Pub Date : 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1038/s43017-024-00520-6
Ana Cristina Vasquez
Ana Cristina Vasquez discusses how Cu isotopes can trace metal pollution sources from anthropogenic activities, such as urban pollution, traffic emissions, mining and smelting
{"title":"Cu isotopes as tracers of anthropogenic pollution","authors":"Ana Cristina Vasquez","doi":"10.1038/s43017-024-00520-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-024-00520-6","url":null,"abstract":"Ana Cristina Vasquez discusses how Cu isotopes can trace metal pollution sources from anthropogenic activities, such as urban pollution, traffic emissions, mining and smelting","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 2","pages":"77-77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139668666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-01DOI: 10.1038/s43017-023-00511-z
Chuanqi He, Jean Braun, Hui Tang, Xiaoping Yuan, Esteban Acevedo-Trejos, Richard F. Ott, Gaia Stucky de Quay
Drainage divides separate Earth’s surface into individual river basins. Divide migration impacts the evolution of landforms, regional climate, ecosystems and biodiversity. In this Review, we assess the processes and dynamics of divide migration and offer insights into the impact on climate and biodiversity. Drainage divides are not static: they can move through the processes of gradual migration that is continuous in unsteady landscapes, or sudden through infrequent river capture events. Divides tend to move in the direction of slower erosion, faster uplift or with horizontal tectonic advection, with rates typically ranging between 0.001 and 10 mm year−1, and a global average of 0.6 mm year−1. Evidence of river capture, such as a sharp change in flow direction with an upstream waterfall, can constrain divide migration history. Topographic metrics, such as cross-divide steepness, can predict the migration of drainage divides towards directions with a lower topographic steepness. Divide migration influences the spatial distribution of regional precipitation, temperature and topographic connectivity between species, thereby affecting biodiversity. For example, freshwater fish can migrate into a new drainage basin through river capture, potentially increasing the species richness. Future research should couple advanced landscape evolution models and observations from field and remote sensing to better investigate divide migration dynamics. Drainage divides — the topographic boundary separating surface water flow — are dynamic features of the Earth’s surface that shape hydrological processes, sediment transport, carbon cycles and geographic connectivity of ecosystems. This Review explores the dynamics of divide migration and its implications.
{"title":"Drainage divide migration and implications for climate and biodiversity","authors":"Chuanqi He, Jean Braun, Hui Tang, Xiaoping Yuan, Esteban Acevedo-Trejos, Richard F. Ott, Gaia Stucky de Quay","doi":"10.1038/s43017-023-00511-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-023-00511-z","url":null,"abstract":"Drainage divides separate Earth’s surface into individual river basins. Divide migration impacts the evolution of landforms, regional climate, ecosystems and biodiversity. In this Review, we assess the processes and dynamics of divide migration and offer insights into the impact on climate and biodiversity. Drainage divides are not static: they can move through the processes of gradual migration that is continuous in unsteady landscapes, or sudden through infrequent river capture events. Divides tend to move in the direction of slower erosion, faster uplift or with horizontal tectonic advection, with rates typically ranging between 0.001 and 10 mm year−1, and a global average of 0.6 mm year−1. Evidence of river capture, such as a sharp change in flow direction with an upstream waterfall, can constrain divide migration history. Topographic metrics, such as cross-divide steepness, can predict the migration of drainage divides towards directions with a lower topographic steepness. Divide migration influences the spatial distribution of regional precipitation, temperature and topographic connectivity between species, thereby affecting biodiversity. For example, freshwater fish can migrate into a new drainage basin through river capture, potentially increasing the species richness. Future research should couple advanced landscape evolution models and observations from field and remote sensing to better investigate divide migration dynamics. Drainage divides — the topographic boundary separating surface water flow — are dynamic features of the Earth’s surface that shape hydrological processes, sediment transport, carbon cycles and geographic connectivity of ecosystems. This Review explores the dynamics of divide migration and its implications.","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 3","pages":"177-192"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139658414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-30DOI: 10.1038/s43017-023-00508-8
Lori A. Magruder, Sinead L. Farrell, Amy Neuenschwander, Laura Duncanson, Beata Csatho, Sahra Kacimi, Helen A. Fricker
Satellite laser altimetry measures accurate elevations of the Earth’s surface and precise changes with time, monitoring key climate variables. These observations have transformed understanding of the Earth System, revealing changes and dynamics across spheres. In this Review, we highlight the Earth and climate science contributions from three NASA satellite laser altimeter missions: Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat; 2003–2009), ICESat-2 (2018 to present) and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI; 2018 to present). Over two decades of observations, satellite altimetry revealed cryosphere decline, including a loss of 320 Gt yr−1 in global land ice from Greenland and Antarctica, and a 30% decrease in volume of winter sea ice in the Arctic between 2003 and 2021. Observations have also been key to understanding ecosystems on land, providing data on the hydrosphere (showing that 57% of the Earth’s seasonal terrestrial water storage variability comes from human-managed reservoirs) and biosphere (showing that forest carbon stocks have globally increased owing to growth, despite a loss of the equivalent of ~8 Gt CO2 from land use). In the atmosphere, the data have enabled assessment of the global vertical cloud distribution, aerosol fraction, and dust and smoke transport. There is currently no planned satellite laser altimeter mission to continue from ICESat-2 and GEDI, jeopardizing critical data collection that supports decision-making and environmental management. Three satellite laser altimeter missions (ICESat, ICESat-2 and GEDI) have been instrumental in tracking environmental change on Earth since 2003. This Review discusses the principles of these missions and their major contributions to Earth system science.
{"title":"Monitoring Earth’s climate variables with satellite laser altimetry","authors":"Lori A. Magruder, Sinead L. Farrell, Amy Neuenschwander, Laura Duncanson, Beata Csatho, Sahra Kacimi, Helen A. Fricker","doi":"10.1038/s43017-023-00508-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-023-00508-8","url":null,"abstract":"Satellite laser altimetry measures accurate elevations of the Earth’s surface and precise changes with time, monitoring key climate variables. These observations have transformed understanding of the Earth System, revealing changes and dynamics across spheres. In this Review, we highlight the Earth and climate science contributions from three NASA satellite laser altimeter missions: Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat; 2003–2009), ICESat-2 (2018 to present) and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI; 2018 to present). Over two decades of observations, satellite altimetry revealed cryosphere decline, including a loss of 320 Gt yr−1 in global land ice from Greenland and Antarctica, and a 30% decrease in volume of winter sea ice in the Arctic between 2003 and 2021. Observations have also been key to understanding ecosystems on land, providing data on the hydrosphere (showing that 57% of the Earth’s seasonal terrestrial water storage variability comes from human-managed reservoirs) and biosphere (showing that forest carbon stocks have globally increased owing to growth, despite a loss of the equivalent of ~8 Gt CO2 from land use). In the atmosphere, the data have enabled assessment of the global vertical cloud distribution, aerosol fraction, and dust and smoke transport. There is currently no planned satellite laser altimeter mission to continue from ICESat-2 and GEDI, jeopardizing critical data collection that supports decision-making and environmental management. Three satellite laser altimeter missions (ICESat, ICESat-2 and GEDI) have been instrumental in tracking environmental change on Earth since 2003. This Review discusses the principles of these missions and their major contributions to Earth system science.","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 2","pages":"120-136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139585202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-24DOI: 10.1038/s43017-024-00517-1
Gebanruo Chen
Gebanruo Chen explains how tethered air balloons can take high-resolution and high-altitude water vapour measurements to give insights into the atmospheric water cycle
{"title":"Using a tethered balloon to monitor atmospheric water vapour dynamics over the Tibetan Plateau","authors":"Gebanruo Chen","doi":"10.1038/s43017-024-00517-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-024-00517-1","url":null,"abstract":"Gebanruo Chen explains how tethered air balloons can take high-resolution and high-altitude water vapour measurements to give insights into the atmospheric water cycle","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 2","pages":"78-78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139552739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-24DOI: 10.1038/s43017-024-00518-0
Mercè Casas-Prat, Mark A. Hemer, Guillaume Dodet, Joao Morim, Xiaolan L. Wang, Nobuhito Mori, Ian Young, Li Erikson, Bahareh Kamranzad, Prashant Kumar, Melisa Menéndez, Yang Feng
{"title":"Author Correction: Wind-wave climate changes and their impacts","authors":"Mercè Casas-Prat, Mark A. Hemer, Guillaume Dodet, Joao Morim, Xiaolan L. Wang, Nobuhito Mori, Ian Young, Li Erikson, Bahareh Kamranzad, Prashant Kumar, Melisa Menéndez, Yang Feng","doi":"10.1038/s43017-024-00518-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-024-00518-0","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 2","pages":"152-152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-024-00518-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139732415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-23DOI: 10.1038/s43017-023-00507-9
The Firn Symposium team
Most of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are covered with firn — the transitional material between snow and glacial ice. Firn is vital for understanding ice-sheet mass balance and hydrology, and palaeoclimate. In this Review, we synthesize knowledge of firn, including its formation, observation, modelling and relevance to ice sheets. The refreezing of meltwater in the pore space of firn currently prevents 50% of meltwater in Greenland from running off into the ocean and protects Antarctic ice shelves from catastrophic collapse. Continued atmospheric warming could inhibit future protection against mass loss. For example, warming in Greenland has already contributed to a 5% reduction in firn pore space since 1980. All projections of future firn change suggest that surface meltwater will have an increasing impact on firn, with melt occurring tens to hundreds of kilometres further inland in Greenland, and more extensively on Antarctic ice shelves. Although progress in observation and modelling techniques has led to a well-established understanding of firn, the large uncertainties associated with meltwater percolation processes (refreezing, ice-layer formation and storage) must be reduced further. A tighter integration of modelling components (firn, atmosphere and ice-sheet models) will also be needed to better simulate ice-sheet responses to anthropogenic warming and to quantify future sea-level rise. A firn layer covers the Earth’s ice sheets. This Review outlines techniques to observe and model changes in firn properties and meltwater retention to understand how this firn layer will respond to climate change.
{"title":"Firn on ice sheets","authors":"The Firn Symposium team","doi":"10.1038/s43017-023-00507-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-023-00507-9","url":null,"abstract":"Most of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are covered with firn — the transitional material between snow and glacial ice. Firn is vital for understanding ice-sheet mass balance and hydrology, and palaeoclimate. In this Review, we synthesize knowledge of firn, including its formation, observation, modelling and relevance to ice sheets. The refreezing of meltwater in the pore space of firn currently prevents 50% of meltwater in Greenland from running off into the ocean and protects Antarctic ice shelves from catastrophic collapse. Continued atmospheric warming could inhibit future protection against mass loss. For example, warming in Greenland has already contributed to a 5% reduction in firn pore space since 1980. All projections of future firn change suggest that surface meltwater will have an increasing impact on firn, with melt occurring tens to hundreds of kilometres further inland in Greenland, and more extensively on Antarctic ice shelves. Although progress in observation and modelling techniques has led to a well-established understanding of firn, the large uncertainties associated with meltwater percolation processes (refreezing, ice-layer formation and storage) must be reduced further. A tighter integration of modelling components (firn, atmosphere and ice-sheet models) will also be needed to better simulate ice-sheet responses to anthropogenic warming and to quantify future sea-level rise. A firn layer covers the Earth’s ice sheets. This Review outlines techniques to observe and model changes in firn properties and meltwater retention to understand how this firn layer will respond to climate change.","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 2","pages":"79-99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139552680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-16DOI: 10.1038/s43017-023-00501-1
Rebecca Peters, Jürgen Berlekamp, Charles Kabiri, Beth A. Kaplin, Klement Tockner, Christiane Zarfl
Half of the African population currently lacks the minimum levels of electricity access defined by the International Energy Agency. However, given the limited fossil fuel dependency and need for energy infrastructure expansion, there are expectations that at least some African countries could avoid fossil fuel dependency altogether and move directly to renewable energy (RE)-based electricity systems. In this Perspective, we present trends in Africa’s RE development and access on a national level and discuss the respective country-specific capacities to lead the transition to sustainable RE for all. If all existing wind, solar and hydropower plants operate on full capacity and all proposed plants are implemented, 76% (1,225 TWh) of electricity needs projected for 2040 (a total of 1,614 TWh) could be met by RE (82% hydropower, 11% solar power and 7% wind power). Hydropower has been the main RE resource to date, but declining costs for solar photovoltaics (90% decline since 2009) and wind turbines (55–60% decline since 2010) mean solar and wind have potential to lead sustainable RE pathways going forward, while also protecting freshwater ecosystems. Efficiently combining the advantages of hydropower with wind and solar will be a more sustainable alternative to hydropower alone. As resource potential differs among countries, transnational electricity sharing is recommended to distribute resources and share nationally produced peak capacity. Comprehensive investigations should further assess and monitor socioeconomic, political and ecological impacts of RE development. Regions with low electricity generation and minor reliance on fossil fuels have the capacity to avoid fossil fuel dependence and directly transition to renewable energy systems. This Perspective explores the capacity of African countries for this transition while meeting growing electricity demands.
{"title":"Sustainable pathways towards universal renewable electricity access in Africa","authors":"Rebecca Peters, Jürgen Berlekamp, Charles Kabiri, Beth A. Kaplin, Klement Tockner, Christiane Zarfl","doi":"10.1038/s43017-023-00501-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-023-00501-1","url":null,"abstract":"Half of the African population currently lacks the minimum levels of electricity access defined by the International Energy Agency. However, given the limited fossil fuel dependency and need for energy infrastructure expansion, there are expectations that at least some African countries could avoid fossil fuel dependency altogether and move directly to renewable energy (RE)-based electricity systems. In this Perspective, we present trends in Africa’s RE development and access on a national level and discuss the respective country-specific capacities to lead the transition to sustainable RE for all. If all existing wind, solar and hydropower plants operate on full capacity and all proposed plants are implemented, 76% (1,225 TWh) of electricity needs projected for 2040 (a total of 1,614 TWh) could be met by RE (82% hydropower, 11% solar power and 7% wind power). Hydropower has been the main RE resource to date, but declining costs for solar photovoltaics (90% decline since 2009) and wind turbines (55–60% decline since 2010) mean solar and wind have potential to lead sustainable RE pathways going forward, while also protecting freshwater ecosystems. Efficiently combining the advantages of hydropower with wind and solar will be a more sustainable alternative to hydropower alone. As resource potential differs among countries, transnational electricity sharing is recommended to distribute resources and share nationally produced peak capacity. Comprehensive investigations should further assess and monitor socioeconomic, political and ecological impacts of RE development. Regions with low electricity generation and minor reliance on fossil fuels have the capacity to avoid fossil fuel dependence and directly transition to renewable energy systems. This Perspective explores the capacity of African countries for this transition while meeting growing electricity demands.","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 2","pages":"137-151"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139475181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-11DOI: 10.1038/s43017-023-00500-2
C. M. Richardson, K. L. Davis, C. Ruiz-González, J. A. Guimond, H. A. Michael, A. Paldor, N. Moosdorf, A. Paytan
Coastal groundwater (CGW) is a critical water resource for many communities and can be a key part of coastal ecosystems. Owing to its location, CGW faces both terrestrial and marine effects of climate change while simultaneously being impacted by anthropogenic activities. In this Review, we discuss the expected impacts of climate change on CGW and CGW-dependent ecosystems. Sea-level rise, coastal flooding increases and precipitation and aridity changes will drive alterations in the amount, chemistry and fluxes of CGW. Impacts could also arise from changes in storm and cyclone activity, land and ocean temperature rises, cryosphere melt, ocean chemistry and coastal erosion, but the overall effect is understudied. Human-induced stressors, such as groundwater extraction, will interact with climate change impacts to alter CGW at different temporal and spatial scales. CGW-associated ecosystems are expected to respond to changes in an ecosystem and site-specific manner — for example, some coastal temperate and tropical ecosystems might be more impacted by seawater intrusion owing to sea-level rise and coastal flooding, whereas others, such as coastal polar ecosystems, could be more affected by increases in cryosphere melt. A comprehensive and global CGW observatory programme is needed to better understand baseline CGW conditions, track change and support resource management. Coastal groundwater systems provide water resources and support ecosystems but are vulnerable to climate change and anthropogenic impacts. This Review describes the expected response of coastal groundwater systems to climatic impact-drivers, interactions with anthropogenic stressors and potential ecosystem responses.
{"title":"The impacts of climate change on coastal groundwater","authors":"C. M. Richardson, K. L. Davis, C. Ruiz-González, J. A. Guimond, H. A. Michael, A. Paldor, N. Moosdorf, A. Paytan","doi":"10.1038/s43017-023-00500-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-023-00500-2","url":null,"abstract":"Coastal groundwater (CGW) is a critical water resource for many communities and can be a key part of coastal ecosystems. Owing to its location, CGW faces both terrestrial and marine effects of climate change while simultaneously being impacted by anthropogenic activities. In this Review, we discuss the expected impacts of climate change on CGW and CGW-dependent ecosystems. Sea-level rise, coastal flooding increases and precipitation and aridity changes will drive alterations in the amount, chemistry and fluxes of CGW. Impacts could also arise from changes in storm and cyclone activity, land and ocean temperature rises, cryosphere melt, ocean chemistry and coastal erosion, but the overall effect is understudied. Human-induced stressors, such as groundwater extraction, will interact with climate change impacts to alter CGW at different temporal and spatial scales. CGW-associated ecosystems are expected to respond to changes in an ecosystem and site-specific manner — for example, some coastal temperate and tropical ecosystems might be more impacted by seawater intrusion owing to sea-level rise and coastal flooding, whereas others, such as coastal polar ecosystems, could be more affected by increases in cryosphere melt. A comprehensive and global CGW observatory programme is needed to better understand baseline CGW conditions, track change and support resource management. Coastal groundwater systems provide water resources and support ecosystems but are vulnerable to climate change and anthropogenic impacts. This Review describes the expected response of coastal groundwater systems to climatic impact-drivers, interactions with anthropogenic stressors and potential ecosystem responses.","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 2","pages":"100-119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139422196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-09DOI: 10.1038/s43017-023-00502-0
Mercè Casas-Prat, Mark A. Hemer, Guillaume Dodet, Joao Morim, Xiaolan L. Wang, Nobuhito Mori, Ian Young, Li Erikson, Bahareh Kamranzad, Prashant Kumar, Melisa Menéndez, Yang Feng
Wind-waves have an important role in Earth system dynamics through air–sea interactions and are key drivers of coastal and offshore hydro-morphodynamics that affect communities, ecosystems, infrastructure and operations. In this Review, we outline historical and projected changes in the wind-wave climate over the world’s oceans, and their impacts. Historical trend analysis is challenging owing to the presence of temporal inhomogeneities from increased numbers and types of assimilated data. Nevertheless, there is general agreement over a consistent historical increase in mean wave height of 1–3 cm yr−1 in the Southern and Arctic Oceans, with extremes increasing by >10 cm yr−1 for the latter. By 2100, mean wave height is projected to rise by 5–10% in the Southern Ocean and eastern tropical South Pacific, and by >100% in the Arctic Ocean. By contrast, reductions in mean wave height up to 10% are expected in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, with regional variability and uncertainty for changes in extremes. Differences between 1.5 °C and warmer worlds reveal the potential benefit of limiting anthropogenic warming. Resolving global-scale climate change impacts on coastal processes and atmospheric–ocean–wave interactions requires a step-up in observational and modeling capabilities, including enhanced spatiotemporal resolution and coverage of observations, more homogeneous data products, multidisciplinary model improvement, and better sampling of uncertainty with larger ensembles. Wind-waves have important Earth system impacts. This Review outlines observed and projected changes in wind-waves for global oceans, revealing historic and future increases in wave height across the Southern and Arctic Oceans, but decreases in the North Atlantic and North Pacific.
{"title":"Wind-wave climate changes and their impacts","authors":"Mercè Casas-Prat, Mark A. Hemer, Guillaume Dodet, Joao Morim, Xiaolan L. Wang, Nobuhito Mori, Ian Young, Li Erikson, Bahareh Kamranzad, Prashant Kumar, Melisa Menéndez, Yang Feng","doi":"10.1038/s43017-023-00502-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-023-00502-0","url":null,"abstract":"Wind-waves have an important role in Earth system dynamics through air–sea interactions and are key drivers of coastal and offshore hydro-morphodynamics that affect communities, ecosystems, infrastructure and operations. In this Review, we outline historical and projected changes in the wind-wave climate over the world’s oceans, and their impacts. Historical trend analysis is challenging owing to the presence of temporal inhomogeneities from increased numbers and types of assimilated data. Nevertheless, there is general agreement over a consistent historical increase in mean wave height of 1–3 cm yr−1 in the Southern and Arctic Oceans, with extremes increasing by >10 cm yr−1 for the latter. By 2100, mean wave height is projected to rise by 5–10% in the Southern Ocean and eastern tropical South Pacific, and by >100% in the Arctic Ocean. By contrast, reductions in mean wave height up to 10% are expected in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, with regional variability and uncertainty for changes in extremes. Differences between 1.5 °C and warmer worlds reveal the potential benefit of limiting anthropogenic warming. Resolving global-scale climate change impacts on coastal processes and atmospheric–ocean–wave interactions requires a step-up in observational and modeling capabilities, including enhanced spatiotemporal resolution and coverage of observations, more homogeneous data products, multidisciplinary model improvement, and better sampling of uncertainty with larger ensembles. Wind-waves have important Earth system impacts. This Review outlines observed and projected changes in wind-waves for global oceans, revealing historic and future increases in wave height across the Southern and Arctic Oceans, but decreases in the North Atlantic and North Pacific.","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 1","pages":"23-42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139409588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-05DOI: 10.1038/s43017-023-00512-y
M. Russo, T. M. Gernon, A. Santaguida, T. K. Hincks
Sonification uses non-speech audio to convey complex data patterns in both space and time, overcoming visual and language barriers to science communication. Data sonification is primed to aid interpretations of multi-dimensional Earth and environmental data streams, perhaps even revealing unrecognized patterns and feedbacks in unwieldy datasets.
{"title":"Improving Earth science communication and accessibility with data sonification","authors":"M. Russo, T. M. Gernon, A. Santaguida, T. K. Hincks","doi":"10.1038/s43017-023-00512-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43017-023-00512-y","url":null,"abstract":"Sonification uses non-speech audio to convey complex data patterns in both space and time, overcoming visual and language barriers to science communication. Data sonification is primed to aid interpretations of multi-dimensional Earth and environmental data streams, perhaps even revealing unrecognized patterns and feedbacks in unwieldy datasets.","PeriodicalId":18921,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Earth & Environment","volume":"5 1","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139374076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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