pamela Akuku, Nicole Boivin, Alfredo Camacho, Tristan Carter, Siobhán Clarke, Arturo Cueva Temprana, Julien Favreau, Jennifer Galloway, Raquel Hernando, Haiping Huang, Stephen Hubbard, Jed O Kaplan, Steve Larter, Stephen Magohe, Abdallah Mohamed, Aloyce Mwambwiga, Ayoola Oladele, Michael Petraglia, Patrick Roberts, Palmira Saladié, Abel Shikoni, Renzo Silva, María Soto, Dominica Stricklin, Degsew Z Mekonnen, Wenran Zhao, Paul Durkin","doi":"10.1038/s43247-024-01919-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-024-01919-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Questions about when early members of the genus <i>Homo</i> adapted to extreme environments like deserts and rainforests have traditionally focused on <i>Homo sapiens</i>. Here, we present multidisciplinary evidence from Engaji Nanyori in Tanzania's Oldupai Gorge, revealing that <i>Homo erectus</i> thrived in hyperarid landscapes one million years ago. Using biogeochemical analyses, precise chronometric dating, palaeoclimate simulations, biome modeling, fire history reconstructions, palaeobotanical studies, faunal assemblages, and archeological evidence, we reconstruct an environment dominated by semidesert shrubland. Despite these challenges, <i>Homo erectus</i> repeatedly occupied fluvial landscapes, leveraging water sources and ecological focal points to mitigate risk. These findings suggest archaic humans possessed an ecological flexibility previously attributed only to later hominins. This adaptability likely facilitated the expansion of <i>Homo erectus</i> into the arid regions of Africa and Eurasia, redefining their role as ecological generalists thriving in some of the most challenging landscapes of the Middle Pleistocene.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11738993/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143001472","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}
Jamie R C Atkins, Adam A Scaife, Jennifer A Graham, Jonathan Tinker, Paul R Halloran
{"title":"Recent European marine heatwaves are unprecedented but not unexpected.","authors":"Jamie R C Atkins, Adam A Scaife, Jennifer A Graham, Jonathan Tinker, Paul R Halloran","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02802-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02802-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The European North-West shelf seas experienced a marine heatwave of unprecedented magnitude in June 2023. Quantifying the likelihood of reoccurrence of similar events is vital for mitigating impacts on marine ecosystems and human activities. Assessing the probability of such events is complicated by climate change-driven changes in the baseline conditions and the short length of the observational record with respect to modes of climate variability. Here, by employing a large ensemble of initialised climate model simulations, we show that the probability of June 2023-like events occurring is approximately 10% in any given year of the present-day climate. Moreover, there has been accelerating growth in the risk of occurrence over the last 30 years. The unprecedented nature of the record-breaking June 2023 event placed European marine heatwaves firmly in the public consciousness. However, the climate change trajectory means that whilst this event was unprecedented, such events should not be unexpected.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"792"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12504108/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145257678","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}
{"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}
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}