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Environmental Research: Climate is a multidisciplinary, open access journal devoted to addressing important challenges concerning the physical science and assessment of climate systems and global change in a way that bridges efforts relating to impact/future risks, resilience, mitigation, adaptation, security and solutions in the broadest sense. For detailed information about subject coverage see the About the journal section.

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Ben Clarke et al 2022 Environ. Res.: Climate 1 012001

Extreme event attribution aims to elucidate the link between global climate change, extreme weather events, and the harms experienced on the ground by people, property, and nature. It therefore allows the disentangling of different drivers of extreme weather from human-induced climate change and hence provides valuable information to adapt to climate change and to assess loss and damage. However, providing such assessments systematically is currently out of reach. This is due to limitations in attribution science, including the capacity for studying different types of events, as well as the geographical heterogeneity of both climate and impact data availability. Here, we review current knowledge of the influences of climate change on five different extreme weather hazards (extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall, drought, wildfire, tropical cyclones), the impacts of recent extreme weather events of each type, and thus the degree to which various impacts are attributable to climate change. For instance, heat extremes have increased in likelihood and intensity worldwide due to climate change, with tens of thousands of deaths directly attributable. This is likely a significant underestimate due to the limited availability of impact information in lower- and middle-income countries. Meanwhile, tropical cyclone rainfall and storm surge height have increased for individual events and across all basins. In the North Atlantic basin, climate change amplified the rainfall of events that, combined, caused half a trillion USD in damages. At the same time, severe droughts in many parts of the world are not attributable to climate change. To advance our understanding of present-day extreme weather impacts due to climate change developments on several levels are required. These include improving the recording of extreme weather impacts around the world, improving the coverage of attribution studies across different events and regions, and using attribution studies to explore the contributions of both climate and non-climate drivers of impacts.

Friederike E L Otto et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 025001

As a direct consequence of extreme monsoon rainfall throughout the summer 2022 season Pakistan experienced the worst flooding in its history. We employ a probabilistic event attribution methodology as well as a detailed assessment of the dynamics to understand the role of climate change in this event. Many of the available state-of-the-art climate models struggle to simulate these rainfall characteristics. Those that pass our evaluation test generally show a much smaller change in likelihood and intensity of extreme rainfall than the trend we found in the observations. This discrepancy suggests that long-term variability, or processes that our evaluation may not capture, can play an important role, rendering it infeasible to quantify the overall role of human-induced climate change. However, the majority of models and observations we have analysed show that intense rainfall has become heavier as Pakistan has warmed. Some of these models suggest climate change could have increased the rainfall intensity up to 50%. The devastating impacts were also driven by the proximity of human settlements, infrastructure (homes, buildings, bridges), and agricultural land to flood plains, inadequate infrastructure, limited ex-ante risk reduction capacity, an outdated river management system, underlying vulnerabilities driven by high poverty rates and socioeconomic factors (e.g. gender, age, income, and education), and ongoing political and economic instability. Both current conditions and the potential further increase in extreme peaks in rainfall over Pakistan in light of anthropogenic climate change, highlight the urgent need to reduce vulnerability to extreme weather in Pakistan.

Sylvia Dee et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 022002

The hydrologic cycle is a fundamental component of the climate system with critical societal and ecological relevance. Yet gaps persist in our understanding of water fluxes and their response to increased greenhouse gas forcing. The stable isotope ratios of oxygen and hydrogen in water provide a unique opportunity to evaluate hydrological processes and investigate their role in the variability of the climate system and its sensitivity to change. Water isotopes also form the basis of many paleoclimate proxies in a variety of archives, including ice cores, lake and marine sediments, corals, and speleothems. These records hold most of the available information about past hydrologic variability prior to instrumental observations. Water isotopes thus provide a 'common currency' that links paleoclimate archives to modern observations, allowing us to evaluate hydrologic processes and their effects on climate variability on a wide range of time and length scales. Building on previous literature summarizing advancements in water isotopic measurements and modeling and describe water isotopic applications for understanding hydrological processes, this topical review reflects on new insights about climate variability from isotopic studies. We highlight new work and opportunities to enhance our understanding and predictive skill and offer a set of recommendations to advance observational and model-based tools for climate research. Finally, we highlight opportunities to better constrain climate sensitivity and identify anthropogenically-driven hydrologic changes within the inherently noisy background of natural climate variability.

Asif Ishtiaque 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 022001

Farmers in the US are adopting a range of strategies to deal with climate change impacts, from changing planting dates to using advanced technologies. Studies on farmers' adaptation in US agriculture focus on a variety of topics and provide an understanding of how farmers adapt to climate change impacts, which adaptation strategies offer better outcomes, and what challenges need to be addressed for effective adaptations. Nevertheless, we lack a comprehensive view of adaptation studies focusing on US farmers' adaptations. A review of adaptation studies in US agriculture context will help us to understand current adaptation research trends and realize future research potential. To fulfill this gap, this study systematically reviewed peer-reviewed studies on adaptation to climate change in US agriculture. A systematic search on the Web of Science and Google Scholar platforms generated 95 articles for final review. These studies were categorized under five themes based on their topical relevance: (i) reporting on-farm adaptations, (ii) exploring potential adaptations, (iii) evaluating specific adaptations, (iv) challenges of adaptations, and (v) perceptions toward adaptations. A skewed distribution of studies under these themes has been observed; a majority of the studies focused on evaluating specific adaptations (47%) followed by exploring potential adaptations (22%), while reporting on-farm adaptations (17%), challenges of adaptations (6%), and perception towards adaptations (8%) received less attention. In this article, key findings under each theme are presented and some areas for future research focus are discussed. These findings indicate the need for more attention to documenting on-farm adaptation strategies and the associated challenges while emphasizing other themes.

Thomas Bossy et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 025005

Each run of an integrated assessment models produces a single mitigation pathway consistent with stated objectives (e.g. maximum temperature) and optimizing some objective function (e.g. minimizing total discounted costs of mitigation). Even though models can be run thousands of times, it is unclear how built-in assumptions constrain the final set of pathways. Here we aim at broadly exploring the space of possible mitigation scenarios for a given mitigation target, and at characterizing the sets of pathways that are (near-)optimal, taking uncertainties into account. We produce an extensive set of CO 2 emission pathways that stay below 2 °C of warming using a reduced-form climate-carbon model with a 1000 different physical states. We then identify 18 sets of quasi 'least-cost' mitigation pathways, under six assumptions about cost functions and three different cost minimization functions embarking different visions of intergenerational cost distribution. A first key outcome is that the absence or presence of inertia in the cost function plays a pivotal role in the resulting set of least-cost pathways. Second, despite inherent structural differences, we find common pathways across the 18 combinations in 96% of the physical states studied. Interpreting these common pathways as robust economically and in terms of intergenerational distribution, we shed light on some of their characteristics, even though these robust pathways differ for each physical state.

A J Pitman et al 2022 Environ. Res.: Climate 1 025002

Efforts to assess risks to the financial system associated with climate change are growing. These commonly combine the use of integrated assessment models to obtain possible changes in global mean temperature (GMT) and then use coupled climate models to map those changes onto finer spatial scales to estimate changes in other variables. Other methods use data mined from 'ensembles of opportunity' such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Several challenges with current approaches have been identified. Here, we focus on demonstrating the issues inherent in applying global 'top-down' climate scenarios to explore financial risks at geographical scales of relevance to financial institutions (e.g. city-scale). We use data mined from the CMIP to determine the degree to which estimates of GMT can be used to estimate changes in the annual extremes of temperature and rainfall, two compound events (heatwaves and drought, and extreme rain and strong winds), and whether the emission scenario provides insights into the change in the 20, 50 and 100 year return values for temperature and rainfall. We show that GMT provides little insight on how acute risks likely material to the financial sector ('material extremes') will change at a city-scale. We conclude that 'top-down' approaches are likely to be flawed when applied at a granular scale, and that there are risks in employing the approaches used by, for example, the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System. Most fundamental, uncertainty associated with projections of future climate extremes must be propagated through to estimating risk. We strongly encourage a review of existing top-down approaches before they develop into de facto standards and note that existing approaches that use a 'bottom-up' strategy (e.g. catastrophe modelling and storylines) are more likely to enable a robust assessment of material risk.

Anne Hinzmann et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 011003

Over recent decades, the retreat of Kilimanjaro's glaciers has been portrayed as a beacon of climate change. The decline of glaciers over the 20 th century, however, is evident for all tropical glaciers in East Africa, including those found on Mount Kenya and in the Rwenzori Range. More recent studies have focused on Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya but the Rwenzori Range has not been considered for nearly two decades, which introduces an uncertainty about the remaining glacierization in East Africa. Therefore, the present study provides insights into the most recent glacier extents of all three mountain regions using a manual, multitemporal analysis of high-resolution satellite images for the years 2021/2022. The glacierization in East Africa is estimated to be 1.36 km 2 , with a glacier area of 0.98 km 2 on Kilimanjaro, 0.069 km 2 on Mount Kenya and 0.38 km 2 in the Rwenzori Range. The uncertainty is determined to be within 12.5%. Compared to previous estimations, the overall area has declined by more than a half of its early 21 st century extent. Being mainly controlled by high-altitude hygric seasonality, these glaciers are particularly valuable indicators of tropical climate variability and climate change.

Bhawana Upadhyay and Aditya Bastola 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 025004

Nepal recognizes climate change as a significant threat to its economy, communities, and environment. Climate variability is one of the major causes of food insecurity, poverty, and inequality in the country. Marginalized and vulnerable communities, particularly women, suffer the most severe consequences of climate change. In this paper, we qualitatively analyze primary and secondary data to understand how gender considerations are integrated into agriculture and climate change policies. It aims to identify gaps in integrating gender considerations into policies and practices. Climate change's challenges on agriculture and food security have been identified in most agricultural policies; however, those policies remain quiet on the gender-specific impacts of climate change. Representation mandates are not sufficiently linked with officials' overall performance, resulting in limited representation of women in budget formulation, project and program design, planning, and resource and opportunity allocation. As a way forward, our analysis suggests addressing the gaps at the policy and institutional levels. For instance, to effectively address climate change, policies should be developed with a gender-inclusive approach, along with budgetary allocations that consider the gender-specific impact of climate change. Promoting gender equality in climate-resilient agriculture in Nepal requires measures such as empowering women's networks, establishing linkages with extension services that focus on women-led cooperatives, and investing in affordable and climate-smart tools and machinery that are women-friendly. The study offers important insights for policymakers to create gender-inclusive policies. It highlights the opportunity to coordinate inter-agency responses among stakeholders and sustain ongoing national policy dialogues to identify actions required to meet the nationally determined contributions' commitments.

Kevin E Trenberth and Lijing Cheng 2022 Environ. Res.: Climate 1 013001

Amit Kumar Maurya et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 015010

The Indian Ganga basin (IGB) is one of the most valuable socioeconomic regions in the Indian subcontinent. The IGB supports more than half a billion people due to an abundant supply of freshwater for agro-industrial purposes, primarily through Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) rainfall contributions (∼85%). Any alterations in ISM characteristics would significantly affect freshwater availability, and as a result, socioeconomic activities would be affected. Therefore, in this study, we have attempted to assess how the monsoon rain spell characteristics, i.e. peak, volume, and duration, altered historically between 1901 to 2019. We further analyzed the specific IGB regions where monsoon rain spell changes are more prominent and their hydrological implications. Our estimates reveal that short-duration high-magnitude rain spells have significantly increased across the major regions of the IGB after 1960, which implies the increased probabilities of flash flood hazards. At the same time, the rain spell volumes have been depleted across the IGB after 1960, especially in the eastern Indo-Gangetic plains and southern IGB regions, indicating increased drought frequencies. Further, Himalayan regions, i.e. upper Ganga, upper Yamuna, and upper Ghaghra, have demonstrated increasing magnitudes of rain spell peaks, volume, and duration post-1960. In addition, the continuous warming and anthropogenic alterations might further exaggerate the current situation. Thus, these inferences are helpful for river basin management strategies to deal with the extreme hydrological disasters in the IGB.

Latest articles

Mriga Bansal and Natalia D'Agosti 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 025009

Do female policymakers encourage the production of renewable energy compared to their male counterparts? Using instrumental variables, we conduct a cross-country analysis of 39 high-income countries for the years 1997–2020 using quota laws and women's suffrage as instruments for women's participation in the parliament. We find that a 1 percentage point increase in the proportion of women in the legislature increases renewable energy production by 1.54 percentage points. This study suggests that fostering policies that boost women's participation in policy-making positions is beneficial, especially when considering the positive spillover to other countries.

Zitong Li et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 025007

Compound climate events are major threats to crop production under climate change. However, the heterogeneity in the impact of compound events on crop yield and its drivers remain poorly understood. Herein, we used empirical approach to evaluate the impact of compound hot–dry (HD) and cold–wet (CW) events on maize yield in China at the county level from 1990 to 2016, with a special focus on the spatial heterogeneity. Our findings indicate comparable impact of extremely compound CW events (−12.8 ± 3.6%) on maize yield loss to extremely compound HD events (−11.3 ± 2.1%). The spatial pattern of compound HD and CW events impacts on maize yield was dominantly associated with moisture regime, followed by management practices and soil properties. Specifically, drier counties and counties with less fraction of clay soil and organic carbon tend to experience greater yield loss due to compound HD events, and wet condition, excessive fertilizer, clay soil and rich organic carbon aggravate the maize yield loss due to compound CW events. Moreover, the land–atmosphere coupling exacerbated the heterogeneous yield impact through divergent heat transfer. In drier regions, the greater proportion of sensible heat creates a positive feedback between drier land and hotter atmosphere. In contrast, the greater proportion of latent heat in wetter regions results in a positive feedback between wetter land and colder atmosphere. Our results highlighted a critical element to explore in further studies focused on the land–atmosphere coupling in agricultural risk under climate change.

Bianca Mezzina et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 021002

The 2016 Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE) drop was a rapid decrease that led to persistent low sea ice conditions. The event was triggered by atmospheric anomalies, but the potential preconditioning role of the ocean is unsettled. Here, we use sensitivity experiments with a fully-coupled regional climate model to elucidate the impact of the ocean conditions on the drop and on the persistence of the negative SIE anomalies during 2017. In particular, we re-initialize the model in January 2016 using different ocean and sea ice conditions, keeping lateral boundary forcings in the atmosphere and ocean unchanged. We find that the state of the Southern Ocean in early 2016 does not determine whether the drop occurs or not, but indeed has an impact on its amplitude and regional characteristics. Our results also indicate that the ocean initialization affects the sea ice recovery after the drop in the short term (one year), especially in the Weddell sector. The ocean's influence appears not to be linked to the ocean surface and sea-ice initialization, but rather to the sub-surface conditions (between 50 m and 150 m) and heat exchange fluctuations at the regional scale, while the atmospheric forcing triggering the drop is driven by the large-scale circulation.

Yanan Duan and Sanjiv Kumar 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 025008

The signal-to-noise ratio paradox is interpreted as the climate model's ability to predict observations better than the model itself. This view is counterintuitive, given that climate models are simplified numerical representations of complex earth system dynamics. A revised interpretation is provided here: the signal-to-noise ratio paradox represents excessive noise in climate predictions and projections. Noise is potentially reducible, providing a scientific basis for improving the signal in regional climate projections. The signal-to-noise ratio paradox was assessed in long-term climate projections using single-model and multi-model large ensemble climate data. A null hypothesis was constructed by performing bootstrap resampling of climate model ensembles to test its ability to predict the 20th-century temperature and precipitation trends locally and compare it with the observations. The rejection of the null hypothesis indicates the existence of a paradox. The multi-model large ensemble does not reject the null hypothesis in most places globally. The rejection rate in the single-model large ensemble is related to the model's fidelity to simulate internal climate variability rather than its ensemble size. For regions where the null hypothesis is rejected in the multi-model large ensemble, for example, India, the paradox is caused by a smaller signal strength in the climate model's ensemble. The signal strength was improved by 100% through ensemble selection and based on past performance, which reduced uncertainty in India's 30-year temperature projections by 25%. Consistent with previous studies, precipitation projections are noisier, leading to a paradox metric value 2–3 times higher than that of the temperature projections. The application of ensemble selection methodology significantly decreased uncertainty in precipitation projections for the United Kingdom, Western Australia, and Northeastern America by 47%, 36%, and 20%, respectively. Overall, this study makes a unique contribution by reducing uncertainty at the temporal scale, specifically in estimating trends using the signal-to-noise ratio paradox metric.

Yi-Chang Chen et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 025006

Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) are the most dramatic events in the wintertime stratosphere. Such extreme events are characterized by substantial disruption to the stratospheric polar vortex, which can be categorized into displacement and splitting types depending on the morphology of the disrupted vortex. Moreover, SSWs are usually followed by anomalous tropospheric circulation regimes that are important for subseasonal-to-seasonal prediction. Thus, monitoring the genesis and evolution of SSWs is crucial and deserves further advancement. Despite several analysis methods that have been used to study the evolution of SSWs, the ability of deep learning methods has not yet been explored, mainly due to the relative scarcity of observed events. To overcome the limited observational sample size, we use data from historical simulations of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model version 6 to identify thousands of simulated SSWs, and use their spatial patterns to train the deep learning model. We utilize a convolutional neural network combined with a variational auto-encoder (VAE)—a generative deep learning model—to construct a phase diagram that characterizes the SSW evolution. This approach not only allows us to create a latent space that encapsulates the essential features of the vortex structure during SSWs, but also offers new insights into its spatiotemporal evolution mapping onto the phase diagram. The constructed phase diagram depicts a continuous transition of the vortex pattern during SSWs. Notably, it provides a new perspective for discussing the evolutionary paths of SSWs: the VAE gives a better-reconstructed vortex morphology and more clearly organized vortex regimes for both displacement-type and split-type events than those obtained from principal component analysis. Our results provide an innovative phase diagram to portray the evolution of SSWs, in which particularly the splitting SSWs are better characterized. Our findings support the future use of deep learning techniques to study the underlying dynamics of extreme stratospheric vortex phenomena, and to establish a benchmark to evaluate model performance in simulating SSWs.

Review articles

Toyin Adekanmbi et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Climate 3 012001

Potatoes as a food crop contribute to zero hunger: Sustainable Development Goal 2. Over the years, the global potato supply has increased by more than double consumption. Changing climatic conditions are a significant determinant of crop growth and development due to the impacts of meteorological conditions, such as temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation, on yields, placing nations under the threat of food insecurity. Potatoes are prone to climatic variables such as heat, precipitation, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), droughts, and unexpected frosts. A crop simulation model (CSM) is useful for assessing the effects of climate and various cultivation environments on potato growth and yields. This article aims to review recent literature on known and potential effects of climate change on global potato yields and further highlights tools and methods for assessing those effects. In particular, this review will explore (1) global potato production, growth and varieties; (2) a review of the mechanisms by which changing climates impact potato yields; (3) a review of CSMs as tools for assessing the impacts of climate change on potato yields, and (4) most importantly, this review identifies critical gaps in data availability, modeling tools, and adaptation measures, that lays a foundation for future research toward sustainable potato production under the changing climate.

Fengfei Song et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 042001

Aided by progress in the theoretical understanding, new knowledge on tropical rainfall annual cycle changes under global warming background has been advanced in the past decade. In this review, we focus on recent advances in understanding the changes of tropical rainfall annual cycle, including its four distinct features: amplitude, pattern shift, phase and wet/dry season length changes. In a warming climate, the amplitude of tropical rainfall annual cycle is enhanced, more evidently over ocean, while the phase of tropical rainfall annual cycle is delayed, mainly over land. The former is explained by the wet-get-wetter mechanism and the latter is explained by the enhanced effective atmospheric heat capacity and increased convective barrier. The phase delay over land has already emerged in the past four decades. The pattern shift under warming is marked by two features: equatorward shift of the inter-tropical convergence zone throughout the year and the land-to-ocean precipitation shift in the rainy season. The former is explained by the upped-ante mechanism and/or related to the enhanced equatorial warming in a warmer world. The latter is suggested to be caused by the opposite land and ocean surface temperature annual cycle changes in the tropics. Over tropical rainforest regions such as Amazon and Congo Basin, the dry season has lengthened in the recent decades, but the fundamental reason is still unclear. Despite the notable progress of the last decade, many gaps remain in understanding the mechanism, quantifying and attributing the emergence, narrowing the inter-model uncertainty, and evaluating the impact of tropical rainfall annual cycle changes, motivating future work guided by some directions proposed in this review.

G Persad et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 032001

Anthropogenic aerosol emissions are expected to change rapidly over the coming decades, driving strong, spatially complex trends in temperature, hydroclimate, and extreme events both near and far from emission sources. Under-resourced, highly populated regions often bear the brunt of aerosols' climate and air quality effects, amplifying risk through heightened exposure and vulnerability. However, many policy-facing evaluations of near-term climate risk, including those in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report, underrepresent aerosols' complex and regionally diverse climate effects, reducing them to a globally averaged offset to greenhouse gas warming. We argue that this constitutes a major missing element in society's ability to prepare for future climate change. We outline a pathway towards progress and call for greater interaction between the aerosol research, impact modeling, scenario development, and risk assessment communities.

Pelin Kınay et al 2023 Environ. Res.: Climate 2 022003

While evidence of Indigenous Peoples' climate knowledge and adaptation practices is readily available in Canada, regional variations are poorly understood, and proper representation and recognition in academic and planning contexts is scarce. Much less still is known about the health and environmental impacts of climate change on these communities. This review sought to report and assess the evidence of such impacts on Indigenous Peoples in Atlantic Canada over the past two decades. Current published studies focused on Indigenous Peoples' knowledge and perceptions and highlight government policy for adaptation measurements. We systematically searched publications between January 2002 and March 2022 from the Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct databases, screening for (1) environmental and (2) health impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples. Fifty-six articles were selected and thoroughly reviewed using the GRADE approach to assess the quality of the evidence. The quality of evidence ranged from low to moderate, and the evidentiary foundation for links between climate change and health effects was weak. We thus find an opportunity for future research to focus on climate-related effects on the health and lands of Indigenous Peoples within Atlantic Canada, especially concerning impacts on mental health.

Accepted manuscripts

Ermis et al 

The widespread destruction and insurance losses incurred by midlatitude storms every year makes it an imperative to study how storms change with climate change. The impact of climate change on midlatitude windstorms, however, is hard to evaluate due to the small climate change signal in variables such as windspeed compared to the noise of weather, as well as the high resolutions required to represent the dynamic processes in the storms. The midlatitude cyclone Eunice hit the South of the UK on February 18, 2022. Here, we assess how Eunice was impacted by anthropogenic climate change using the ECMWF ensemble prediction system. This system was demonstrably able to predict the storm, thus significantly increasing our confidence in its ability to model the key physical underlying processes and how they repsond to climate change. Using modified boundary conditions for the greenhouse gas concentrations and changed initial conditions for the 3D ocean temperatures, we create two counterfactual scenarios of storm Eunice in addition to the forecast for the current climate. We compare the intensity and severity of the storm between the pre-industrial, current, and future climates. Our results robustly indicate that Eunice has become more intense with climate change and similar storms will continue to intensify with further anthropogenic forcing. These results are consistent across forecast lead times of eight, four and two days, increasing our confidence in them. Analysis of storm composites shows that this process is caused by increased vorticity production through increased humidity in the warm conveyor belt of the storm. This is consistent with previous studies on extreme windstorms. Our approach of combining forecasts at different lead times for event attribution of a single event enables combining event specificity and a focus on dynamic changes with the assessment of changes in risks from strong winds. Further work is needed to develop methods to adjust the initial conditions of the atmosphere for the use in attribution studies using weather forecasts but we show that this approach is viable for reliable and fast attribution systems.

Hay et al 

We examine sources of uncertainty in projections of Arctic Amplification (AA) using the CMIP6 multi-model ensemble and single model initial-condition large ensembles of historical and future scenario simulations. In the CMIP6 multi-model mean, the annual mean AA ratio is steady at approximately 2.5, both in time and across scenarios, resulting in negligibly small scenario uncertainty in the magnitude of AA. Deviations from the steady value can be found at the low and high emission scenarios due to different root causes, with the latter being mostly evident in the summer and autumn seasons. Best estimates of model uncertainty are at least an order of magnitude larger than scenario uncertainty in CMIP6. The large ensembles reveal that irreducible internal variability has a similar magnitude to model uncertainty for most of the 21st century, except in the lowest emission scenario at the end of the 21st century when it could be twice as large.

Nzotungicimpaye et al 

Anthropogenic CO 2 emissions are causing climate change, and impacts of climate change are already affecting every region on Earth. The purpose of this review is to investigate climate impacts that can be linked quantitatively to cumulative CO 2 emissions (CE), with a focus on impacts scaling linearly with CE. The reviewed studies indicate a proportionality between CE and various observable climate impacts such as regional warming, extreme daily temperatures, heavy precipitation events, seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation, global mean precipitation increase over ocean, sea ice decline in September across the Arctic Ocean, surface ocean acidification, global mean sea level rise, different marine heatwave characteristics, changes in habitat viability for non-human primates, as well as labour productivity loss due to extreme heat exposure. From the reviewed literature, we report estimates of these climate impacts resulting from one trillion tonne of CE (1 Tt C). These estimates are highly relevant for climate policy as they provide a way for assessing climate impacts associated with every amount of CO 2 emitted by human activities. With the goal of expanding the number of climate impacts that could be linked quantitatively to CE, we propose a framework for estimating additional climate impacts resulting from CE. This framework builds on the transient climate response to cumulative emissions (TCRE), and it is applicable to climate impacts that scale linearly with global warming. We illustrate how the framework can be applied to quantify physical, biological, and societal climate impacts resulting from CE. With this review, we highlight that each tonne of CO 2 emissions matters in terms of resulting impacts on natural and human systems.

Reboita et al 

This study evaluated the performance of 50 global climate models (GCMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) in simulating the statistical features of precipitation and air temperature in five subdomains of South America during the historical period (1995-2014). Monthly precipitation and temperature simulations were validated with data from the Climate Prediction Center Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP), the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP), and the ERA5 reanalysis. The models' performance was evaluated using a ranking analysis with statistical metrics such as mean, standard deviation, Pearson's spatial correlation, annual cycle amplitude, and linear trend. The analyses considered the representation of precipitation and air temperature separately for each subdomain, the representation for all five regions together, and the joint representation of precipitation and air temperature for all five subdomains. In the Brazilian Amazon, the best-performing models were EC-Earth3-Veg, INM-CM4-8, and INMCM5-0 (precipitation), and IPSL-CM6A-LR, MPI-ESM2-0, and IITM-ESM (temperature). In the La Plata Basin, KACE-1-0-G, ACCESS-CM2, and IPSL-CM6A-LR (precipitation), and GFDL-ESM4, TaiESM1, and EC-Earth3-Veg (temperature) yielded the best simulations. In Northeast Brazil, SAM0-UNICON, CESM2, and MCM-UA-1-0 (precipitation), BCC-CSM2-MR, KACE-1-0-G, and CESM2 (temperature) showed the best results. In Argentine Patagonia, the GCMs ACCESS-CM2, ACCESS-ESM1-5 and EC-Earth3-Veg-LR (precipitation), and CAMS-CSM1-0, CMCC-CM2-HR4, and GFDL-ESM4 (temperature) outperformed. Finally, for Southeast Brazil, the models ACCESS-CM2, ACCESS-ESM1-5, and EC-Earth3-Veg-LR (precipitation), and CAMS-CSM1-0, CMCC-CM2-HR4, and GFDL-ESM4 (temperature) yielded the best simulations. The joint evaluation of the regions and variables indicated that the best models are CESM2, TaiESM1, CMCC-CM2-HR4, FIO-ESM-2-0, and MRI-ESM2-0.

Morgan et al 

Women's leadership is increasingly considered critical for achieving climate-resilient agrifood systems. Numerous initiatives and policies highlighting the business case for women's leadership to deliver a range of positive social, economic and environmental outcomes. In this Perspective, we examine the business case, finding uneven evidence linking women's leadership to increased resilience to climate change. We problematize the ways women's leadership is typically understood in this area and argue that, despite the value and utility of understanding the pathways through which women's leadership can strengthen climate-resilient agrifood systems, support for increasing women's leadership should not be contingent on proving the business case or its instrumental value. Rather, increasing the leadership of women in all their diversity in climate action is a moral imperative and non-negotiable due to women's human right to have meaningful influence in the decisions that affect their lives. Finally, we propose ways to reframe the debate on women's leadership in climate and agrifood systems and suggest priorities for future research in this area.

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• 2022-present Environmental Research: Climate doi: 10.1088/issn.2752-5295 Online ISSN: 2752-5295

Research Topics & Ideas: Environment

100+ Environmental Science Research Topics & Ideas

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation, thesis or research project. Here, we’ll explore a variety research ideas and topic thought-starters related to various environmental science disciplines, including ecology, oceanography, hydrology, geology, soil science, environmental chemistry, environmental economics, and environmental ethics.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas within the environmental sciences. This is the starting point though. To develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. Also be sure to also sign up for our free webinar that explores how to develop a high-quality research topic from scratch.

Overview: Environmental Topics

• Ecology /ecological science
• Atmospheric science
• Oceanography
• Soil science
• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental economics
• Environmental ethics
• Examples  of dissertations and theses

Topics & Ideas: Ecological Science

• The impact of land-use change on species diversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes
• The role of disturbances such as fire and drought in shaping arid ecosystems
• The impact of climate change on the distribution of migratory marine species
• Investigating the role of mutualistic plant-insect relationships in maintaining ecosystem stability
• The effects of invasive plant species on ecosystem structure and function
• The impact of habitat fragmentation caused by road construction on species diversity and population dynamics in the tropics
• The role of ecosystem services in urban areas and their economic value to a developing nation
• The effectiveness of different grassland restoration techniques in degraded ecosystems
• The impact of land-use change through agriculture and urbanisation on soil microbial communities in a temperate environment
• The role of microbial diversity in ecosystem health and nutrient cycling in an African savannah

Topics & Ideas: Atmospheric Science

• The impact of climate change on atmospheric circulation patterns above tropical rainforests
• The role of atmospheric aerosols in cloud formation and precipitation above cities with high pollution levels
• The impact of agricultural land-use change on global atmospheric composition
• Investigating the role of atmospheric convection in severe weather events in the tropics
• The impact of urbanisation on regional and global atmospheric ozone levels
• The impact of sea surface temperature on atmospheric circulation and tropical cyclones
• The impact of solar flares on the Earth’s atmospheric composition
• The impact of climate change on atmospheric turbulence and air transportation safety
• The impact of stratospheric ozone depletion on atmospheric circulation and climate change
• The role of atmospheric rivers in global water supply and sea-ice formation

Topics & Ideas: Oceanography

• The impact of ocean acidification on kelp forests and biogeochemical cycles
• The role of ocean currents in distributing heat and regulating desert rain
• The impact of carbon monoxide pollution on ocean chemistry and biogeochemical cycles
• Investigating the role of ocean mixing in regulating coastal climates
• The impact of sea level rise on the resource availability of low-income coastal communities
• The impact of ocean warming on the distribution and migration patterns of marine mammals
• The impact of ocean deoxygenation on biogeochemical cycles in the arctic
• The role of ocean-atmosphere interactions in regulating rainfall in arid regions
• The impact of ocean eddies on global ocean circulation and plankton distribution
• The role of ocean-ice interactions in regulating the Earth’s climate and sea level

Tops & Ideas: Hydrology

• The impact of agricultural land-use change on water resources and hydrologic cycles in temperate regions
• The impact of agricultural groundwater availability on irrigation practices in the global south
• The impact of rising sea-surface temperatures on global precipitation patterns and water availability
• Investigating the role of wetlands in regulating water resources for riparian forests
• The impact of tropical ranches on river and stream ecosystems and water quality
• The impact of urbanisation on regional and local hydrologic cycles and water resources for agriculture
• The role of snow cover and mountain hydrology in regulating regional agricultural water resources
• The impact of drought on food security in arid and semi-arid regions
• The role of groundwater recharge in sustaining water resources in arid and semi-arid environments
• The impact of sea level rise on coastal hydrology and the quality of water resources

Topics & Ideas: Geology

• The impact of tectonic activity on the East African rift valley
• The role of mineral deposits in shaping ancient human societies
• The impact of sea-level rise on coastal geomorphology and shoreline evolution
• Investigating the role of erosion in shaping the landscape and impacting desertification
• The impact of mining on soil stability and landslide potential
• The impact of volcanic activity on incoming solar radiation and climate
• The role of geothermal energy in decarbonising the energy mix of megacities
• The impact of Earth’s magnetic field on geological processes and solar wind
• The impact of plate tectonics on the evolution of mammals
• The role of the distribution of mineral resources in shaping human societies and economies, with emphasis on sustainability

Topics & Ideas: Soil Science

• The impact of dam building on soil quality and fertility
• The role of soil organic matter in regulating nutrient cycles in agricultural land
• The impact of climate change on soil erosion and soil organic carbon storage in peatlands
• Investigating the role of above-below-ground interactions in nutrient cycling and soil health
• The impact of deforestation on soil degradation and soil fertility
• The role of soil texture and structure in regulating water and nutrient availability in boreal forests
• The impact of sustainable land management practices on soil health and soil organic matter
• The impact of wetland modification on soil structure and function
• The role of soil-atmosphere exchange and carbon sequestration in regulating regional and global climate
• The impact of salinization on soil health and crop productivity in coastal communities

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Chemistry

• The impact of cobalt mining on water quality and the fate of contaminants in the environment
• The role of atmospheric chemistry in shaping air quality and climate change
• The impact of soil chemistry on nutrient availability and plant growth in wheat monoculture
• Investigating the fate and transport of heavy metal contaminants in the environment
• The impact of climate change on biochemical cycling in tropical rainforests
• The impact of various types of land-use change on biochemical cycling
• The role of soil microbes in mediating contaminant degradation in the environment
• The impact of chemical and oil spills on freshwater and soil chemistry
• The role of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in shaping water and soil chemistry
• The impact of over-irrigation on the cycling and fate of persistent organic pollutants in the environment

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Economics

• The impact of climate change on the economies of developing nations
• The role of market-based mechanisms in promoting sustainable use of forest resources
• The impact of environmental regulations on economic growth and competitiveness
• Investigating the economic benefits and costs of ecosystem services for African countries
• The impact of renewable energy policies on regional and global energy markets
• The role of water markets in promoting sustainable water use in southern Africa
• The impact of land-use change in rural areas on regional and global economies
• The impact of environmental disasters on local and national economies
• The role of green technologies and innovation in shaping the zero-carbon transition and the knock-on effects for local economies
• The impact of environmental and natural resource policies on income distribution and poverty of rural communities

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Ethics

• The ethical foundations of environmentalism and the environmental movement regarding renewable energy
• The role of values and ethics in shaping environmental policy and decision-making in the mining industry
• The impact of cultural and religious beliefs on environmental attitudes and behaviours in first world countries
• Investigating the ethics of biodiversity conservation and the protection of endangered species in palm oil plantations
• The ethical implications of sea-level rise for future generations and vulnerable coastal populations
• The role of ethical considerations in shaping sustainable use of natural forest resources
• The impact of environmental justice on marginalized communities and environmental policies in Asia
• The ethical implications of environmental risks and decision-making under uncertainty
• The role of ethics in shaping the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future for the construction industry
• The impact of environmental values on consumer behaviour and the marketplace: a case study of the ‘bring your own shopping bag’ policy

Examples: Real Dissertation & Thesis Topics

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various environmental science-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• The physiology of microorganisms in enhanced biological phosphorous removal (Saunders, 2014)
• The influence of the coastal front on heavy rainfall events along the east coast (Henson, 2019)
• Forage production and diversification for climate-smart tropical and temperate silvopastures (Dibala, 2019)
• Advancing spectral induced polarization for near surface geophysical characterization (Wang, 2021)
• Assessment of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter and Thamnocephalus platyurus as Tools to Monitor Cyanobacterial Bloom Development and Toxicity (Hipsher, 2019)
• Evaluating the Removal of Microcystin Variants with Powdered Activated Carbon (Juang, 2020)
• The effect of hydrological restoration on nutrient concentrations, macroinvertebrate communities, and amphibian populations in Lake Erie coastal wetlands (Berg, 2019)
• Utilizing hydrologic soil grouping to estimate corn nitrogen rate recommendations (Bean, 2019)
• Fungal Function in House Dust and Dust from the International Space Station (Bope, 2021)
• Assessing Vulnerability and the Potential for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in Sudan’s Blue Nile Basin (Mohamed, 2022)
• A Microbial Water Quality Analysis of the Recreational Zones in the Los Angeles River of Elysian Valley, CA (Nguyen, 2019)
• Dry Season Water Quality Study on Three Recreational Sites in the San Gabriel Mountains (Vallejo, 2019)
• Wastewater Treatment Plan for Unix Packaging Adjustment of the Potential Hydrogen (PH) Evaluation of Enzymatic Activity After the Addition of Cycle Disgestase Enzyme (Miessi, 2020)
• Laying the Genetic Foundation for the Conservation of Longhorn Fairy Shrimp (Kyle, 2021).

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are quite specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. To create a top-notch research topic, you will need to be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you’ll need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

Need more help?

If you’re still feeling a bit unsure about how to find a research topic for your environmental science dissertation or research project, be sure to check out our private coaching services below, as well as our Research Topic Kickstarter .

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Environmental sciences articles within Nature

Career Feature | 26 April 2024

Want to make a difference? Try working at an environmental non-profit organization

Moving to non-profit work requires researchers to shift their mindset to focus on applied science for policymaking and conservation practice.

• Natasha Gilbert

News | 25 April 2024

Hello puffins, goodbye belugas: changing Arctic fjord hints at our climate future

Stunning images show an ecosystem’s upheaval as it warms at an alarming pace.

• Freda Kreier

World View | 24 April 2024

Ecologists: don’t lose touch with the joy of fieldwork

Amid the data deluge provided by lab-based techniques, such as environmental-DNA analysis, true connection still comes only in the outdoors.

• Chris Mantegna

News Explainer | 24 April 2024

Plastic pollution: three numbers that support a crackdown

As negotiators haggle over a global treaty to curb plastics pollution, a flood of data outlines how a treaty could make a difference.

• Nicola Jones

News Feature | 24 April 2024

The Maldives is racing to create new land. Why are so many people concerned?

The island nation is expanding its territory by dredging up sediment from the ocean floor. But scientists, former government officials and activists say such reclamation can harm marine ecosystems and make the country more vulnerable to rising seas.

• Jesse Chase-Lubitz

Article 24 April 2024 | Open Access

Dearomatization drives complexity generation in freshwater organic matter

Using complementary multiplicity-edited 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, oxidative dearomatization is shown to be a key driver for generating structural diversity during processing of dissolved organic matter and the data also suggest high abundance of OC q C 3 units.

• , Mourad Harir
•  &  Norbert Hertkorn

Correspondence | 23 April 2024

The Middle East’s largest hypersaline lake risks turning into an environmental disaster zone

• Alireza Mohammadi
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•  &  Moslem Sharifinia

Editorial | 17 April 2024

UN plastics treaty: don’t let lobbyists drown out researchers

Tackling plastic pollution needs scientists to be in the negotiating room at upcoming talks.

Article 17 April 2024 | Open Access

Environmental drivers of increased ecosystem respiration in a warming tundra

Datasets from in situ warming experiments across 28 arctic and alpine tundra sites covering  a span of less than 1 year up to 25 years show the importance of local soil conditions and warming-induced changes therein for future climatic impacts on ecosystem respiration.  

• , J. Dietrich
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Correspondence | 16 April 2024

It’s time to talk about the hidden human cost of the green transition

• Manuel Prieto
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The world needs a COP for water like the one for climate change

• Simon Porcher

Book Review | 15 April 2024

Are women in research being led up the garden path?

A moving memoir of botany and motherhood explores the historical pressures on female scientists.

• Josie Glausiusz

Article 10 April 2024 | Open Access

Ghost roads and the destruction of Asia-Pacific tropical forests

An effort to map roads in the Asia-Pacific region finds that there are 3.0–6.6 times more roads than other sources suggest, and that unmapped ‘ghost roads’ are a major contributor to tropical forest loss.

• Jayden E. Engert
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FSC-certified forest management benefits large mammals compared to non-FSC

Camera-trap images of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa reveal greater animal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-certified forests, especially for large mammals and species of high conservation priority.

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• , E. H. M. Sterck
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Research Briefing | 03 April 2024

Artificial intelligence can provide accurate forecasts of extreme floods at global scale

Anthropogenic climate change is accelerating the hydrological cycle, causing an increase in the risk of flood-related disasters. A system that uses artificial intelligence allows the creation of reliable, global river flood forecasts, even in places where accurate local data are not available.

Correspondence | 02 April 2024

Don’t dismiss carbon credits that aim to avoid future emissions

• Edward Mitchard
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Where I Work | 01 April 2024

How I use tide gauges to develop geospatial maps

Geographer Muh Aris Marfai collects reference data for Indonesia’s coastal areas to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

• Nikki Forrester

Correspondence | 26 March 2024

The ‘Anthropocene’ is here to stay — and it’s better not as a geological epoch

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Editorial | 26 March 2024

Deep-sea mining plans should not be rushed

Why are companies and governments determined to start commercial-scale mining for rare metals, when so little is known about its wider impacts?

World View | 26 March 2024

‘Exhausted and insulted’: how harsh visa-application policies are hobbling global research

Institutions and individuals from low- and middle-income countries are wasting time, effort and money trying to get visas for research travel, only to be rejected. A new approach is needed.

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Obituary | 26 March 2024

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The trailblazing palaeobotanist investigated how climate change affected Earth in the past — and firmly believed science should be used in its defence now.

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Comment | 22 March 2024

How to achieve safe water access for all: work with local communities

Four scientists reflect on how to foster a more sustainable relationship between water and society amid complex and wide-ranging challenges.

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Article 20 March 2024 | Open Access

Global prediction of extreme floods in ungauged watersheds

Artificial intelligence-based forecasting improves the reliability of predicting extreme flood events in ungauged watersheds, with predictions at five days lead time that are as good as current systems are for same-day predictions.

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Correspondence | 19 March 2024

‘Global swimways’ on free-flowing rivers will protect key migratory fish species

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More than 4,000 plastic chemicals are hazardous, report finds

Year-long effort compiles comprehensive database of chemicals in plastics.

News & Views | 13 March 2024

Drought-fuelled overnight burning propels large fires in North America

Burning events that occur at night have been revealed as a driver of large wildfires. Prolonged drought conditions are to blame, making it easier for fires to spread at night when they would ordinarily slow or extinguish completely.

• Jennifer K. Balch
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US oil and gas system emissions from nearly one million aerial site measurements

We integrate approximately one million aerial site measurements into regional emissions inventories for six regions in the USA, finding methane emission intensities that vary by more than a factor of ten.

• Evan D. Sherwin
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Correspondence | 12 March 2024

Water shortages means greening southern European cities won’t be easy

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Pay for trees with carbon credits to deliver urban green spaces for all

News | 11 March 2024

Indigenous Australian fire-stick farming began at least 11,000 years ago

Analysis of a sediment core dating back 150,000 years showed that fire patterns in Australia changed with the rise of Indigenous people’s use of fire.

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Comment | 06 March 2024

The world must rethink plans for ageing oil and gas platforms

Earth’s oceans are awash with ageing energy infrastructure. A change in the law is needed to ensure that these structures are decommissioned in ways that maximize environmental and societal benefits.

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Landmark study links microplastics to serious health problems

People who had tiny plastic particles lodged in a key blood vessel were more likely to experience heart attack, stroke or death during a three-year study.

Article 06 March 2024 | Open Access

Disappearing cities on US coasts

High-resolution vertical land motion and elevation datasets combined with projections of sea-level rise of 32 major US coastal cities shows that a considerable amount of land area, population, and properties are threatened by relative sea-level rise by 2050.

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Article | 06 March 2024

East-to-west human dispersal into Europe 1.4 million years ago

Burial-dating methods using cosmogenic nuclides indicate that the oldest stone tools at Korolevo archaeological site in western Ukraine date to around 1.4 million years ago, providing evidence of early human dispersal into Europe from the east.

•  &  J. D. Jansen

Technology Feature | 05 March 2024

Five tips for digitizing handwritten data

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• Alla Katsnelson

World View | 05 March 2024

Megafires are here to stay — and blaming only climate change won’t help

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• Renata Libonati

Correspondence | 27 February 2024

Russia’s Arctic Council threat requires lessons from cold war science diplomacy

• Paul Arthur Berkman

Europe needs a joined-up approach for monitoring and protecting its forests

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Research Briefing | 23 February 2024

Machine learning reveals huge potential benefits of sustainable fertilizer use

Agricultural fertilizers are the main global source of ammonia emissions, which harm human health and reduce farmers’ profits. An analysis using big data and machine learning reveals that locally optimized fertilizer-management and tillage practices could slash ammonia emissions from rice, wheat and maize cultivation by up to 38%.

News | 21 February 2024

Why citizen scientists are gathering DNA from hundreds of lakes — on the same day

Massive environmental DNA project will take a record-setting snapshot of biodiversity worldwide.

• Lydia Larsen

News | 14 February 2024

Why is Latin America on fire? It’s not just climate change, scientists say

Rampant planting of flammable non-native species has helped to fuel deadly blazes — even in places known for cool, damp weather.

• Andrew J. Wight

Correspondence | 06 February 2024

Urban trees: how to maximize their benefits for humans and the environment

• , Guofan Shao
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Where I Work | 05 February 2024

I started fossil hunting in my 60s — now I have more than 2,000 pieces

Heather Middleton trawls England’s Jurassic Coast for specimens that might lead to a deeper understanding of palaeontology.

• Rachael Pells

Correspondence | 30 January 2024

Soil health by 2050: respecting ‘soilscapes’ is the key

• Alexandre M. J.-C. Wadoux

Brazil must reverse gear on Amazon road development

• Lucas Ferrante
•  &  C. Guilherme Becker

News & Views | 24 January 2024

Groundwater decline is global but not universal

Measurements of groundwater levels in 170,000 wells reveal the global extent of groundwater decline. But the data also show that such depletion is not inevitable in a changing climate, providing hope for a resilient water future.

• Donald John MacAllister

Article 24 January 2024 | Open Access

Rapid groundwater decline and some cases of recovery in aquifers globally

Analysis of about 170,000 monitoring wells and 1,693 aquifer systems worldwide shows that extensive and often accelerating groundwater declines are widespread in the twenty-first century, but that groundwater levels are recovering in some cases.

• Scott Jasechko
• , Hansjörg Seybold
•  &  James W. Kirchner

Comment | 22 January 2024

To curb plastic pollution, industry and academia must unite

Collaboration is key to making plastic use greener as soon as possible. Our experience yields tips on how to set up industry–academic partnerships.

• Collin P. Ward
• , Christopher M. Reddy
•  &  Steven T. Perri

Research Briefing | 17 January 2024

Predator die-off reshapes ecosystems in expected and unexpected ways

Mass-mortality events of predators are becoming more common, but their precise effects on food webs remain unclear. Experimentally induced predator die-offs led both to reduced predation and to fertilization from the bottom up. Together, these effects stabilized food webs.

Greenland’s glaciers are retreating everywhere and all at once

A comprehensive analysis of satellite data finds that the Greenland ice sheet has lost more ice in the past four decades than previously thought. Moreover, the glaciers that are the most sensitive to seasonal temperature swings will probably retreat the most in response to future global warming.

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Blazing a trail for science

Article by Tracey Bryant Photo illustration by Jeffrey C. Chase | Photos by Evan Krape April 26, 2024

Two University of Delaware faculty members elected AAAS Fellows

Two University of Delaware professors have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) — one of the largest scientific societies in the world and publisher of the Science family of journals. 

The 2023 class of AAAS Fellows includes 502 scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 disciplines, who are being honored for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. 

Rodrigo Vargas, professor of ecosystem ecology and environmental change in UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is recognized "for distinguished contributions to carbon dynamics across the terrestrial-aquatic interface, development of environmental networks, novel data analysis tools and his leadership in creating a more diverse scientific workforce." 

Deborah Allen, who retired from UD in 2019 as a professor of biological sciences, is cited “for transformational contributions to STEM education nationally and internationally, particularly for developments in problem-based learning and faculty development.”

“Being elected an AAAS Fellow is a stellar achievement, underscoring the recipient’s considerable impact on the scientific community,” said Kelvin Lee, UD’s interim vice president for research, scholarship and innovation. “We extend our heartiest congratulations to Rodrigo Vargas and Deborah Allen for receiving this distinguished lifetime honor.” 

Deborah Allen, science education pioneer

“I'm, of course, very honored to be elected an AAAS fellow, but also very pleased that UD PBL is still receiving awards and recognition,” Allen said.

UD has been a pioneer in problem-based learning (PBL) since the early 1990s. This teaching approach challenges students to solve complex, real-world problems: Should we seed the ocean with iron as a “cure” for a warming planet, or how does a community validate a concern that it has a cancer cluster — does it really exist? These are among numerous problems included in the PBL Clearinghouse at UD .

In PBL, students work together in small groups and are motivated to learn in order to solve the problem — classroom spaces in UD’s Harker Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory are purposely equipped with chairs on wheels and shared tables to facilitate brainstorming and discussions. Research has shown that this collaborative approach produces numerous benefits, from fostering long-term retention of knowledge to developing critical thinking and communications skills.

Allen has been at the forefront of PBL implementation at UD, working with colleagues to promote its adoption and development across campus and far beyond, including to teachers in Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Egypt, France, Guyana, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. 

While the earliest PBL course she taught at the University was physiology for Medical Scholars, a required course for students preparing for medical or dental school, she said the most special PBL course she instructed was Introduction to Biology. 

“It was unique in that it was part of a National Science Foundation project to introduce PBL to the introductory sciences, something that was not being done in the United States at the time, in the early 1990s,” Allen said. 

During her UD career, Allen served as director of the Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning and of the Institute for Transforming University Education and its chapter of the national Center for Integration of Teaching, Research, and Learning . Previously, she was a science education program officer at the National Science Foundation.

Allen earned her doctorate in biological sciences from the University of Delaware and is co-author/editor of several books that describe PBL and other active, inquiry-based and team-based instructional strategies. She is a founding member of the editorial board of the journal CBE-Life Sciences Education and a recipient of UD's Excellence in Teaching Award and of the American Society for Cell Biology’s 2013 Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education. She also has served as a Fulbright senior specialist in Peru to assist in development of a PBL program for middle school environmental science. 

Recently, Allen received another major honor — she was elected to the AAAS Council, the association’s governing body, representing the Education section.

Rodrigo Vargas, environmental research leader

Vargas studies “carbon dynamics,” which he defines as the way carbon, a fundamental building block of life, moves across Earth’s ecosystems. 

“I study how the planet ‘breathes’ as ecosystems absorb and release carbon, impacting everything from ecosystem function to the global climate,” Vargas said. “My research has allowed me to explore deserts, wetlands and forests around the world, each offering unique insights into how nature maintains its delicate balance.”

An ecosystem ecologist who studies how nature-based solutions can help address global environmental change in both terrestrial and coastal ecosystems, Vargas uses a variety of research methods, including data mining, machine learning, remote sensing, measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes and modeling techniques for forecasting applications. 

Vargas said he is driven to pursue research in this area because he has already witnessed the impacts of human activities on natural ecosystems. 

“I envision a sustainable future for the planet,” he said. “Thus, I work to understand how ecosystems respond to management and climate change.” 

And many students are joining him in this work, especially from Latin America. He has received multiple recognitions for supporting minority students in STEM.

“I am the first Hispanic to be hired and become a full professor in the history of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources,” Vargas said. “By sharing my own story with students, I strive to inspire and empower the next generation. My approach is grounded in empathy, sympathy and compassion to help students reach their goals.” 

A Highly Cited Researcher , Vargas has been an author on over 180 peer-reviewed publications and has contributed to impactful assessments such as the Mexican Report on Climate Change, the United Nations Status of the World’s Soil Resources, the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2) and the 2023 USDA National Climate Change Roadmap.

He has received the Piers Sellers Mid-Career Award from the American Geophysical Union and the Mid-Career Faculty Excellence in Scholarship Award from UD.  

Vargas received his Ph.D. in environmental sciences from the University of California-Riverside. He is a fellow of the Earth Leadership Program, a former member of the U.S. National Committee for Soil Science of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and a member of the Earth and Environmental Science Subcommittee of the Franklin Institute.

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How geography acts as a structural determinant of health

In unincorporated communities in the United States-Mexico borderlands, historically and socially marginalized populations become invisible to the healthcare system, showing that geography acts as a structural determinant of health for low-income populations. So concludes a study by a University of California, Riverside, team that focused its attention on the borderland in Southern California, specifically, eastern Coachella Valley.

From September to December 2020, the team, led by Ann Cheney, an associate professor of social medicine, population, and public health in the School of Medicine, conducted interviews in collaboration with María Pozar, a community investigator and CEO of Conchita Servicios de la Comunidad, with 36 Latinx and Indigenous Mexican caregivers of children with asthma or respiratory distress. The researchers found communities in the "colonias" (unincorporated areas in the borderlands) lack basic critical infrastructure including healthcare access.

The U.S.-Mexico borderland is home to nearly 2.7 million Hispanic or Latinx individuals. The immigrant population in the colonias has limited English proficiency, health literacy levels, and income, and lower levels of formal education. Many are undocumented.

"Our work shows the importance of geography in health and how geography acts as a structural determinant of health," Cheney said. "For example, foreign-born caregivers who speak Spanish or Purépecha prefer to take their children across the U.S.-Mexico border for respiratory health care because physicians there provide them with a diagnosis and treatment plan that they perceive improves their children's health."

The study, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine , found the caregivers perceive U.S.-based physicians as not providing them with sufficient information since most physicians do not speak their language and do not adequately listen to or are dismissive of their concerns about their children's respiratory health. The caregivers perceive Mexican-based physicians as providing them with a diagnosis and treatment plan, whereas U.S.-based physicians often prescribe medications and provide no concrete diagnosis.

"Further, only those with legal documentation status can cross the border, which contributes to disparities in children's respiratory health," Cheney said. "Thus, caregivers without legal status in the U.S. must access healthcare services in the U.S. for their children and receive, what these caregivers perceive, as suboptimal care."

Cheney added she was surprised to learn that caregivers who did not have legal documentation status in the U.S. asked trusted family and friends to take their children across the border to receive healthcare services for childhood asthma and related conditions.

"Geography, meaning living in unincorporated communities, harms health," she said. "Geography and the politics of place determines who can and cannot cross borders."

Study participants discussed the distance they needed to travel to pediatric specialty care for the care and management of their children's respiratory health problems. Some commented on the lack of interaction and communication with physicians during medical visits. Some participants commented on the lack of physicians' knowledge about the connections between their children's exposure to environmental hazards and poor respiratory health and allergic symptoms.

The research took place in four unincorporated rural communities -- Mecca, Oasis, Thermal, and North Shore -- in eastern Coachella Valley, along the northern section of the Salton Sea. People living in the colonias here are subject to the health effects of environmental hazards. Many are farmworkers living and working in the nearby agricultural fields. Most of the workforce lives in mobile parks and below the federal poverty line.

"In addition to toxic water and dust from the Salton Sea, other environmental health hazards, such as agriculture pesticide exposure, waste processing facilities, and unauthorized waste dumps, also contribute to this community's high incidence of poor respiratory health," said Gabriela Ortiz, the first author of the research paper and a graduate student in anthropology who works with Cheney. "These communities are vulnerable to the policies and governing decisions around exposure to environmental hazards and infrastructure development. The absence of infrastructure and lack of healthcare infrastructure limits their access to primary care and specialty care services."

Ortiz explained that anthropologists and social scientists have long argued that environmental injustices are a product of structural violence.

"This is indirect violence caused by social structures and institutions that prevent individuals from meeting their basic needs because of political economic domination and class-based exploitation," she said. "Understanding the complex interplay between geography, borderlands, and health is essential for coming up with effective public health policy and interventions."

The title of the research paper is "Seeking care across the US-Mexico border: The experiences of Latinx and Indigenous Mexican caregivers of children with asthma or respiratory distress."

Cheney, Ortiz, and Pozar were joined in the study by Ashley Moran and Sophia Rodriquez of UCR.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.

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Materials provided by University of California - Riverside . Original written by Iqbal Pittalwala. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Gabriela Ortiz, Sophia Rodriguez, María Pozar, Ashley Moran, Ann Cheney. Seeking care across the US-Mexico border: The experiences of Latinx and Indigenous Mexican caregivers of children with asthma or respiratory distress . Social Science & Medicine , 2024; 347: 116736 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116736

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Nixon Advisers’ Climate Research Plan: Another Lost Chance on the Road to Crisis

A 1971 plan for a global carbon dioxide monitoring network never came to fruition. the proposal is detailed in a document newly unearthed by the national security archive..

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A Pennsylvania County Is Suing the Fossil Fuel Industry for Damages Linked to Climate Change

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Exxon’s Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels’ Role in Global Warming Decades Ago

In 1971, President Richard Nixon’s science advisers proposed a multimillion dollar climate change research project with benefits they said were too “immense” to be quantified, since they involved “ensuring man’s survival,” according to a White House document newly obtained by the nonprofit National Security Archive and shared exclusively with Inside Climate News.

The plan would have established six global and 10 regional monitoring stations in remote locations to collect data on carbon dioxide, solar radiation, aerosols and other factors that exert influence on the atmosphere. It would have engaged five government agencies in a six-year initiative, with spending of $23 million in the project’s peak year of 1974—the equivalent of $172 million in today’s dollars. It would have used then-cutting-edge technology, some of which is only now being widely implemented in carbon monitoring more than 50 years later. 

But it stands as yet another lost opportunity early on the road to the climate crisis. Researchers at the National Security Archive, based at the George Washington University, could find no documentation of what happened to the proposal, and it was never implemented.

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“Who knows what would have happened if we had some kind of concerted effort, just even on the monitoring side of things?” asked Rachel Santarsiero, an analyst who directs the National Security Archive’s Climate Change Transparency Project.

It turns out that the monitoring proposal, which was authorized by the head of Nixon’s White House Office of Science and Technology, Edward E. David Jr., did get a second life in another form. After leaving the Nixon administration, David joined the oil giant Exxon, and as president of the Exxon Research and Engineering Company from 1977 to 1986, he signed off on a groundbreaking Exxon project that used one of its oil tankers to gather atmospheric and oceanic carbon dioxide samples, beginning in 1979. That research, which was first reported by Inside Climate News in 2015, confirmed fossil fuels’ role in global warming. It also showed the oil industry knew the harm of its products and is now a key piece of evidence in lawsuits by states and cities across the country seeking compensation from the oil industry for climate damages.

The National Security Archive relies on the Freedom of Information Act to obtain such historical documents, and it currently maintains one of the largest non-governmental archives of declassified government documents—many relating to military and security issues. In the past year, the Archive has launched a project specifically to compile the historical record of the U.S. government’s reckoning with climate change. On Friday, to mark Earth Week, the group released a briefing book detailing climate change discussions in the Nixon White House, including the new document.

It has long been known that Nixon’s advisers warned him of the risks of global warming. A tranche of documents released by the Nixon Presidential Library in 2010 showed that his then-adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan urged his administration to engage with the issue as early as 1969. Moynihan, who later served 24 years as U.S. Senator from New York, noted that sea level rise of 10 feet was possible with a 7-degree Fahrenheit (3.9-degree Celsius) temperature increase. “Goodbye, New York,” he wrote. “Goodbye Washington, for that matter.”

But the newly revealed Dec. 20, 1971, research proposal by the White House Office of Science and Technology shows for the first time that Nixon’s science advisors embarked on an extensive analysis of the potential risks of climate change and an assessment of the data needs. 

The purpose of the project would be to “assess current and future impact of natural climatic changes, provide alerts to potential catastrophic trends and gain new environmental insight and understanding as a basis for wise strategies,” reads the research plan, which is unsigned but was conducted under the authority of David.

Under a section marked “cost-benefit analysis,” the authors wrote, “No analysis is feasible. Benefits are immense, but not quantifiable, since this element contributes to ensuring man’s survival.”

Nixon’s aides proposed that the government embark on development of new instruments using lidar, or light-detecting and remote sensing—a technology then less than a decade old—to better measure carbon in the atmosphere. They were correct on the advantages of lidar, but it would be more than four decades until scientists at NASA and around the world began to implement its use to study not just the concentration of carbon dioxide, but its global distribution and daily variations.

“I felt like this document was really ahead of its time,” Santarsiero said.

Decades before a scientific consensus emerged on climate change, Nixon’s science advisers conveyed an understanding of the risks. Research, they wrote, would assist in “taking of protective measures against potential natural disasters such as large-scale inundation of low-lying coastal regions, broad extensions of ice sheets and severe health hazards.”

“No analysis is feasible. Benefits are immense, but not quantifiable, since this element contributes to ensuring man’s survival.”

The advisers showed awareness of the role of fossil fuel pollution in climate change, even if their understanding was incomplete. “Transportation on land or in the air exerts a deleterious effect upon the atmosphere and is in turn affected by it,” they wrote.

“They readily admitted that the science wasn’t there yet to solve these problems,” Santarsiero said. “But they said we still need to take action, and the science will grow alongside, to help us tackle these issues. That attitude just feels markedly different from the discourse that’s happening today, where we can’t even get general consensus, and that basically halts preventative or mitigation efforts in its tracks.”

Nixon, indeed, left behind a far more progressive record on the environment than his Republican successors. He proposed and established the Environmental Protection Agency and later embraced a national Earth Day, expanding on the idea launched earlier by U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat. Although the U.S. government never embarked on a carbon dioxide monitoring plan as ambitious as the one Nixon’s science advisers proposed, it would expand its research stations, as they advised, beyond the one site at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, which had been operating since 1958. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration opened additional carbon dioxide measurement stations at Barrow, Alaska; American Samoa; and South Pole, Antarctica, in 1973.

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But by then, with the Watergate scandal engulfing Washington, the Nixon administration was unraveling. Nixon, who had privately railed against environmentalists for wanting humans to “go back and live like a bunch of damned animals,” as Santarsiero recollects in her briefing book, abolished his science and technology office. Its leader, David, quit in frustration early in 1973, according to his New York Times obituary in 2017.

While at Exxon, David continued to press for more science related to global warming, and in addition to the sampling research, he oversaw a transition to more climate modeling work—some of which was remarkably on target in its projection of temperature increase related to carbon dioxide concentrations. But in a coda to his career, he signed on to a 2012 Wall Street Journal opinion piece in which climate science skeptics argued there was no compelling reason to decarbonize the world’s economy.

Ultimately, U.S. government researchers at NASA, NOAA and other agencies would lead much of the science that led to a consensus on global warming. But government policy has lagged far behind the warnings of scientists, as the latest document from the Nixon archives underscores.

Marianne Lavelle

Reporter, washington, d.c..

Marianne Lavelle is a reporter for Inside Climate News. She has covered environment, science, law, and business in Washington, D.C. for more than two decades. She has won the Polk Award, the Investigative Editors and Reporters Award, and numerous other honors. Lavelle spent four years as online energy news editor and writer at National Geographic. She spearheaded a project on climate lobbying for the nonprofit journalism organization, the Center for Public Integrity. She also has worked at U.S. News and World Report magazine and The National Law Journal. While there, she led the award-winning 1992 investigation, “Unequal Protection,” on the disparity in environmental law enforcement against polluters in minority and white communities. Lavelle received her master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and is a graduate of Villanova University.

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Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences has dedicated a platform to publish innovative original and highest quality journals in the research fields of Medicine, Life Science and Pharmacy with an un-restricted access available open to the global audience. Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences aimed to cover the topics relevant to science and technology are open to all researchers, scientists, and readers around the world. Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences manages a portfolio of nearly 130 Topics and eBooks covering a wide range of topics in our proposed fields. Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences undergo a double-blinded peer review process and published in our scholarly journals. All the articles are preserved and archived permanently in our journal's website & available online to the readers.

Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences facilitates the readers to read, share, redistribute and download all the content without any charges via open access platform and will be available for immediate citation.

All manuscripts published by our group are freely accessible to all the students, scientists, and researchers immediately after publication.

We will promise to the authors and readers that it will maintain this knowledge free to all from the international scientific community.

The Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences promotes the conspicuous and significant research on the international platform by instigating science and technology publishing and the access of unlimited scientific information through the Open Access platform.

Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences main aim is to enhance the importance of science and technology to the scientific community and also to provide an equal opportunity to seek and share ideas to all our researchers and scientists without any barriers to develop their career and helping in their development of discovering the world.

Swift, Reliable, and studious. We aim to cherish the world by publishing precise knowledge.

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