Nature climate change
Volume 11 Issue 1, January 2021
Intraspecific diversity for future crop resilience
Sweet potato can grow at altitudes ranging from sea level to 2,500 m above sea level and come in varieties ranging in colour from white to yellow, orange or purple, such as those from Nyeri in the central highlands of Kenya. In this issue, Bettina Heider, Olivier Dangles and colleagues test heat tolerance in sweet potato to identify tolerant cultivars. Their findings reveal tolerance-predictive traits for breeding…
Image: © International Potato Center/ Sara Quinn. Cover Design: Valentina Monaco
Comment
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Comment | 04 January 2021
Improving reduced complexity model assessment and usability
Reduced complexity climate models are useful tools with practical policy applications, yet evaluation of their performance and application is nascent. We call for stakeholder-driven development and assessment to address user needs, including provision of open-source code and guidance to inform model selection and application.
- Marcus C. Sarofim
- Joel B. Smith
- & Corinne Hartin
Research Highlights
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Research Highlight | 04 January 2021
Climatic selection and gene expression plasticity
- Tegan Armarego-Marriott
Advertisement Feature
Manufacturing shifts soy-pulp from trash to treasure
Rethinking ingredients and manufacturing processes can enhance food products and support sustainability
News & Views
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News & Views | 16 November 2020
Body size shapes thermal stress
Body sizes have been declining in response to climate change, but an expected relationship between size and the hot temperatures organisms can tolerate has eluded detection. Now, research shows how body size and the duration of exposure to hot temperatures interact to determine the onset and consequences of thermal stress.
- Lauren B. Buckley
News & Views | 05 October 2020
Plant agrodiversity to the rescue
Agricultural systems are vulnerable to climate change, and global reservoirs of plant genetic diversity are proving to be a valuable means of crop adaptation. A study now shows that production of sweet potato is at risk from extreme heat events, but a few tolerant cultivars can still thrive and potentially provide climate resilience.
- Samuel Pironon
- & Marybel Soto Gomez
Articles
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Article | 05 October 2020
Right-wing ideology reduces the effects of education on climate change beliefs in more developed countries
Education increases political polarization on climate change beliefs in the US. Here the authors find that this effect does not generalize to other contexts. Across 64 countries, education has positive effects on climate change beliefs, and interactions with ideology are more nuanced and contextual.
- Gabriela Czarnek
- Małgorzata Kossowska
- & Paulina Szwed
Article | 09 November 2020
Climate change risk to global port operations
Global trade and transport depend on the resilience of the ports sector. Multi-hazard operational risks are estimated for 2,013 ports under historical climate and future warming; of the marine and atmospheric hazards considered, coastal flooding, wave overtopping and heat stress increase risk most.
- C. Izaguirre
- I. J. Losada
- & V. Stenek
Article | 23 November 2020
Increased ocean heat transport into the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean over the period 1993–2016
An increase in ocean transport from the North Atlantic into the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean is warming the region. Observations from 1993 to 2016 show a significant increase in heat transport after 2001, with the heat being transported over the Greenland–Scotland Ridge.
- Takamasa Tsubouchi
- Kjetil Våge
- & Héðinn Valdimarsson
Article | 30 November 2020
Opposite response of strong and moderate positive Indian Ocean Dipole to global warming
The strength of a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (pIOD) is set by sea surface temperature gradient across the equatorial Indian Ocean. Modelling shows warming will increase strong pIODs but decrease moderate pIODs, as faster surface warming in the west sets up conducive conditions for the strong events.
- Wenju Cai
- Kai Yang
- & Toshio Yamagata
Article | 26 October 2020
Enhanced warming constrained by past trends in equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature gradient
The east–west gradient in equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature has strengthened, but models suggest the opposite in past and future climates. Model ensembles show that the observed trend can arise from internal variability but their gradient weakens in the long term, causing more climate warming.
- Masahiro Watanabe
- Jean-Louis Dufresne
- & Hiroaki Tatebe
Article | 04 January 2021
Soil moisture–atmosphere feedbacks mitigate declining water availability in drylands
Surface water availability will change under climate change and is impacted by feedbacks between the land and atmosphere. Soil moisture exerts a negative feedback on water availability in drylands, offsetting some of the expected decline.
- Sha Zhou
- A. Park Williams
- & Pierre Gentine
Article | 02 November 2020
Future impacts of climate change on inland Ramsar wetlands
Hydrological modelling is combined with soil moisture estimates to quantify climate change impacts on inland Ramsar wetlands. Net global changes are estimated to be modest, but individual sites with area reductions over 10% are projected to increase 19–243% by 2100, depending on emissions scenario.
- Yi Xi
- Shushi Peng
- & Youhua Chen
Article | 19 October 2020
Changing carbon-to-nitrogen ratios of organic-matter export under ocean acidification
The biological pump sequesters carbon to the deep ocean. Ocean acidification, through impacts on plankton and food-web structure, is shown to alter the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of organic material export, with heterotrophic processes playing a key role.
- Jan Taucher
- Tim Boxhammer
- & Ulf Riebesell
Article | 16 November 2020
Heat tolerance in ectotherms scales predictably with body size
Analysis of ectotherm thermal death curves in the context of both challenge intensity and duration shows that smaller animals exhibit higher tolerance to acute stress, but lower tolerance to chronic stress. The size-dependent impact provides one explanation for warming-related reductions in animal size.
- Ignacio Peralta-Maraver
- & Enrico L. Rezende
Article | 05 October 2020
Intraspecific diversity as a reservoir for heat-stress tolerance in sweet potato
Mass field testing of heat tolerance in 1,973 cultivars of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) from 50 countries identifies tolerant cultivars and reveals tolerance-predictive traits for breeding consideration. The work highlights the role of intraspecific diversity for future crop resilience.
- Bettina Heider
- Quentin Struelens
- & Olivier Dangles
Analysis
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Analysis | 07 December 2020
Expert assessment of future vulnerability of the global peatland carbon sink
Peatlands are impacted by climate and land-use changes, with feedback to warming by acting as either sources or sinks of carbon. Expert elicitation combined with literature review reveals key drivers of change that alter peatland carbon dynamics, with implications for improving models.
- J. Loisel
- A. V. Gallego-Sala
- & J. Wu
Amendments & Corrections
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Author Correction | 10 December 2020
Author Correction: Circumpolar projections of Antarctic krill growth potential
- Devi Veytia
- Stuart Corney
- & Sophie Bestley
Publisher Correction | 22 October 2020
Publisher Correction: Weakening Atlantic overturning circulation causes South Atlantic salinity pile-up
- Chenyu Zhu
- & Zhengyu Liu
Nature Climate Change ISSN1758-6798 (online)
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