Nature Climate Change

Catch me if you can: Arabidopsis thaliana lags in adaptation to contemporary climate change

Anthropogenic climate change fosters unprecedented temperature challenges, with each year breaking a temperature record. Through evolution by natural selection, species and their populations have adapted to their previously local environments. However, as the average global land temperature has increased by ~2 C or more, natural selection on many species may not act fast enough with climate change, creating an adaptation lag.

Could nature itself hold the solution to climate change?

Could nature itself hold the solution to climate change?

Climate change may shift hailstorms toward Earth's poles—new study

Climate change may shift hailstorms toward Earth's poles—new study Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Lead Editor Everyone has a storm story—whether it's that time you just escaped a downpour, or the hailstorm that wrote off your car. Even though hailstorms are relatively rare, they cause significant damage. Two new studies shed light on how hail might change as the world warms.

Climate change is fuelling 'large marble-sized' hailstones and Europe isn't immune

Europe suffers huge economic losses due to hailstorms, but climate experts warn that rising temperatures is only making them bigger and more damaging. Global warming will likely make bigger hailstones that could cause "major damage" to vehicles, solar panels and other infrastructure. Human-caused climate change from burning polluting fossil fuels makes more high-energy unstable air, which is conducive to hail forming and global storms.

Hailstorms are predicted to hit harder with climate change

The fifth national climate assessment: Report shows change is here, but there is hope

The fifth national climate assessment: Report shows change is here, but there is hope Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Lead Editor The Fifth National Climate Assessment was released this morning, with dire messaging around the need for the immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions—but also hope, with advances in technology and increased adoption of renewable energy since the last report was issued in 2018. The bad: Human-caused climate change is already wreaking havoc in every...

In our 250th edition, we ask just how well the fight against climate change is really going

Sea-level and climate changes drive lineage diversification in the imperiled Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula J. Ellis, Droseraceae)

Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is an insectivorous plant in the monotypic genus Dionaea, endemic to the Southeastern United States, and found in a small geographic range in North and South Carolina. Its unique morphology and natural history have intrigued biologists for centuries, yet the evolution of populations has not been adequately characterized. Population decline, driven primarily by disruptive land conversion, fire suppression, and illegal harvesting/poaching underscores the...

Warming boosts natural methane emissions as microbes fail to keep pace

Warming boosts natural methane emissions as microbes fail to keep pace Sadie Harley Scientific Editor Robert Egan Associate Editor A new study led by Professor Mark Trimmer of Queen Mary University of London, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, explains how increases in natural methane emissions will be maximized under future climate warming. Say "methane" and most people think of cows, yet nearly half of all methane is produced by microbes in the natural world, especially lakes,...