{"title":"Glaciers give way to new coasts","authors":"Simon J. Cook","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02275-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02275-4","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change is causing rapid shrinkage of high-latitude glaciers, fundamentally altering the nature of Arctic landscapes. Now, research quantifies the substantial, yet under-reported, development of new coastlines and islands that are revealed as marine-terminating glaciers fall back from the sea.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"220 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143666126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Colonial legacies in tropical forestry hinder good management","authors":"Benedict Odhiambo, Rosa C. Goodman","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02288-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-025-02288-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"15 4","pages":"338-338"},"PeriodicalIF":29.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143666259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jan Kavan, Małgorzata Szczypińska, William Kochtitzky, Louise Farquharson, Mette Bendixen, Mateusz C. Strzelecki
{"title":"New coasts emerging from the retreat of Northern Hemisphere marine-terminating glaciers in the twenty-first century","authors":"Jan Kavan, Małgorzata Szczypińska, William Kochtitzky, Louise Farquharson, Mette Bendixen, Mateusz C. Strzelecki","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02282-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02282-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Accelerated climate warming has caused the majority of marine-terminating glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere to retreat substantially during the twenty-first century. While glacier retreat and changes in mass balance are widely studied on a global scale, the impacts of deglaciation on adjacent coastal geomorphology are often overlooked and therefore poorly understood. Here we examine changes in proglacial zones of marine-terminating glaciers across the Northern Hemisphere to quantify the length of new coastline that has been exposed by glacial retreat between 2000 and 2020. We identified a total of 2,466 ± 0.8 km (123 km a<sup>−1</sup>) of new coastline with most (66%) of the total length occurring in Greenland. These young paraglacial coastlines are highly dynamic, exhibiting high sediment fluxes and rapidly evolving landforms. Retreating glaciers and associated newly exposed coastline can have important impacts on local ecosystems and Arctic communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143666093","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thijs Bouman, Jan Willem Bolderdijk, E. Keith Smith
{"title":"Local fossil fuel ad ban as a catalyst for global change","authors":"Thijs Bouman, Jan Willem Bolderdijk, E. Keith Smith","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02267-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-025-02267-4","url":null,"abstract":"The Hague in the Netherlands was the first city in the world to enact a law prohibiting advertisements for fossil fuel products and services. Although the ban is restricted to The Hague’s jurisdiction, the decision to implement the ban challenges norms and conventions that drive fossil-fuel consumption worldwide and sets an example for other governments to follow.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"15 4","pages":"348-350"},"PeriodicalIF":29.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143666260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving future climate meetings","authors":"Jennifer Hadden, Aseem Prakash","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02293-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02293-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Criticisms of climate policymaking and the Conference of the Parties (COP) process are mounting. In October 2024, Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister announced that the COP meetings were a “total waste of time” and that his government would not be attending<sup>1</sup>. In an open letter, a list of high-profile signatories including former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres called for reforms to the whole framework for UN climate negotiations, with one author stating that “COP is not fit for purpose” and needs foundational reform<sup>2</sup>.</p><p>The COP29 meeting did little to allay these concerns. Some civil society groups boycotted the meeting due to Azerbaijan’s ties to the fossil fuel industry. The talks nearly collapsed, with the Alliance of Small Island States walking out of negotiations for the first time in the 29-year history, citing a “deplorable lack of substance”<sup>3</sup>. The election of Donald Trump cast a shadow on any hope of future US leadership. And after a frustrating and chaotic two weeks in Baku, Azerbaijan, a representative of the Climate Action Network declared the meeting the “worst COP in recent memory” (https://x.com/gcdcj/status/1859908413767209281).</p>","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"92 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143666261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Samuel Hamard, Sophie Planchenault, Romain Walcker, Anna Sytiuk, Marie Le Geay, Martin Küttim, Ellen Dorrepaal, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Owen L. Petchey, Bjorn J. M. Robroek, Eeva-Stiina Tuittila, Maialen Barret, Régis Céréghino, Frédéric Delarue, Jessica Ferriol, Tristan Lafont Rapnouil, Joséphine Leflaive, Gaël Le Roux, Vincent E. J. Jassey
{"title":"Microbial photosynthesis mitigates carbon loss from northern peatlands under warming","authors":"Samuel Hamard, Sophie Planchenault, Romain Walcker, Anna Sytiuk, Marie Le Geay, Martin Küttim, Ellen Dorrepaal, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Owen L. Petchey, Bjorn J. M. Robroek, Eeva-Stiina Tuittila, Maialen Barret, Régis Céréghino, Frédéric Delarue, Jessica Ferriol, Tristan Lafont Rapnouil, Joséphine Leflaive, Gaël Le Roux, Vincent E. J. Jassey","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02271-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-025-02271-8","url":null,"abstract":"The future of the northern peatland carbon (C) sink is uncertain as the effects of warming on microbial metabolisms are unclear. While increased microbial CO2 emissions are expected under warming, the response of microbial photosynthesis remains unknown, complicating predictions of net microbial effects on peatland carbon emissions. Here, using a continental-scale experimental study, we show that warming amplifies microbial photosynthesis by 3.4 mgC m−2 h−1 per 1 °C increase. By 2100, this increase translates to a gain of 51.1 Tg of carbon per year from the northern peatland area under the pessimistic SSP 5-8.5 climatic change scenario, offsetting ~14% of projected heterotrophic CO2 emissions in northern peatlands. By linking field and microcosm experiments, we further show that enhanced microbial photosynthesis accelerates peatland CO2 uptake as photosynthetic microbial-C subsidies stimulate nutrient mineralization. These results underscore the importance of photosynthetic microbes for mitigating carbon emissions and supporting long-term carbon storage in peatlands. The authors use experimental and modelling approaches to understand the response of microbial photosynthesis to peatland warming. They show that warming amplifies microbial photosynthesis, which could offset rising CO2 emissions from northern peatlands by 6.0–13.7% in 2100 (SSP 2-4.5–SSP 5-8.5).","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"15 4","pages":"436-443"},"PeriodicalIF":29.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143661455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kaiwen Zhang, Zhiyan Zuo, Wei Mei, Renhe Zhang, Aiguo Dai
{"title":"A westward shift of heatwave hotspots caused by warming-enhanced land–air coupling","authors":"Kaiwen Zhang, Zhiyan Zuo, Wei Mei, Renhe Zhang, Aiguo Dai","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02302-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02302-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Heatwaves pose serious risks to human health and lives, but how their occurrence patterns may change under global warming remains unclear. Here we reveal a systematic westward shift of heatwave hotspots across the northern mid-latitudes around the late 1990s. Both observational analysis and numerical simulation show that this shift is caused by intensified soil moisture–atmosphere coupling (SAC) in eastern Europe, Northeast Asia and western North America under recent background warming. The strengthened SAC shifted the atmospheric high-amplitude Rossby wavenumber-5 pattern westwards to a preferred phase position, which increased the probability of the occurrence of high-pressure ridges over these 3 hotspots by a factor of up to 39. Our results highlight the importance of SAC in shaping heatwave patterns and large-scale atmospheric circulation and challenge the conventional view that the land surface only passively responds to atmospheric forcing.</p>","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":30.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143661456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ying Liu, Yao Zhang, Josep Peñuelas, Steven A. Kannenberg, Haibo Gong, Wenping Yuan, Chaoyang Wu, Sha Zhou, Shilong Piao
{"title":"Drought legacies delay spring green-up in northern ecosystems","authors":"Ying Liu, Yao Zhang, Josep Peñuelas, Steven A. Kannenberg, Haibo Gong, Wenping Yuan, Chaoyang Wu, Sha Zhou, Shilong Piao","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02273-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-025-02273-6","url":null,"abstract":"Global warming has increased the frequency and intensity of droughts, causing large impacts on the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. The direct effect of droughts on autumn senescence is well-documented, but the extent to which the legacy effects influence plant phenology of the following year remains unclear. Using satellite greenness data and long-term in situ observations, we demonstrate that droughts substantially delay the green-up and leaf unfolding of the next spring, particularly following prolonged events with delayed soil moisture recovery. These delays cannot be explained by state-of-the-art phenology models and are strongly linked to postdrought temperature, local climate, drought characteristics and reductions in photosynthesis. Compared to the endogenous memory effects within plants themselves, the exogenous memory effects through changes in environment are five times stronger in drylands and twice as strong in non-drylands. Given projections of increased drought frequency and severity, future advances in spring phenology may be less pronounced than previously anticipated. The authors investigate the impacts of drought legacy on springtime leaf unfolding and green-up. They show that drought delays springtime phenology, primarily through exogenous environmental memory effects, and suggest that future spring advances may be dampened by increasing drought.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"15 4","pages":"444-451"},"PeriodicalIF":29.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143661461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Haijiang Wu, Xiaoling Su, Shengzhi Huang, Vijay P. Singh, Sha Zhou, Xuezhi Tan, Xiaotao Hu
{"title":"Decreasing dynamic predictability of global agricultural drought with warming climate","authors":"Haijiang Wu, Xiaoling Su, Shengzhi Huang, Vijay P. Singh, Sha Zhou, Xuezhi Tan, Xiaotao Hu","doi":"10.1038/s41558-025-02289-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-025-02289-y","url":null,"abstract":"Droughts have been occurring frequently worldwide in a warming climate with an adverse impact on water–food–energy–ecology security, which raises substantial challenges for drought predictability. However, little is known about the future changes in dynamic predictability of agricultural drought over the globe and the dominant confounders causing this change. Here we leveraged Bayesian model averaging ensemble vine copula model to reveal changes in agricultural drought predictability globally in warm seasons at three projected global warming levels. We found that the projected dynamic predictability of agricultural drought would significantly decrease over 70% of the global land areas in +2 °C and +3 °C worlds, especially over North America, Amazonia, Europe, eastern and southern Asia and Australia. This was primarily attributed to the weakening soil moisture memory, background aridity and weakening land–atmosphere coupling. Our findings highlight that stakeholders should employ dynamic climate adaptations to cope with the decreasing drought predictability in a warmer climate. Soil moisture droughts can have severe impacts on agriculture, which makes forecasting them crucial. Here the authors show that the dynamic predictability of these agricultural droughts decreases with climate change in many regions.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"15 4","pages":"411-419"},"PeriodicalIF":29.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143635173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}