Nature climate change
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Current Issue
Volume 7 Number 3
March 2017
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Editorial
Connecting with climate science
Protecting science-based policymaking requires engaging the public, not politicians. Cultural institutions and the arts provide non-partisan platforms for communication that can connect scientific climate change data to people’s lives.
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Commentaries
Community action and climate change
President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2015 established the viability of grassroots mobilization modelled on the social movement organization Bold Nebraska. This set a precedent for communities fighting energy projects that threaten natural resources and contribute to climate change.
Assessing temperature pattern projections made in 1989
Successful projection of the distribution of surface temperature change increases our confidence in climate models. Here we evaluate projections of global warming from almost 30 years ago using the observations made during the past half century.
Museums as catalysts for change
An international coalition of museums could play a critical role in coordinating more effective public communication on and engagement with climate change.
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Feature
The visceral climate experience
Representing climate change through music and the visual arts anchors it in our culture.
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Research Highlights
Biogeochemistry: Land CO2 sink drivers
Hydrology: Increasing river flood risk
Forest Policy: Media influence on debate
Marine microbiology: Plasticity under acidification
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News and Views
Communication: Influencing policymakers
Policymakers play a critical role in the global response to climate change. Now, research reveals an effective visual strategy for communicating climate science to policymakers and climate negotiators.
See also: Letter by Valentina Bosetti et al.
Palaeoclimate: Aerosols shift lake ecosystem
Anthropogenic aerosols over the Chinese Loess Plateau have diminished monsoon precipitation and concomitant soil erosion that plagues the region. Now, a reconstruction documents the differences between historical warming events and the present, highlighting the paradoxical implications of decreasing atmospheric aerosols.
See also: Letter by Jianbao Liu et al.
Biosphere–atmosphere interactions: Deforestation size influences rainfall
Changes to the land surface, such as land clearing and logging of forest areas, impacts moisture cycling. Now a shift from small-scale to large-scale deforestation in the southern Amazon is found to modify the mechanisms and patterns of regional precipitation.
See also: Letter by Jaya Khanna et al.
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Perspective
Forecasting societies’ adaptive capacities through a demographic metabolism model
Climate and societies are dynamic. In this Perspective an approach to forecasting important aspects of societal change is proposed to help understanding of how future societies will be affected by climate change.
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Letters
COP21 climate negotiators’ responses to climate model forecasts
Communicating climate science requires depicting uncertainty. This study shows that the tendency for COP21 policymakers to assign model forecasts less weight than their prior beliefs when making predictions is mitigated by presenting individual model forecasts with the statistical range.
See also: News and Views by Jiaying Zhao
Aerosol-weakened summer monsoons decrease lake fertilization on the Chinese Loess Plateau
Historically, warm periods enhanced the Asian summer monsoon—increased rainfall brought additional nutrients to freshwater ecosystems and increased production. However, anthropogenic aerosols have weakened the monsoon and altered lake ecosystems.
See also: News and Views by Harry J. Dowsett
Increase in acidifying water in the western Arctic Ocean
Ocean acidification has expanded in the western Arctic Ocean. Observations from the 1990s to 2010 show that aragonite saturation levels have decreased, with low saturation water deepening to 250 m and increasing in area more rapidly than seen in other oceans.
See also: News and Views by Richard G. J. Bellerby
Regional dry-season climate changes due to three decades of Amazonian deforestation
Deforestation in Amazonia has previously been linked to thermally driven precipitation increases. Satellite observations and model simulations now suggest a shift toward a dynamically driven hydroclimate, with enhanced rainfall seen downwind of deforested areas.
See also: News and Views by Jeffrey Q. Chambers et al.
Species’ traits influenced their response to recent climate change
Modelling of mammal and bird responses to recent climatic changes—based on a systematic review of the literature—suggests that large numbers of threatened species have already been affected by climate change in at least part of their range.
Long-term warming amplifies shifts in the carbon cycle of experimental ponds
A seven-year experimental pond experiment reveals that warming can fundamentally alter the carbon balance of small ponds over a number of years, reducing their capacity to sequester CO2 and increasing emissions of CH4.
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Articles
Slower snowmelt in a warmer world
Observations from western North America and model simulations are used to understand how climate change will affect snowmelt. Snowmelt is found to be slower under climate change as earlier melt means there is less energy for high melt rates.
The key role of forests in meeting climate targets requires science for credible mitigation
Forests are a key component of the Paris Agreement, providing about a quarter of planned emission reductions. Realizing this ambition, however, requires greater confidence in forest estimates, presenting a challenge and an opportunity for science.
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Erratum
Erratum: Macroclimatic change expected to transform coastal wetland ecosystems this century
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Addendum
Addendum: Biomass enables the transition to a carbon-negative power system across western North America