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Nature Climate Change July 2021

Volume 11 Issue 7, July 2021

Water-table impact on peat emissions

The climate impact of water-table drawdown in peatlands is unclear as carbon dioxide emissions increase and methane emissions decrease due to drying. Writing in this issue, Huang et al. show that decreasing water-table depth results in net greenhouse gas emissions from global peatlands, despite reducing methane emissions.

See Huang et al.and News & Views byMorris

Image: RJH_IMAGES / Alamy Stock Photo. Cover Design: Valentina Monaco

Editorial

Editorial | 06 July 2021

Uncertain with a chance of showers

Global hydroclimate and atmospheric dynamics are tethered, and so is their future uncertainty. Despite this, scientists are increasingly able to identify climate change signals in noisy hydroclimate observations, aided by a growing line-up of climate model experiments and an ever-extending observational record.

Correspondence

Correspondence | 01 July 2021

Rising risks of late-spring frosts in a changing climate

• Jay Ram Lamichhane

Advertisement Feature

Making titanium in a more sustainable way

New titanium smelting method will both eliminate carbon and reduce electricity requirements

Q&A

Q&A | 24 June 2021

Out and allied at work

Success in STEM disciplines and careers is impacted by feelings of belonging, representation and safety. To celebrate Pride Month during June 2021, Nature Climate Change asked scientists and faculty members about their experience in research and academia, and their thoughts on making lasting, inclusive change.

• Baird Langenbrunner (he/him)

Research Highlights

Research Highlight | 06 July 2021

Indigenous knowledge

• Alyssa Findlay

Research Highlight | 06 July 2021

Formalizing the informal

• Baird Langenbrunner

Research Highlight | 06 July 2021

No longer winning

• Bronwyn Wake

Research Highlight | 06 July 2021

Indonesian palm oil

• Lingxiao Yan

News & Views

News & Views | 14 June 2021

Reaching Republicans on climate change

Increasing Republicans’ belief in climate change is challenging yet needed for broader support of policy. Targeted advertisements featuring Republican voices may be a solution to increase their understanding of climate change.

• Phillip Ehret

News & Views | 07 June 2021

Wetter is better for peat carbon

The role of peatlands in future climate change is uncertain because peat-derived greenhouse gas emissions are difficult to predict. Now research shows that reduced methane emissions from drying peatlands are likely to be outweighed by increasing CO2 emissions.

• Paul J. Morris

Perspectives

Perspective | 17 June 2021

Integrated perspective on translating biophysical to economic impacts of climate change

Uncertainty in estimates of the economic impacts of climate change makes it difficult to evaluate the benefits of mitigation. This Perspective reviews methods for determining economic damages from biophysical impacts, highlights critical gaps and suggests priorities moving forward.

• Franziska Piontek
• Laurent Drouet
• Massimo Tavoni

Articles

Article | 14 June 2021

Shifting Republican views on climate change through targeted advertising

Climate change communication is more likely to persuade when the message and the messenger resonate with the audience’s values and identities. A campaign field experiment testing online messages tailored to US Republicans increased their climate change beliefs, risk perceptions and issue importance.

• Matthew H. Goldberg
• Abel Gustafson
• Anthony Leiserowitz

Article | 05 July 2021

The climate consistency goal and the transformation of global finance

Finance flows consistent with low-emission pathways and resilient development are central to the Paris Agreement, yet confusion remains about Article 2.1(c). Clarity is needed, particularly of its relationship with climate finance, to differentiate responsibility and enable suitable monitoring.

• Luis H. Zamarioli
• Pieter Pauw
• Hugues Chenet

Article | 21 June 2021

Rapid increases and extreme months in projections of United States high-tide flooding

High-tide flooding (HTF) is more likely with sea-level rise. Projections along the United States coastline, considering likely sea-level rise and tidal amplitude cycles, suggest increased HTF event clustering in time and rapid increases in annual HTF frequency as early as the mid-2030s.

• Philip R. Thompson
• Matthew J. Widlansky
• William Sweet

Article | 24 June 2021

Climate change decisive for Asia’s snow meltwater supply

High-mountain Asia streamflow is strongly impacted by snow and glacier melt. A regional model, combined with observations and climate projections, shows snowmelt decreased during 1979–2019 and was more dominant than glacier melt, and projections suggest declines that vary by river basin.

• Philip D. A. Kraaijenbrink
• Emmy E. Stigter
• Walter W. Immerzeel

Article | 17 June 2021

Hot extremes have become drier in the United States Southwest

Global humidity increases with warming, but the United States Southwest has shown summer decreases since 1950, with the largest declines on hot days attributed to decreased soil moisture, not atmospheric moisture transport. Projections are uncertain due to model spread in precipitation trends.

• Karen A. McKinnon
• Andrew Poppick
• Isla R. Simpson

Article | 21 June 2021

Emergence of seasonal delay of tropical rainfall during 1979–2019

Tropical rainfall exhibits cyclic north–south migration tracking the warmer hemisphere, and climate warming will delay this seasonally over land. Climate models and gridded precipitation data suggest a delay of about 4 days since 1979 is now detectable over Northern Hemisphere land and the Sahel.

• Fengfei Song
• L. Ruby Leung
• Yun Qian

Article | 21 June 2021

Asymmetry in the climate–carbon cycle response to positive and negative CO2 emissions

It is commonly assumed that the climate response to CO2 removals is equal in magnitude and opposite in sign to the response to CO2 emissions. The response, however, is asymmetric, meaning that offsetting CO2 emissions with equal removals could lead to a different climate than avoiding the emissions.

• Kirsten Zickfeld
• Deven Azevedo
• H. Damon Matthews

Article | 07 June 2021

Tradeoff of CO2 and CH4 emissions from global peatlands under water-table drawdown

The climate impact of water-table drawdown in peatlands is unclear as carbon dioxide emissions increase and methane emissions decrease due to drying. This study shows decreasing water-table depth results in net greenhouse gas emissions from global peatlands, despite reducing methane emissions.

• Yuanyuan Huang
• Phillipe Ciais
• Laiye Qu

Article | 03 June 2021

Global patterns of geo-ecological controls on the response of soil respiration to warming

Understanding the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration is critical to determining soil carbon dynamics under climate change. Spatial heterogeneity in controls highlights the importance of interactions between vegetation, soil and climate in driving the response of respiration to warming.

• David Haaf
• Johan Six
• Sebastian Doetterl

Article | 17 June 2021

The impact of climate change on the productivity of conservation agriculture

The authors assess the productivity of conservation agriculture systems for eight major crops under current and future climate using a global-scale probabilistic machine-learning approach, revealing substantial differences in yield gain probabilities across crop type, management practice, climate zone and geography.

• Yang Su
• Benoit Gabrielle
• David Makowski

Amendments & Corrections

Author Correction | 06 May 2021

Author Correction: A global analysis of subsidence, relative sea-level change and coastal flood exposure

• Robert J. Nicholls
• Daniel Lincke
• Jiayi Fang

Author Correction | 12 May 2021

Author Correction: Disturbance suppresses the aboveground carbon sink in North American boreal forests

• Jonathan A. Wang
• Alessandro Baccini
• Mark A. Friedl