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Currently available European Alpine Altitude Climate Treatment (AACT) programs combine the physical characteristics of altitude with the avoidance of environmental triggers in the alpine climate and a personalized multidisciplinary pulmonary rehabilitation approach. The reduced barometric pressure, oxygen pressure, and air density, the relatively low temperature and humidity, and the increased UV radiation at moderate altitude induce several physiological and immunological adaptation responses. The environmental characteristics of the alpine climate include reduced aeroallergens such as house dust mites (HDM), pollen, fungi, and less air pollution. These combined factors seem to have immunomodulatory effects controlling pathogenic inflammatory responses and favoring less neuro‐immune stress in patients with different asthma phenotypes. The extensive multidisciplinary treatment program may further contribute to the observed clinical improvement by AACT in asthma control and quality of life, fewer exacerbations and hospitalizations, reduced need for oral corticosteroids (OCS), improved lung function, decreased airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), improved exercise tolerance, and improved sinonasal outcomes. Based on observational studies and expert opinion, AACT represents a valuable therapy for those patients irrespective of their asthma phenotype, who cannot achieve optimal control of their complex condition despite all the advances in medical science and treatment according to guidelines, and therefore run the risk of falling into a downward spiral of loss of physical and mental health. In the light of the observed rapid decrease in inflammation and immunomodulatory effects, AACT can be considered as a natural treatment that targets biological pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broad-scale spatial patterns of species richness are very strongly correlated with climatic variables. If there is a causal link, i.e. if climate directly or indirectly determines patterns of richness, then when the climatic variables change, richness should change in the manner that spatial correlations between richness and climate would predict. The present study tests this prediction using seasonal changes in climatic variables and bird richness. We used a grid of equal area quadrats (37 000 km2) covering North and Central America as far south as Nicaragua. Summer and winter bird distribution data were drawn from monographs and field guides. Climatic data came from published sources. We also used remotely sensed NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index — a measure of greenness). Bird species richness changes temporally (between summer and winter) in a manner that is close to, but statistically distinguishable from, the change one would predict from models relating the spatial variation in richness at a single time to climatic variables. If one further takes into account the seasonal changes in NDVI and within-season variability of temperature and precipitation, then winter and summer richness follow congruent, statistically indistinguishable patterns. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that climatic variables (temperature and precipitation) and vegetation cover directly or indirectly influence patterns of bird species richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paciorek and Wehner raise important questions around our use of the Mann‐Kendall nonparametric trend test on smoothed data for analyzing long‐term hydrometeorological trends in Zhang et al. (2021, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl092293). We thank them for initiating this important conversation and their gracious cooperation in exploring the issues addressed in their comment. In this reply we confirm the inflation of significant p‐values by our choice to smooth, illustrate the relatively minor impacts on the main conclusions of our paper, and add our voices to those of Paciorek and Wehner in highlighting the lack of methodology for hypothesis testing across multiple stations that have spatial structure (i.e., testing for regionally consistent trends). Plain Language Summary: Our colleagues Drs. Paciorek and Wehner have raised concerns about our paper (Zhang et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl092293), which showed widespread increases in the duration of drought events over the last five decades in the western United States. They point out that our decision to smooth the data using a moving average inflated the number of weather stations at which the trends toward longer droughts were deemed significant by a statistical test. We agree with them on this point, and we have recomputed all our results using unsmoothed data to determine the impacts. We find that for most stations and regions, trend magnitudes remained largely unchanged, with many stations nearby one another often suggesting similar trends. Finally, we agree with Paciorek and Wehner that there is a lack of statistical methods to test such coherent regional patterns, and we caution that over‐reliance on p‐values limits the power of regional data to identify important climate trends. Key Points: We agree that smoothing to 5‐year moving windows introduced serial correlation into time series of annual statistics of daily rainfall data, inflating the number of weather stations individually showing significant trends (p < 0.05) with the Mann‐Kendall testRecomputation with unsmoothed values produced substantially the same dry intervals trend magnitude and direction at most stations individually and had only minimal impacts on dry interval trends computed for National Ecological Observatory Network domains using the Regional Kendall testNo perfect statistical approach leverages the capacity of coherent regional patterns among spatially correlated weather stations, and an over‐reliance on p‐values as a binary (significant vs. insignificant) determinant of trends limits the power of regional data [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a broad-based approach for addressing pests that negatively affect human and environmental health and economic profitability. Weeds, insects and disease-causing pathogens (diseases) are the pests most often associated with IPM. A systematic review, widely used in other scientific disciplines, was employed to determine the most commonly studied IPM topics and summarize the reasons for these trends and the gaps. In a field synopsis of the literature, 1679 relevant published papers were identified and categorized into one of the following five broad areas: IPM and organic (organic), climate change and pests (climate), rural and urban IPM (rural and urban), next-generation education (education) and advanced production systems (technology). Papers were examined in greater detail for at least one of the three main pests in a systematic review. A majority (85%) of IPM papers have been in the area of rural and urban IPM, primarily addressing agriculture (78%). Professionals, landowners and the general public were the focus of a majority (95%) of IPM papers on education. Technology is an increasing area of focus in the literature. Over the past 40 years, IPM papers have primarily (75%) addressed insects and been limited mostly to rural and urban settings. Climate change, technology and education specific to pest management studies are increasingly being published and will help broaden the focus that could result in increased adoption and development of IPM. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journal Fisheries Oceanography provides a global forum for fisheries scientists and oceanographers to understand how marine ecosystems, and the services they provide to society, are structured and shaped by environmental variability and climate change. With this special issue, as well as the 30th Anniversary Virtual Issue of the most influential papers from the journal's history, we commemorate 30 years of publishing leading research in the field of fisheries oceanography. These issues showcase the extent, depth and impact of the research published in Fisheries Oceanography. We also reflect on the evolution of research themes through the journal's history, and highlight key emergent themes in our field. We look forward to continuing to publish impactful research in the pages of Fisheries Oceanography in the years ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number and coverage of weather observations over the oceans were considerably reduced during World War II (WW2) due to disruptions to normal trade routes. The observations that do exist for this period are often unavailable to science as they are still only available as paper records or scanned images. We have rescued the detailed hourly weather observations contained in more than 28,000 logbook images of the US Navy Pacific Fleet stationed at Hawai'i during 1941–1945 to produce a dataset of more than 630,000 records. Each record contains the date and time, positional information and several meteorological measurements, totalling more than 3 million individual observations. The data rescue process consisted of a citizen science project asking volunteers to transcribe the observations from the available images, followed by additional quality control processes. This dataset not only contains hourly weather observations of air temperature, sea surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and wind direction, mainly in the Pacific Ocean but also includes some observations from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The new observations are found to be of good quality by inter‐comparing independent measurements taken on ships travelling in convoy and by comparing with the 20th‐Century Reanalysis. This dataset provides invaluable instrumental weather observations at times and places during WW2, which fill gaps in existing reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factors constraining the geographic ranges of broadleaf tree species in eastern North America were examined in common gardens along a ~1500 km latitudinal transect travers in grange boundaries of four target species: trembling aspen ( Populus tremuloides) and paper birch ( Betula papyrifera) to the north vs. eastern cottonwood ( Populus deltoides) and sweet gum ( Liquidambar styraciflua) to the south. In 2006 and 2007, carbon-use efficiency ( CUE), the proportion of assimilated carbon retained in biomass, was estimated for seedlings of the four species as the quotient of relative growth rate ( RGR) and photosynthesis per unit tree mass ( Atree). In aspen and birch, CUE and RGR declined significantly with increasing growth temperature, which spanned 9 °C across gardens and years. The 37% (relative) CUE decrease from coolest to warmest garden correlated with increases in leaf nighttime respiration ( Rleaf) and the ratio of Rleaf to leaf photosynthesis ( R%A). For cottonwood and sweet gum, however, similar increases in Rleaf and R%A accompanied modest CUE declines, implying that processes other than Rleaf were responsible for species differences in CUE's temperature response. Our findings illustrate marked taxonomic variation, at least among young trees, in the thermal sensitivity of CUE, and point to potentially negative consequences of climate warming for the carbon balance, competitive ability, and persistence of two foundation species in northern temperate and boreal forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first quantitative relationship between the cold point tropopause (CPT) and tropical easterly jet (TEJ) using radiosonde observations over Gadanki (13.45° N, 79.2° E) during the Indian summer monsoon season 2006–2014. CPT and TEJ peak altitudes (HCPTandHTEJ) show amalgams of two categories of variability on the day‐to‐day scale. In category1 HTEJ occurs close to HCPT and they show in‐phase variation. While in Category2 HTEJ occurs far apart from HCPT and they do not show any relationship. For Category1 HCPT and HTEJ are strongly correlated (0.70), as well as HCPT and TCPT (CPT temperature) are moderately anticorrelated (−0.55) significant at a 95% confidence level, indicating the dominance of adiabatic processes. Whereas in Category2 HCPT and TCPT are not significantly anti‐correlated. Thus, when TEJ and CPT are close to each other, it may serve as an indicator for the prevalence of the synoptic‐scale effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers essential insights into Southeast Asiaʼs transition to clean energy, a cornerstone for global climate objectives. Based on 27 interviews with regional energy and climate experts conducted between September 2022 and October 2023, the research distils key factors into 3Ds: Demanding, Doable, and Dependent. Highlighting these aspects would foster readiness, persuade stakeholders, and secure international support, all of which are pivotal for advancing the energy transition towards net‐zero emissions in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) is a 10‐channel infrared radiometer that is one of four instruments on the NASA TIMED (Thermosphere‐Ionosphere‐Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) satellite mission to study the structure, energetics, chemistry, and dynamics of the Earth's mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Each of the ten SABER channels has a unique filter over its detector. The filter passes infrared radiation within a defined spectral region that optimizes the ability to derive temperature and constituent concentrations from the infrared radiance measurements. The TIMED spacecraft was launched into a 625 km circular polar orbit (74.1° inclination) via a Boeing Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 7 December 2001. SABER continues to operate nominally and collect data routinely as it has for over 21 years. Nearly 2,200 peer‐reviewed journal articles have been published worldwide using SABER data. A list of these articles is included in Supporting Information S1 accompanying this paper. This paper presents a detailed technical description of the SABER instrument including major subsystems of the instrument and technical performance parameters. This paper comprehensively describes the instrument and its components and provides final instrument design and performance parameters. The motivation for this paper is to document this information permanently for future reference. The Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) of Utah State University designed, fabricated, and calibrated the SABER instrument in close collaboration with NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton University, and Global Atmospheric Technologies and Science (GATS). Plain Language Summary: Earth's mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT), approximately 50–180 km in altitude or 30 to 110 miles high, was the least explored region of the atmosphere 30 years ago. The MLT is a critical region of Earth's atmosphere as it is the boundary or interface between the space environment and the lower atmosphere. Today the region is referred to as part of the "geospace" environment. To examine the MLT in more detail, NASA developed the Thermosphere‐Ionosphere‐Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics or TIMED satellite mission beginning in 1996. Launch of the TIMED satellite occurred in December 2001. One of the four instruments carried by the TIMED satellite is named SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry). SABER continues to provide exceptional scientific results and is still routinely collecting data more than 21 years after launch. This paper provides a technical description of the SABER instrument. Key Points: Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) is an infrared limb sounding instrument observing the Earth's mesosphere and lower thermosphere continuously for over two decadesSABER was developed through a partnership involving NASA Langley, Space Dynamics Laboratory, Hampton University, and Global Atmospheric Technologies and ScienceSABER is still operational with no reduction in capability and has yielded nearly 2,200 peer‐reviewed journal articles by worldwide authors [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precipitation is a highly variable meteorological element. Similarly, to other meteorological elements (e.g. temperature), the changes in the measurement practices or in the environment can cause inhomogeneities in the precipitation data series. Therefore, homogenization of precipitation data series is necessary before studying the long‐term climate change. In this paper we present the main features of the MASH procedure, which we use to produce homogenized climate datasets for Hungary at the Climate Department of the Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ). Due to the increasing number of discontinued precipitation stations, the number of missing data has increased significantly; therefore the station networks used for precipitation homogenization have been completely renewed. With this renewal, the percentage of missing data has been minimized, the number of data series has been increased and a denser station network is now used in mountainous areas where the spatial variability of precipitation is the highest. As a result, a new, more homogeneous, representative precipitation database of Hungary from 1901 to the present has been created. In the paper, we also examine the main characteristics of the detected inhomogeneities, with examples of the main types of inhomogeneities for some stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought, widely studied as an important driver of ecosystem dynamics, is predicted to increase in frequency and severity globally. To study drought, ecologists must define or at least operationalize what constitutes a drought. How this is accomplished in practice is unclear, particularly given that climatologists have long struggled to agree on definitions of drought, beyond general variants of "an abnormal deficiency of water." We conducted a literature review of ecological drought studies (564 papers) to assess how ecologists describe and study drought. We found that ecologists characterize drought in a wide variety of ways (reduced precipitation, low soil moisture, reduced streamflow, etc.), but relatively few publications (~32%) explicitly define what are, and are not, drought conditions. More troubling, a surprising number of papers (~30%) simply equated "dry conditions" with "drought" and provided little characterization of the drought conditions studied. For a subset of these, we calculated Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index values for the reported drought periods. We found that while almost 90% of the studies were conducted under conditions quantifiable as slightly to extremely drier than average, ~50% were within the range of normal climatic variability. We conclude that the current state of the ecological drought literature hinders synthesis and our ability to draw broad ecological inferences because drought is often declared but is not explicitly defined or well characterized. We suggest that future drought publications provide at least one of the following: (a) the climatic context of the drought period based on long‐term records; (b) standardized climatic index values; (c) published metrics from drought‐monitoring organizations; (d) a quantitative definition of what the authors consider to be drought conditions for their system. With more detailed and consistent quantification of drought conditions, comparisons among studies can be more rigorous, increasing our understanding of the ecological effects of drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biodiversity and climate crises require diverse solutions, yet peer reviewed literature is dominated by men from the Global North. The Nature Conservancy (TNC), as one of the world's largest conservation non‐profit organizations, provides a case study to better understand how women publish relative to men in conservation science. By examining all papers from Web of Science with at least one TNC author (1968–2019), we found that women at TNC are underrepresented: only 36% of authors were women, just 31% of all first authorships were women, and 24% of last authorships were women. Women in the Global South were the least represented group, making up less than 2% of all TNC authorships. By comparison seven individual men in the Global North comprised 9% of all TNC authorships. Encouragingly, the total number of women publishing at TNC has improved over the decades; however, the proportion of women to men remains below gender parity, and the proportion of women from Global South remains consistently below 3%. These results align with overall trends in conservation and science, and we provide recommendations for the global conservation science community on how to address this enduring and significant issue in publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing recognition of the importance of research into the effects of climate change on mental health and wellbeing. This paper provides an overview of the pathways through which climate change can affect mental health and wellbeing, highlighting the valuable contribution that health geography can make in this field of study. Given expertise in spatial processes, human‐environment interactions, and diverse research methods, health geographers are well‐equipped to enhance our understanding of the connection between climate change and mental health and wellbeing. The paper proposes two key areas of future focus: (1) exploring the reciprocal relationships between mental health and place, and (2) integrating knowledge from health geography and environmental sustainability. Health geography can play a critical role in developing knowledge to support mitigation strategies and promote mental health and wellbeing in the face of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our changing climate is having effects on freshwater ecosystems in all seasons, especially winter. High latitude lakes, wetlands, and rivers are experiencing shorter periods of ice cover, and lower latitudes systems that used to freeze are experiencing open water conditions throughout the winter. A 2019 AGU Chapman conference convened aquatic scientists to examine these changes and address the implications of changing winters to aquatic life, chemistry, and physics. Several studies demonstrate decreased ice cover duration than in the past. The removal of an ice "lid" from lakes and rivers impacts the exchange of gases with the atmosphere and the predominant types of metabolism occurring in the waters below, with the potential for more photosynthesis and an increase in oxic versus anoxic metabolism when the lid is removed. Multiple studies indicated an increase in the interannual variability of winters, especially in terms of ice‐cover duration and ice quality. Increased variability may simply be an outcome of a more variable winter climate or small differences in environmental conditions such as temperature that can have strong effects on gas exchange, light transmission, and turbulence when ice forms. A question that merits further consideration is whether and how winters of shorter duration and severity will change the dynamics of freshwater systems. Are there memory or legacy effects that carry over to the next season or year? There is much work to be done to understand how changing winters will impact the biogeochemical behavior of lakes and rivers in the coming decades. Plain Language Summary: Winters at mid‐high latitudes are changing rapidly with important implications for freshwater ecosystems. An AGU Chapman conference, convened in 2019, brought together scientists to outline what we know about the changes that are occurring and what questions need further study. This special issue is a collection of the papers that developed from that workshop. These studies demonstrate that lakes and rivers at mid‐high latitudes are experiencing less ice cover duration and greater variability in year‐to‐year ice cover. Changing ice and snow cover impacts processes occurring under ice in winter by altering the light regime, mixing, biota present, and the availability of oxygen. There are many important research questions regarding winter dynamics that still need to be addressed but one of the most important ones has to do with how changing winters might influence the biota in other seasons. Key Points: Several of the papers point to interannual variability in winter and seasonal ice cover along with decreased ice cover durationAvailable winter datasets have grown supporting conceptual developments, but increased efforts focused on ecological responses are neededFuture research should examine connections between seasons, deploy submersed sensors year‐round, and use remote sensing approaches [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that the dominance of one debate on climate related conflict – establishing whether climate change leads to conflict, or not ‐ is the product of Imperial knowledge produced in the Global North Orientalising the Global South. This debate is also one in which the subdiscipline of political geography has been inadvertently complicit by accepting positivist approaches, that erase the subject and their subjectivities from this discussion, and frame them as science. The argument in this paper problematises the fundamental understanding of 'climate conflict', as defined and universalised by Western science in the Western academy. Instead, it argues that the subaltern's lived experience and interpretation of hazards and their relationship with conflicts needs to be located and centred in this conversation – not just as that of a hapless victim but as knowledge producers able to set the agendas and re‐orient the focus of this field. Research examining conflicts around floods and evictions begins to map a new future for how that might be possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown that a recently developed hybrid modeling approach that combines machine learning (ML) with an atmospheric global circulation model (AGCM) can serve as a basis for capturing atmospheric processes not captured by the AGCM. This power of the approach is illustrated by three examples from a decades‐long climate simulation experiment. The first example demonstrates that the hybrid model can produce sudden stratospheric warming, a dynamical process of nature not resolved by the low resolution AGCM component of the hybrid model. The second and third example show that introducing 6‐hr cumulative precipitation and sea surface temperature (SST) as ML‐based prognostic variables improves the precipitation climatology and leads to a realistic ENSO signal in the SST and atmospheric surface pressure. Plain Language Summary: This paper introduces and tests schemes for efficiently enabling significant expansion of the utility and scope of a recently introduced hybrid modeling technique that combines machine learning with an atmospheric global circulation model (AGCM). Simulation experiments are carried out with an implementation of the approach on a low resolution simplified AGCM. An examination of the simulated atmospheric circulation suggests that the hybrid model can capture dynamical process not captured by the AGCM. Moreover, the addition of precipitation and sea surface temperature (SST) as machine learning predicted physical quantities to the model improves the precipitation climatology and leads to a realistic El Niño‐La Niña signal in the SST and atmospheric surface pressure. Key Points: A hybrid system combining an atmospheric global circulation model (AGCM) with a machine‐learning component can capture processes not captured by the AGCMMachine learning provides a flexible framework to introduce additional prognostic variables into the hybrid modelThe prototype hybrid model tested in the paper is stable and has a realistic climate in decades‐long simulation experiments [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central African countries may bear high climate change-related infectious disease burdens because of preexisting high rates of disease, poor healthcare infrastructure, land use changes, and high environmental change vulnerabilities. However, making connections between climate and infectious diseases in this region is hampered by the paucity of high-quality meteorological data. This review analyzes the sources and quality of meteorological data used to study the interactions between weather and infectious diseases in Central African countries. Results show that 23% of studies used meteorological data that mismatched with the disease spatial scale of interest. Use of inappropriate weather data was most frequently identified in analyses using meteorological station data or gridded data products. These findings have implications for the interpretation of existing analyses and provide guidance for the use of climate data in future analyses of the connections between meteorology and infectious diseases in Central Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rockall Trough (RT) accommodates the warmest and saltiest branch of the North Atlantic Current, which delivers water from the Gulf Stream into the marine environment around western Europe. In addition, the European Slope Current (ESC) carries warm water northward along the eastern boundary of the RT, and exchange between the ESC and the continental shelf is a dominant factor in determining the oceanographic conditions around the British Isles. However, the picture of the mean circulation and variability in the RT is still emerging, with a continuous observational campaign still in its relative infancy. The ESC, in particular, is poorly constrained by ship‐based, mooring, and satellite observations. In this paper, we examine the RT circulation and volume transport using a temporally extended and spatially expanded observing network. Six years of continuous mooring occupation reveal that a large‐amplitude, basin‐scale freshening event, previously detected south of Iceland around 2015, impacted the RT around 2017. Geostrophic transport was greatly reduced during this period, driven by a concurrent subsurface temperature increase at the western boundary. The circulation regained strength during the latter part of the record. We gathered 110 glider transects over 22 months which capture the ESC velocity field in unprecedented detail. The data are sufficient to characterize both the mean state and the emergent seasonal variability of the ESC, and reveal the year‐round presence of a southward countercurrent at depth. Variability in the strength and structure of this previously unstudied feature modulates net northward transport in the eastern boundary current system. Plain Language Summary: The Rockall Trough (RT) is a key pathway for warm and salty water flowing northward, a process which plays a key role in dictating the western European climate. However, the amount of water flowing northward, and how it changes over time, is still rather uncertain. In particular, the narrow boundary current in the eastern RT has previously proven difficult to measure. In this paper, we use 6 years of continuous oceanographic observations in the RT to monitor the flow. We also used underwater robots, called gliders, to focus on the narrow current in the eastern boundary. The data gathered give the best description of the ocean currents in the region to date. The study period coincided with a period of profound change across the subpolar North Atlantic, with a strong freshwater signal detected in the RT around 2017. The glider observations give a detailed view of the narrow eastern boundary current and how it varies seasonally, and also revealed the presence of a southward‐flowing current at depth. Key Points: Eastern boundary current system captured in unprecedented detail using 22 months of near‐continuous glider observationsLarge‐scale freshening event in subpolar North Atlantic impacted Rockall Trough (RT) around 2017Interannual variability in poleward transport driven by subsurface temperature anomalies at the western flank of the RT [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental conditions significantly affected development in the Asian tropics. This paper investigates the relationship between weather risk and agriculture in four regions with distinct climatological features. Using new data, we estimate the scale of crop output sensitivity to rainfall shocks across ecological zones. Output was sensitive to shocks in regions with low levels, concentrated spells and high volatility of rainfall. Canal irrigation protected some districts while unirrigated regions remained vulnerable. Regions with high rainfall levels and long seasons remained protected. Regions with large interruptions deterred investment and were underdeveloped while regions with small interruptions invited investment‐led growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive, kilometer thick deposits of carbon dioxide (CO2) ice have been detected at the south polar cap of Mars by radar investigations. These deposits are divided into several units that are separated by thin water ice bounding layers. Recent studies investigated the accumulation history of CO2 ice and found that the deposits most likely formed during several episodes in the past, when Martian obliquity was much lower than now. Those studies, while able to predict total volumes of CO2 ice consistent with those observed, did not attempt to explain the anomalous three‐dimensional distribution (thickness or extent) of CO2 ice or the ice's offset from the topographic high of the polar cap. In this paper we use a combination of feature analysis and numerical modeling to demonstrate that the CO2 deposits flow as glaciers and that glacial flow distributes the ice into its current position. Further, this distribution allows the ice to survive during high obliquity excursions. Plain Language Summary: Carbon dioxide (CO2) ice is found in a stack of deposits at Mars' south pole. These deposits are situated in basins, where they reach more than 1 km thick. Previous work suggested that the CO2 ice should be deposited when the axial tilt of the planet was lower, making the poles colder than they are now; however, the thickness and distribution of this ice should be much thinner than observed if only atmospheric effects are working on the ice. Therefore, the CO2 ice deposit distribution cannot be explained by atmospheric deposition alone. In this paper, we use glacial modeling and feature analysis to demonstrate that glacial flow better explains the distribution of ice in its present state. In addition, we show that the slopes on the south polar cap act to focus glacial flow into the basins, where it can survive warm periods by sublimating only the uppermost sections when the tilt of the planet is larger than present day. Key Points: Carbon dioxide ice has been mapped and modeled at the south pole of MarsDeposition models cannot explain the volumetric distribution of CO2 ice, thickness, or distributionWe present geomorphic and modeling evidence that the CO2 deposits flow as glaciers into basins to reach their observed volumetric distribution [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life on Earth appears to have evolved under the influence of supernovae activity in the solar neighborhood. Supernovae frequency regulates the flux of cosmic ray particles arriving at the top of the Earth's atmosphere, where empirical evidence supports a close connection between cosmic rays, clouds, and climate. Burial of organic matter in marine sediments follows cosmic rays variations for more than 3.5 Gyr and in detail during the last 500 Myr. The supernovae link to the burial of organic matter may be due to climate‐induced changes in the atmospheric and oceanic circulation affecting the availability of nutrients and the bioproductivity in the oceans. A higher bioproductivity then leads to a more extensive burial of organic matter. Support for this scenario comes from a proxy of nutrient concentrations in the ocean which covaries with the supernovae frequency. The results suggest a fundamental connection between supernovae rates and life on Earth. Plain Language Summary: The study proposes a surprising link between the burial of organic matter in sediments and stellar processes. The paper has two components; the first component concerns empirical evidence: A close correlation between the fraction of organic matter buried in sediments and changes in supernovae frequency. This correlation is evident during the last 3.5 billion years (see Figure 2) and in close detail over the previous 500 Myr (see Figure 4). All astrophysical data, for example, changes in star formation and the inferred changes in supernovae frequency, are based on peer‐reviewed works, as is the carbon 13 data. The second component of the paper gives a possible justification for the observed correlations. The assumption is that changes in supernovae frequency result in climate change, which changes the mixing in oceans and river runoff and ultimately influences nutrient availability—a high nutrient concentration results in a larger bioproductivity and a larger burial of organic matter in sediments. Again empirical evidence for this connection comes from concentrations of trace elements in pyrite (a proxy of ocean nutrient concentrations) which correlate with supernovae frequency changes over the previous 500 Myr (see Figure 5). Key Points: The fraction of organic carbon buried in marine sediments covaries with changes in supernova frequency over most of the Earth's historySupernovae influence Earth via a link between atmospheric ionization, clouds and climate. High cosmic ray flux leads to a cold climateClimatic induced ocean circulation regulates nutrients to the biosphere. A larger bioproductivity results in increased organic matter burial [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cloud properties and governing processes in Southern Ocean marine boundary layer clouds have emerged as a central issue in understanding the Earth's climate sensitivity. While our understanding of Southern Ocean cloud feedbacks have evolved in the most recent climate model intercomparison, the background properties of simulated summertime clouds in the Southern Ocean are not consistent with measurements due to known biases in simulating cloud condensation nuclei concentrations. This paper presents several case studies collected during the Capricorn 2 and Marcus campaigns held aboard Australian research vessels in the Austral Summer of 2018. Combining the surface‐observed cases with MODIS data along forward and backward air mass trajectories, we demonstrate the evolution of cloud properties with time. These cases are consistent with multi‐year statistics showing that long trajectories of air masses over the Antarctic ice sheet are critical to creating high droplet number clouds in the high latitude summer Southern Ocean. We speculate that secondary aerosol production via the oxidation of biogenically derived aerosol precursor gasses over the high actinic flux region of the high latitude ice sheets is fundamental to maintaining relatively high droplet numbers in Southern Ocean clouds during Summer. Plain Language Summary: The amount of warming the Earth will experience because of increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is sensitive to the properties of clouds that occur over the Southern Ocean. The atmosphere over the circumpolar Southern Ocean is poorly understood and presents significant challenges to climate models. Here we document the properties of the ubiquitous Southern Ocean low‐level clouds that exert a strong influence on the albedo of this region. We find that high cloud droplet number concentrations are associated with air masses that have taken paths over the high‐altitude ice sheets. The chemistry of the aerosol on which the cloud droplets form suggests that aerosols that have recently condensed from gasses emitted by phytoplankton in the highly productive waters near Antarctica are an important component of the cloud properties that must be correctly simulated in models. Key Points: High cloud droplet number concentrations are associated with air masses that have recently passed over continental AntarcticaCloud droplet number concentrations decrease with time as clouds evolve in over‐water trajectories due to scavenging by precipitationKatabatic flows bring high concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei to the marine boundary layer where they influence cloud properties [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populations and ecological communities are changing worldwide, and empirical studies exhibit a mixture of either declining or mixed trends. Confusion in global biodiversity trends thus remains, while assessing such changes is of major social, political, and scientific importance. Part of this variability may arise from the difficulty to reliably assess global biodiversity trends. Here, we conducted a literature review of studies documenting the temporal dynamics of global biodiversity. We classified the differences among approaches, data, and methodology used by the reviewed papers to reveal common findings and sources of discrepancies. We show that reviews and meta‐analyses, along with the use of global indicators, are more likely to conclude that trends are declining. On the other hand, the longer the data are available, the more nuanced are the trends they generate. Our results also highlight the lack of studies providing information on the impact of synergistic pressures on a global scale, making it even more difficult to understand the driving factors of the observed changes and how to decide conservation plan accordingly. Finally, we stress the importance of taking into account the sources of confusion identified, as well as the complexity of biodiversity changes, in order to implement effective conservation strategies. In particular, biodiversity dynamics are almost systematically assumed to be linear, while non‐linear trends are largely neglected. Clarifying the sources of confusion in global biodiversity trends should strengthen large‐scale biodiversity monitoring and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black carbon (BC) absorbs solar radiation, increasing the buoyancy and vertical ascent of absorbing aerosol in the atmosphere. This self‐lofting process has been observed for individual plumes in the troposphere and lower stratosphere but here we show it occurring at broader scales through enhanced large‐scale ascent over BC‐rich regions. This is demonstrated in a pair of simulation using the UKESM1 Earth‐System model where BC aerosols were modeled either with or without the ability to absorb radiation. With absorption included the annual global mean concentration of BC in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (8–22 km) rose by up to 50% and the column loading over some remote oceanic regions more than doubled. The increase in aerosol height was particularly notable over the southeast Atlantic where biomass burning aerosol from Africa was elevated up to 1 km higher when their absorption was included. Similar effects were seen over the Arctic where the absorbing haze was transported in at higher levels and surface concentrations were halved. The absorption by BC also increased ascent over southern Asia, which tended to thicken the Asian brown cloud during the dry season but in the wet season enhancing ascent promoted deep convection and had the tendency to deplete the aerosol through wash‐out. We conclude that representing aerosol absorption accurately is important in simulating the vertical distribution, transport and abundance of aerosol in the Earth‐system that will affect their interactions with climate. Plain Language Summary: Black carbon is an important component of atmospheric aerosols as it absorbs solar radiation thereby heating the atmosphere and potentially warming climate. The localized heating can also affect clouds and atmospheric motions making the regional and climate effects more complex and uncertain. The vertical distribution and geographic spread of the aerosol is also key to how it interacts with the climate system. In this paper we highlight the fact that the absorption taking place in BC aerosols can affect its vertical ascent in the atmosphere and therefore how it becomes distributed across the globe. This self‐lofting process was demonstrated in a climate model and was particularly important in aiding the elevation and downwind transport of absorbing smoke layers from regions such as central Africa, as well as increasing the amount of BC reaching the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Key Points: Absorption of solar radiation helps to raise the altitude of black carbon aerosol by increasing buoyancy and vertical ascentThis self‐lofting mechanism has been captured in a climate model where radiative heating affects the large‐scale ascent and circulationSelf‐lofting increased the altitude and long‐range transport of black carbon to remote regions and the upper troposphere [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovering additional historical weather observations from known archival sources will improve the understanding of how the climate is changing and enable detailed examination of unusual events within the historical record. The UK National Meteorological Archive recently scanned more than 66,000 paper sheets containing 5.28 million hand‐written monthly rainfall observations taken across the UK and Ireland between 1677 and 1960. Only a small fraction of these observations were previously digitally available for climate scientists to analyse. More than 16,000 volunteer citizen scientists completed the transcription of these sheets of observations during early 2020 using the RainfallRescue.org website, built using the Zooniverse platform. A total of 3.34 million observations from more than 6000 locations have so far been quality controlled and made openly available. This has increased the total number of monthly rainfall observations that are available for this time period and region by a factor of six. The newly rescued observations will enable longer and much improved reconstructions of past variations in rainfall across the British and Irish Isles, including for periods of significant flooding and drought. Specifically, this data should allow the official gridded monthly rainfall reconstructions for the UK to be extended back to 1836, and even earlier for some regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Policy Arena provides four papers exploring development policy for climate-related disaster risk reduction, including but not limited to climate change. The first two papers explore popular concepts, first ‘vulnerability’, ‘capacity’ and ‘resilience’ and second ‘climate refugees’ and ‘climate conflict’. The last two papers each cover a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Samoa, respectively. The key development policy lesson from the papers is a framing that places climate change within wider climate, disaster risk reduction and development perspectives. That is further highlighted here through describing the Many Strong Voices programme that learns from the past to aim for a better future by tackling climate change. Learning from the history of international development assists in addressing root causes, such as vulnerability and poverty, to achieve effective development policy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, newspaper research has been streamlined by digitisation and online hosting by Papers Past. This paper tests the reliability and credibility of reporting of extreme weather and climatic events through Papers Past to determine if newspaper research of past climate can be further streamlined. Searches were conducted through four early-20th-century Auckland newspapers, where counts of articles returned by key-word searches for particular periods were compared against periods of known extremes. We find that blind searches have only limited potential in identifying extreme weather and climatic events and that they are no substitute for thorough analyses of documentary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Seedling recruitment is a vital process for forest regeneration and is influenced by various factors such as stand composition, climate, and soil disturbance. We conducted a long‐term field experiment (18 years) to study the effects of these factors and their interactions on seedling recruitment. Location: Our study focused on five main species in boreal mixed woods of eastern Canada: trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), white spruce (Picea glauca), balsam fir (Abies balsamea), and white cedar (Thuja occidentalis). Methods: Sixteen 1‐m2 seedling monitoring subplots were set up in each of seven stands originating from different wildfires (fire years ranging from 1760 to 1944), with a soil scarification treatment applied to every other subplot. Annual new seedling counts were related to growing‐season climate (mean temperature, growing degree days and drought code), scarification, and stand effects via a Bayesian generalized linear mixed model. Results: Soil scarification had a large positive effect on seedling recruitment for three species (aspen, birch and spruce). As expected, high mean temperatures during the seed production period (two years prior to seedling emergence) increased seedling recruitment for all species but aspen. Contrary to other studies, we did not find a positive effect of dry conditions during the seed production period. Furthermore, high values of growing degree days suppressed conifer seedling recruitment. Except for white cedar, basal area was weakly correlated with seedling abundance, suggesting a small number of reproductive individuals is sufficient to saturate seedling recruitment. Conclusion: Our findings underscore the importance of considering multiple factors, such as soil disturbance, climate, and stand composition, as well as their effects on different life stages when developing effective forest management strategies to promote regeneration in boreal mixed‐wood ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, with low‐income countries being disproportionately impacted. However, these countries often face market frictions that hinder their ability to adopt effective adaptation strategies. In this paper, I explore the role of credit market failures in limiting adaptation. To achieve this, I collaborate with a large microfinance institution and offer a randomly selected group of farmers access to guaranteed credit through an "Emergency Loan" following a negative climate shock. I document three key results. First, farmers who have access to the emergency loan make less costly adaptation choices and are less severely affected when a flood occurs. Second, I find no evidence of adverse spillover effects on households that did not receive the Emergency Loan. Finally, I demonstrate that providing the Emergency Loan is profitable for the microfinance institution, making it a viable tool for the private sector to employ in similar circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive understanding of failure modes of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules is key to extending their operational lifetime in the field. In this review, first, specific failure modes associated with mature PV technologies, such as crystalline silicon (c‐Si), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe), are framed by sources of specific failure modes, their development from the early‐developmental stages onwards and their impact upon long term performance of PV modules. These failure modes are sorted by both PV technology and location of occurrence in PV modules, such as substrate, encapsulant, front and rear electrode, absorber and interlayers. The second part of the review is focused on emerging PV technologies, such as perovskites solar cells, dye sensitised and organic PVs, where due to their low to medium technology readiness levels, specific long‐term degradation mechanisms have not fully emerged, and most mechanisms are only partially understood. However, an in‐depth summary of the known stability challenges associated with each emerging PV technology is presented. Finally, in this paper, lessons learned from mature PV technologies are reviewed, and considerations are given in to how these might be applied to the further development of emerging technologies. Namely, any emerging PV technology must eventually pass industry‐standard qualification tests, while warranties for the lifetime of modern c‐Si‐based modules might be extended beyond the existing warranted life of 25 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical convection is expected to decrease with warming, in a variety of ways. Specific incarnations of this idea include the "stability‐iris" hypothesis of decreasing anvil cloud coverage, as well as the decrease of both tropospheric and cloud‐base mass fluxes with warming. This paper seeks to encapsulate these phenomena into three "rules," and to explore their interrelationships and robustness, using both analytical reasoning as well as cloud‐resolving and global climate simulations. We find that each of these rules can be derived analytically from the usual expression for clear‐sky subsidence, so they all embody the same essential physics. But, these rules do not all provide the same degree of constraint: the stability‐iris effect is not entirely robust due to unconstrained microphysical degrees of freedom, and the decrease in cloud‐base mass flux is not entirely robust due to unconstrained effects of entrainment and detrainment. Tropospheric mass fluxes on the other hand are shown to be well‐constrained theoretically, and when evaluated in temperature coordinates they exhibit a monotonic decrease with warming at all vertical levels and across a hierarchy of models. Plain Language Summary: Tropical convection and high cloudiness are expected to decrease with global warming, in a variety of ways. This phenomenon has a few different manifestations in the literature, whose relationships are unclear. We show analytically that these explanations all embody the same essential physics, but are not equally robust and thus do not all have the same predictive power. Key Points: Three constraints on tropical convection can all be derived analytically from clear‐sky subsidenceTropospheric mass fluxes at a fixed isotherm should robustly decrease under global warmingDecreases in anvil cloud area and cloud‐base mass flux are not as robust [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air temperature has exhibited a clear positive trend over the past several decades throughout the arctic, including Alaska. Other variables, such as precipitation, have much more uncertain trends due to inhomogeneities in measurement and high internal variability. The use of linear regression to analyse precipitation in Alaska has resulted in often contradictory results. This paper proposes the use of Bayesian models such as the R package Rbeast to allow for the more nuanced analysis. The examples given in this paper show how Bayesian analysis can be used to detect subtle changes and better constrain the disagreement between data sources. Applied to gridded data, Bayesian analysis shows how precipitation has changed overtime across Alaska. Change has accelerated over the past decade, but only precipitation increase on the North Slope can be assigned high confidence. Overall, this analysis highlights how Bayesian techniques may be uniquely useful to climate research in regions with heterogeneous data sources and substantial internal variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist work on population governance has tracked its racial dynamics, its varied attempts to expunge the poor from the future, and its violent wresting of control over reproduction away from women. Attention has recently turned to "economised" understandings of possible and proto‐life that take the aggregate reproductivity of certain groups of women and girls as a means of shaping economic futures, which emerged as the dominant form of population governance during the Cold War. Underexplored in this incisive body of work, however, is the relationship between the reproductive body and social reproduction. This paper advances feminist work on adjudications of life worth in government policy and scientific expertise, and critical political economic work on global health governance, by exploring experiments in family planning. I do this through a discussion of the Zika virus, the recent re‐emergence of which was framed as an economic problem: experts "priced" a single case of microcephaly at US$10 million or more across a lifetime. Specifically, I examine a programme of contraceptive provision to women in Puerto Rico as part of the public health emergency, which I show to have possible eugenic effects. I argue that in the global politics of public and reproductive health, relatively new neoliberal health metrics have joined up with eugenicist impulses to value life according to future economic contributions. Such valuations of life focalise the reproductive body while abandoning the social reproductive body. The relationship between reproductive labour and social reproduction warrants further scrutiny, for as we careen through uncertain ecological futures, and as discourses about limited Earth for humans amid environmental crisis and limited funding for future children thicken, the reproductivity of certain women and girls is being tinkered with by experts, governments, and private institutions in new ways. This paper explores the relationship between the reproductive body and social reproduction, which is undertheorised in feminist work, through a discussion of contraceptive provision to women in Puerto Rico as part of the Zika public health emergency. I argue that in the global politics of public and reproductive health, relatively new neoliberal health metrics have joined up with eugenicist impulses to value life according to future economic contributions. Such valuations of life focalise the reproductive body while abandoning the social reproductive body, and point to the new ways the reproductivity of certain women and girls is being tinkered with by experts, governments, and private institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the end of his life, Malcolm X had become synonymous with the phrase, "by any means necessary." With this philosophy he expanded the black freedom struggle of his day, adding new urgency, militancy, and sobriety to the movement. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has named God's gifts of Word and Sacrament the "means of grace." Held up to the revolutionary philosophy of Malcolm X, the degree to which our baptismal means have become domesticated and depoliticized becomes troublingly clear. This paper addresses these problems and offers a way forward. The special relationship that God, Jesus, and even Martin Luther had with water—to say nothing of our ongoing climate catastrophe—compels us to begin by rewatering and repoliticizing the entire baptismal process, introducing new urgency, militancy, and sobriety to our once revolutionary sacrament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration is an important risk‐reduction strategy for households in developing countries. In this paper, we examine the impact of rainfall variability and irrigation availability on short‐term migration decisions in India. Our results show that both rainfall shocks and the availability of irrigation impact the decisions of households to dispatch migrants. For irrigation, we find that migration responds to costs and that deep fossil‐water wells, which provide a constant source of water, eliminate any benefit of short‐term migration. This suggests that regions with access to more secure and stable sources of water are less likely to rely on migration as an income‐smoothing mechanism, at least in the short run. Whether this holds in the long run will depend on the continued stability and availability of irrigation water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The depth distribution of soil water contributions to plant water uptake is poorly known. Here we evaluate the main water sources used by plants at the global scale and the effect of climate and plant groups on water uptake variability and depth distribution. The global meta‐analysis is based on isotope data (δ2H and δ18O) extracted from 65 peer‐reviewed papers published between 1990 and 2017. We applied a new direct inference method to quantify the overlap between xylem water and soil water sources used by plants. The median overlap between xylem water and soil water at different depths varied between 28% and 100%, but they were generally >50%. The shallow (0‐10 cm) soil water overlap with xylem water was largest in cold regions (100% ± 0%) and lowest at tropical sites (about 28%). Conversely, the median overlap between xylem water and deep soil water was largest in the arid and the tropical zones (>75%) and much smaller in the temperate and cold zones. Our results suggest that the isotopic composition of xylem water reflects mostly the signature of shallow soil water (<30 cm) in the cold and the temperate zones, whereas in the arid and the tropical zones, plants appear to exploit water in deeper soil layers. Our novel, simple statistically‐based direct inference method performed well in determining these differences in water sources, and can be applied more widely to isotope‐based plant water uptake studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 15 years, international climate policy and governance practice have shifted from a linear model of carbon emissions management to a circular model. Whereas the former primarily focused on reducing absolute emissions, the latter focuses on balancing emissions sources and sinks. Australia, a major global exporter of 'old' carbon resources such as coal, has actively embraced circular carbon policies and their related 'new' carbon resources such as carbon credits. Focusing on Australia's Northern Territory as a site of old and new carbon economies, where government administrators have actively sought to host carbon circulations and loops, this paper examines three interlinked cases to illustrate the interdependencies generated through circular carbon policies. Identifying how sources, sinks, and the mediation of relations between them all constitute key contemporary carbon frontiers, we conclude by calling for a research agenda that analyses 'old' and 'new' carbon economies as a co‐produced assemblage rather than as isolated zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our emerging climate future, devastation will not land evenly. "Climate apartheid" names a world where the rich insulate themselves from its most catastrophic effects, while the global poor stand increasingly subject to rising seas, failing crops, intensifying weather events (floods, hurricanes, wildfires) and thus to the necessity of movement: some project a billion climate refugees by 2050. Yet analyses often fail to link climate apartheid to the existing systems mobilized to execute it—policing, prisons, borders—and so fail to connect climate politics to enduring racialized projects of carceral control, as well as to Black, Native, and Latinx struggles against them. A key task is to develop capacious conceptual frameworks for understanding how religious actors are addressing the deep entanglements of political ecology and racial violence. This paper pursues that task in four parts. Part 1 introduces climate apartheid and proposes "cross‐border solidarity" as an organizing concept for response, while underscoring that solidarity's chief virtue—its being already in use across diverse moral communities—is also what requires rigorous specification. What is the shape of "solidarity" amid climate futures? Parts 2 and 3 critique two frameworks ethicists might employ in facing that question: anthropocene discourse obscures race, while mestizaje discourse addresses race but risks reproducing its deepest logics. Part 4 proposes an alternative I will call cimarronaje. Of Taíno‐Arawak and Spanish origin, the word refers to the historical experience, across slaveholding societies of the Americas, whereby enslaved African people fled plantations, escaped to surrounding hills and swamps, and reimagined forms of life with Indigenous communities, forged new ecologies together and, in the shadows of colonial empire, prefigured the theory and practices of cross‐border solidarity we need today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal and dynamical structure of Titan's middle atmosphere (the stratosphere and mesosphere) has been observed to evolve over seasonal timescales. Measurements from the Composite Infrared Spectrometer on the Cassini spacecraft indicated the presence of a westerly jet with the strongest winds exceeding 200 m s−1 near the autumn and spring poles. The strength of the winds varied substantially with latitude and altitude, and weakened throughout most of winter. The strong winds also served to trap short‐lived trace molecules near the winter pole, leading to a chemically enriched environment. Here, to better understand the evolution of the middle atmosphere jet, we quantify the heat and zonal momentum budgets in Titan's stratosphere and mesosphere over the course of a Titan year using a three‐dimensional general circulation model. We confirm that the dominant heating balance is between the net radiative and adiabatic heating rates, and also show that the convergence of sensible heat by the atmospheric flow is important at low stratospheric altitudes above the winter pole. We show that the polar jet is maintained by the convergence of zonal momentum by the mean meridional flow, while the low‐latitude winds are maintained by an up‐gradient transport of momentum by eddies that occur on time scales of less than one Titan day. The heat and momentum budgets we determine here will be useful in constraining the factors controlling the evolution of Titan's middle atmosphere over the coming decades. Plain Language Summary: Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, and possesses a thick, nitrogen dominated atmosphere with surface pressure that is greater than Earth's. The middle atmosphere of Titan includes the stratosphere and mesosphere and extends from about 60 km through about 600 km above its surface. Winds in Titan's middle atmosphere can be up to 200 m s−1 (∼450 miles per hour) and play an important role in moving trace molecules throughout the atmosphere. In this paper, we perform the first numerical study to determine what causes the temperature and winds in Titan's middle atmosphere to change over the course of Titan's 29.5 Earth‐year trip around the sun. We find that the temperatures in Titan's middle atmosphere are driven primarily by solar heating and infrared cooling, and by compressional heating of descending air; however, the transport of heat by the winds is also important. The winds are primarily accelerated by the large‐scale transport of momentum toward the high winter latitudes, but are balanced by the transport of momentum toward the equator by atmospheric waves. Our results will be important to predicting the changes that will be seen in Titan's atmosphere as it progresses through northern autumn in 2025. Key Points: Heating in the middle atmosphere is balanced between radiative and adiabatic effects, but convergence of heat is important near the polesThe acceleration of the polar jet is balanced between the transport of momentum by the mean flow and deceleration by transient eddiesThe transition of the polar jet from one hemisphere to the other is a complex process that involves changing structure over all latitudes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the challenging – and frightening – times in which we now live, education is seen as playing a key role in making change for the better. However, the Department for Education's (2022) strategy on education for sustainability and climate change, applicable to schools in England, is lacking in many areas and fails to address students', teachers', and teacher educators' priorities. Crucially, the environment and climate emergency greatly concerns many children and young people and these issues should be addressed across the whole curriculum, not just in geography and science. Further, there needs to be more focus on emotions rather than facts, wellbeing rather than the economy. So, the question is: How can we 'green' art, craft and design education to ensure it is both effective and affective? Art can change the world because it is 'homeless, endless, and edgeless' – this sounds exciting but does not aid teachers in curriculum design. In this paper I will share an emergent manifesto for an environmentally responsible art, craft and design (ACD) curriculum... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the temporal dynamics and drivers of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) provides a critical link to better management of nutrient‐related impacts such as eutrophication and harmful algal blooms (HABs). DIN and DIP are a primary control on persistent eutrophication and HABs in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). An understudied phenomenon, this paper examines multi‐decadal trends in DIN and DIP concentrations and loads, and their relationships to climatic and hydrologic factors (e.g., stream and air temperature, discharge, precipitation) in the PNW. Dissolved constituents act as a broad sentinel of linkages between watershed and in‐stream mechanisms such as nitrification, denitrification, nutrient use efficiency, evapotranspiration, hydrologic connectivity, groundwater extraction, irrigation, and land uses. As opposed to the total N and P often used in individual, autochthonous, lentic systems, DIN and DIP are used here as measures of multiscaled processes in allochthonous lotic systems with diverse flow paths. Time‐series data from public agencies were used for up to 20 years in river outlets from the Willamette, Salmon, Spokane, and Yakima watersheds. Seasonal Mann Kendall (SMK) tests suggest significant decreasing multi‐decadal trends in DIN and DIP loads for three out of four watersheds (for DIN, SMK = −0.104; for DIP, SMK = −0.081, −0.181, and −0.213), significant decreasing trends in DIN concentrations for one of the four watersheds (SMK = −0.144), and significant decreasing trends in DIP concentrations in three of the four watersheds (SMK = −0.120, −0.135, and −0.157). Multivariate regressions found significant relationships for concentrations, loads, and ratios when regressed against stream and air temperatures, precipitation, and discharge (16 significant regressions, with adjusted R2 values between 0.016 and 0.65). Highlights of these regression results are as follows: (1) precipitation, discharge, and water and air temperatures help to explain DIN and DIP concentrations and loads, (2) changes in DIN concentrations are sensitive to more hydroclimatic variables than DIP concentrations, and (3) DIP concentrations are positively correlated with stream temperature while DIP loads are negatively correlated with stream temperature. Furthermore, seasonal changes in nutrients — and their potential to alter aquatic productivity during a year — has received little attention in the literature. Regressions established significant seasonality or monthly variation of DIN and DIP concentrations and loads in all four watersheds (20 significant regressions, with adjusted R2 values between 0.038–0.65). Nutrient thresholds of DIN (0.3–0.5 mg/L) and DIP (0.05–0.005 mg/L) concentrations were used to analyze N‐ and P‐limitation. P‐limitation is known to occur in lakes, and N‐limitation is known to occur in rivers. Surprisingly, except for one watershed (Salmon), nutrient concentrations for both DIN and DIP in all watersheds were shown to be above the limitation thresholds across multiple seasons. In certain situations, such as where significant decreasing trends continue, the DIN:DIP ratio suggests seasonal switching between N‐ and P‐limited could create ideal conditions for HABs. The findings of this study have important implications for water resource management issues such as agriculture, land use development, fish populations, timber harvests, water quality, and public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arctic glaciers have been, and are predicted to remain, an important sea‐level rise contributor over the 20th and 21st centuries. However, multi‐annual observations of their basic meteorological characteristics, which drive melt processes, are very sparse, contributing to uncertainties in sea‐level rise projections. This paper presents a methodology to process and analyse 6 years (September 2011–September 2017) of glacier meteorology data collected by an automatic weather station on the ablation zone of a small valley glacier in Svalbard (~79°N). The study focuses on the microclimate of the study glacier and its differences with that of large glaciers in the region, namely slightly increased summer air temperature with steep near‐surface lapse rates, frequently superadiabatic, reduced wind speed and incoming shortwave radiation flux. These differences are likely related to the adjacent complex relief and non‐ice‐covered surfaces within the basin of the study glacier and, as such, pose a challenge for accurate simulation of alpine glacier microclimates in regional melt assessments in the Arctic. The processing routine applied in this paper might serve as a reference for future similar studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the current body of knowledge regarding the evolution of a braided–meandering system in the southern Junggar Basin, north‐west China, based on the preserved architecture evidences. The response to climate change was also discussed. Herein, 10 types of lithofacies are summarized, including information of their primary sedimentary structures, characteristic lithology, and geometry. This study focuses on recognizing the architectural elements within the channels (migrating channel: CHm, switching channel: CHs, transiting channel: CHt, and filling channel: CHf), the bar units (downstream accretion: DA, lateral accretion: LA, unit bar: UB, and compound bar: CB), and fine‐grained clastic deposits (floodplain fines: FF and overbank fines: OF). Three representative sections of outcrops were selected, and detailed observation and analysis of these sections revealed 3 stages can be divided: the braided stage, in which the deposits show an evidence of CHm, DA elements which are the mainly architectural elements, multichannel with aggradational filling; The transformation between braided–meandering stage, during which the fluvial system consists of CHt and CHm elements with lateral accretion; and meandering stage which is characterized by dominance of CHm, LA elements, and the channels become isolated and meandering. Finally, this paper concludes with an interpretation of climate events as manifested by the fluvial archives of the colours of sedimentary rocks, special mineral, palaeontology, geochemistry spanning the Middle–Upper Jurassic (between 166.1 and 152.1 Ma). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antarctic sea ice trends have to date been linked to surface winds, through sea ice motion and atmospheric thermal advection. This paper analyzes sea ice volume in 10 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) model configurations under pre‐industrial and historical climate forcings, to compare the relative importance of ice motion and thermodynamic processes. We find that the models' responses to historical forcings is dependent on their sea ice motion formulation; models with low‐magnitude sea ice motion tend to have historical trends that are dominated by thermodynamic processes, while sea ice models with higher‐magnitude motion have more spatially variable relative contributions from dynamic and thermodynamic processes. Trends at the sea ice edge during the season of sea ice advance are generally dominated by dynamic processes, whereas during retreat thermodynamic trends dominate. The models show more disagreement in the sea ice interior. This analysis highlights the different estimates and patterns of sea ice volume among global climate models and offers insight into the drivers of sea ice volume change as well as the subsequent implications for simulated atmosphere‐sea ice‐ocean interactions. Plain Language Summary: Increasing observed Antarctic sea ice is thought to be largely driven by surface winds, through driving sea ice motion and advecting warm air southward to melt ice in some regions. However, global climate models do not reproduce observed sea ice trends. This paper analyzes the sea ice volume budget in 10 climate models to see how much simulated sea ice change is driven by dynamic processes such as wind‐driven sea ice motion, and how much is due to thermodynamic freeze and melt processes. We find that the models generally agree when it comes to mean sea ice volume change, with dynamic processes dominating the sea ice edge and thermodynamic processes dominating in the interior of the sea ice pack. However, the models disagree about trends of sea ice volume. In the sea ice interior, each process dominates approximately half the models in all sea ice sectors, and thermodynamic processes tend to dominate in models with low‐magnitude average sea ice motion. These results provide insight into the estimates and patterns of Antarctic sea ice in global climate models, helping to understand the disparity between simulated and observed sea ice trends. Key Points: Thermodynamic drivers tend to dominate trends of Antarctic sea ice volume in models with low‐magnitude mean sea ice mass transportDrivers of sea ice volume trends in models with higher‐magnitude mean sea ice mass transport have large spatial and seasonal variabilityBiases in mean Antarctic sea ice concentration are unrelated to the dominant processes driving sea ice volume trends [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil gross nitrogen (N) mineralization (GNM), a key microbial process in the global N cycle, is mainly controlled by climate and soil properties. This study provides for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the role of soil physicochemical properties and climate and their interactions with soil microbial biomass (MB) in controlling GNM globally. Through a meta‐analysis of 970 observations from 337 published papers from various ecosystems, we found that GNM was positively correlated with MB, total carbon, total N and precipitation, and negatively correlated with bulk density (BD) and soil pH. Our multivariate analysis and structural equation modeling revealed that GNM is driven by MB and dominantly influenced by BD and precipitation. The higher total N accelerates GNM via increasing MB. The decrease in BD stimulates GNM via increasing total N and MB, whereas higher precipitation stimulates GNM via increasing total N. Moreover, the GNM varies with ecosystem type, being greater in forests and grasslands with high total carbon and MB contents and low BD and pH compared to croplands. The highest GNM was observed in tropical wet soils that receive high precipitation, which increases the supply of soil substrate (total N) to microbes. Our findings suggest that anthropogenic activities that affect soil microbial population size, BD, soil substrate availability, or soil pH may interact with changes in precipitation regime and land use to influence GNM, which may ultimately affect ecosystem productivity and N loss to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the economic challenges faced by Australia's Direct Action abatement subsidy scheme. Introduced in 2014, the scheme operates by reverse auction, funding projects voluntarily proposed by the private sector. Because the Government cannot know true project counterfactuals, the lowest auction bids are likely to often be non-additional 'anyway' projects. The scheme is hence likely to exhibit a systematic skew towards low-quality abatement. The paper presents a model of the adverse selection problem and describes the early experience with Direct Action. A discussion of a way forward is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the case of modern river sediments, source rocks, tectonic setting, and climatic and geomorphological conditions are fully known, diagenetic effects are by definition none, and physical and chemical processes during erosion, transport, and deposition can be investigated directly in any required detail. Their study thus provides the fundamental information needed to understand the impact of various controls on sediment generation and sediment routing systems in diverse geological settings. With the growing interest in source‐to‐sink sedimentary systems for economic purposes, researchers have focused more and more on modern environments, producing an ever‐increasing amount of compositional data on river sediments. To better integrate and utilize these large datasets, we systematically compiled a global database of 4,208 fluvial sediment samples compiled from 100 published papers, book chapters, and dissertations and included 3,747 petrographic and 1,943 heavy‐mineral analyses. The analysed samples are mostly located in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America, with fewer examples from North America and Oceania. Each sample is complemented by metadata describing references, river name, geographic location, sampling date, analytical method, and grain size, so that samples can be grouped and filtered to meet different needs including comparison with other datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive relative humidity (RH) in combination with high temperature can lead to heat stress, often measured by the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). The Clausius‐Clapeyron (CC) relationship implies that warming reduces RH if no extra moisture is added. Over coastal regions like eastern Asia, however, the predominant summer monsoon favours increased moisture transport from surrounding oceans as a result of enhanced evaporation driven by surface temperature increase. This would lessen the RH reduction by potentially two‐thirds. Based on two ensembles of climate model simulations, this paper examines the competing effects of near‐surface temperature, humidity and circulation patterns in this region and the consequential health risks. Under a high emissions scenario (RCP8.5/SSP5‐8.5), surface temperature could increase by 4 – 7°C with WBGT increases of several degrees by the end of the 21st century. Devastating extreme heat health events could therefore become a frequent occurrence as a result. Overall, our results show how humidity can be just as important as temperature when considering the risks to society of excessive heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orbital Earth Radiation Budget measurement comparisons to models, are critical for climate prediction confidence. Satellite systems must reduce calibration drifts for this purpose. NASA Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) measures Earth albedo reductions that if correct, would increase solar forcing and suggest greater sunlight absorption is driving much of recent temperature increases. Such results are presented, alongside those from the Moon and Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (MERBE). MERBE uses constant lunar reflectivity for tracking and compensation of instrument telescope degradation, undetectable by CERES. MERBE finds Earth albedo constant compared to that of the Moon, because Arctic solar warming effects are balanced by solar cooling elsewhere, likely due to negative feedbacks. Contrary to NASA, this shows the Sun is not increasing warming and that CERES results are not as stable as claimed and assumed. Furthermore, MERBE can actually resolve Cloud Radiative Forcing (CRF) signals from the existing record, rather than in decades with official observations. Plain Language Summary: In contrast to NASA Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System results, this paper shows that the Earth reflectivity has not changed since the year 2000, by comparing the sunlight bouncing off it to that from the Moon. Disagreeing with NASA, this provides physical evidence that global warming is not being increased by the Sun. It also immediately brings data to the standard requested by the climate community for cloud forcing/feedback signal detection. The Moon and Earth Radiation Budget Experiment data is being staged for free on the FAIR compliant website Pangaea for climate scientists. Key Points: The Sun is not causing climate change and Cloud Radiative Forcing (CRF) signals can now be detected immediatelyArctic heating is being balanced by reflectivity increases elsewhereThe calibration accuracy of data is sufficient to detect uncertain cloud feedback signals immediately, rather than in decades [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]