Climate extremes and socioeconomic impact of El Niño and La Niña events

El Niño and La Niña are critical climate phenomena influencing global weather patterns and socioeconomic conditions. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of their mechanisms, characteristics, and significant environmental and economic impacts. El Niño events, characterized by increased sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific, disrupt typical atmospheric circulation, leading to warmer winters in North America and droughts in Australia. Conversely, La Niña, with cooler sea surface temperatures, enhances hurricane activity in the Atlantic and induces wetter conditions in the northern United States. These phenomena, occurring irregularly every two to seven years, have profound implications for agriculture, water resources, and disaster management. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of their mechanisms, characteristics, and significant environmental and economic impacts, identifies gaps in integrating real-time data and localized strategies for mitigating their impacts and highlighting the need for advanced predictive models and effective adaptation measures. By examining global and regional climate impacts, environmental consequences on ecosystems and marine life, and socioeconomic impacts on agriculture, food security, and health, the review underscores the importance of interdisciplinary research and international cooperation in enhancing resilience to these climate extremes. Recommendations for future research should focus on improving accuracy of predictions, addressing asymmetries in event duration and intensity, and understanding regional impacts under climate change scenarios.