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Increasing light emissions threaten human and ecological health. This Review outlines existing measurements and projections of light pollution trends and impacts, as well as developments in ground-based and remote sensing techniques that are needed to improve them.
Warmer temperatures enhance formation of glacial lakes that can suddenly and catastrophically release as a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), threatening downstream lives and infrastructure. This Review outlines observed and projected changes in glacial lakes and GLOFs, reporting that both will increase with ongoing deglaciation.
Wildfires are important ecosystem regulators and can benefit many fire-prone ecosystems, but extreme fires can leave soils vulnerable to nutrient loss and contaminant transformations. This Review discusses fire-induced impacts on soil chemistry and post-fire soil, air and water recovery.
Human modifications to the environment can amplify the secondary impacts of earthquakes, such as landslides, liquefaction and tsunamis. This Perspective explores the relationships between environmental modification and earthquake-triggered hazards to identify potential solutions for hazard mitigation.
Monica Alejandra Gomez Correa describes how the ostracod fossil record provides insight into changes in environmental conditions and their impact on marine ecosystems.
To explore career opportunities outside of academia, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Nina Ridder about their career path from a postdoctoral scholar to a Senior Climate Advisor at Suncorp Group Limited.
Avalanche conditions and related risks are influenced by ongoing changes in temperature and precipitation. This Review synthesizes existing data, approaches and results to highlight dominant patterns of change and how they are linked to climate change and other socio-environmental factors.
Warming temperatures driven by climate change are causing species geographic ranges to shift, but factors such as habitat characteristics and species interactions impact these changes. This Review examines range shift documentation, how shifts differ from temperature-based expectations, and the effects of range shifts on natural and human systems.
Tectonic processes can lead to the formation of semi-enclosed seas and the deposition of extensive salt deposits. This Review explores the drivers and impacts of the Mediterranean Messinian salinity crisis, including previously underconsidered impacts on the global carbon cycle.
The Southern Ocean represents a substantial carbon sink and heavily influences global carbon fluxes. This Review describes how an expanding suite of observations are providing increasing insight into the contribution of biota and plankton to the carbon cycle in the Southern Ocean.
Rainfall events are becoming less frequent but more intense with anthropogenic warming. This Review explores the consequences of these changes on plants and investigates how and why plant responses appear to broadly differ between dry and wet ecosystems.
To explore career opportunities outside of academia, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Clare Davis about their career path from postdoctoral researcher to senior editor at Communications Earth & Environment.
Global greening continued into 2023, reaching near-record values that were dominated by regional enhancement in the mid-western USA, Europe, northern Australia and parts of equatorial Africa. In contrast, climatic events contributed to browning signals in Russia, Canada, Mexico and tropical drylands.
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment launches a new series of articles — Climate Chronicles — that document the characteristics and changes of select climate variables each year.
Global CO2 emissions for 2023 increased by only 0.1% relative to 2022 (following increases of 5.4% and 1.9% in 2021 and 2022, respectively), reaching 35.8 Gt CO2. These 2023 emissions consumed 10–66.7% of the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5°C, suggesting permissible emissions could be depleted within 0.5–6 years (67% likelihood).
Wildfires burned 384 Mha of land in 2023, the highest since 2017 but 5% lower than the 2001–2022 average. These fires emitted an estimated 2,524 Tg C, 30% of which came from Canada’s record fire season.
Antarctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record in 2023, with an annual mean of 9.81 million km2, beating the previous minimum of 2022. Arctic sea ice extent was also low, with an annual mean of 10.49 million km2, but did not break any records.
2023 saw a multitude of extreme precipitation events across the globe, causing flash flooding, countless fatalities and huge economic losses. Fuelled by a combination of a strong El Niño, record ocean warmth and anthropogenic warming, these events highlight the ongoing risks posed by extreme precipitation in a warming climate.
