Phys.org: Earth science

Techniques to reflect an additional small portion of sunlight back into space could help cool the planet if deployed globally, but they cannot address the full range of climate impacts or replace emission cuts, according to a Royal Society briefing.

We've gone to the bottom of the ocean to study how its chemistry shapes our planet's climate, even chasing lava-spewing underwater volcanoes to do it. But it turns out we may have missed something far closer to home: the water beneath our feet.

A study published in Nature Climate Change by an international team of scientists from the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea, presents new evidence that ocean turbulence and a process known as "horizontal stirring" will increase dramatically in the Arctic and Southern Oceans due to human-induced global warming and decreasing sea ice coverage.

Beneath the surface of lakes and coastal waters lies a hidden world of sediment that plays a crucial role in the health of aquatic ecosystems. "Benthic fluxes" of nitrogen and phosphorus, such as releases of these dissolved nutrients from sediments to their overlying waters, can fuel algae growth and toxic harmful algal blooms (HABs), which degrade water quality, disrupt wildlife and recreation, and reduce property values.

The United States is falling far behind China in remote sensing research, according to a comprehensive new study that tracked seven decades of academic publishing and reveals a notable reversal in global technological standing.

Ancient trees may have played a key role in regulating Earth's climate during the last ice age—by 'breathing' less efficiently.

Earth is reflecting less sunlight, and absorbing more heat, than it did several decades ago. Global warming is advancing faster than climate models predicted, with observed temperatures exceeding projections in 2023 and 2024. These trends have scientists scrambling to understand why the atmosphere is letting more light in.

A Peking University research team led by Wang Heyuan and Wang Kai at the Institute for Carbon Neutrality (ICN) used AI models to determine that the global land carbon sink has drastically shrunk due to an abrupt and extreme jump in global temperature. Their study, "AI-tracked halving of global land carbon sink in 2024," was published in Science Bulletin.

A research team led by Professor Zhang Qinghong and Li Rumeng from the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Peking University (PKU) School of Physics, has found that hailstorms in China have surged since the Industrial Revolution, likely due to human-driven climate warming. The study, published in Nature Communications in September 2025, combines historical records, meteorological data, and artificial intelligence to track long-term hailstorm trends.

Small mountain ponds high in the tropical Andes may be playing an outsized role in global climate change, according to new research led by scientists at the University of North Carolina.

Microorganisms in the Black Sea can produce large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). However, this gas never reaches the atmosphere because it is swiftly consumed by other microorganisms, which convert it to harmless dinitrogen gas (N2). Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have now investigated this process and identified the key players involved.

With heat waves among Europe's deadliest climate hazards, a team of scientists led by CMCC has developed a prediction system capable of providing helpful information four to seven weeks before summer, which gives valuable time to improve preparedness.

In a new study published in Global Change Biology, Prof. Zhang Yuanming's team from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has unveiled a previously underestimated factor in greenhouse gas emissions from arid environments: hydroxyl radicals, often dubbed "free radicals."

High Mountain Asia (HMA), the source region of major Asian rivers, plays a vital role in sustaining downstream water and ecosystem security. Over the past 50 years, summer precipitation in HMA has exhibited a dipole pattern—drying in the south and moistening in the north.

One of the most iconic ecosystems of the Peruvian plateau, the Junín Lake basin, suffers from "critical" levels of arsenic, lead and cadmium contamination, leading to health risks including cancer, according to new analysis.

Cities around the world are working to limit emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases, but there have been few ways of measuring whether those gases are actually decreasing in any given municipality. In new research, University of California, Irvine scientists have created an effective method to measure greenhouse gas emissions around cities—something that can help local governments gauge the effectiveness of their emission-curbing programs.

It matters where the rain that irrigates your food comes from.

Earthworms don't stop shaping soil processes when they die. A new study shows they can still help store carbon in the soil, even after death. "This is quite surprising," says lead author Tullia Calogiuri. "Most of our knowledge about earthworms comes from their activity while alive, such as burrowing, feeding, and producing feces. Finding that they also play a role after death is exciting."

A paper authored by University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) graduate student Zeb Leffler has been published in the Geophysical Research Letters. The student's master's research addresses a long-standing challenge in meteorology: improving the accuracy of hurricane wind estimates after landfall. Knowing the exact strength of surface winds is crucial for effective risk communication and post-storm recovery efforts.

In the early hours of Sept. 10, 2017, the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay were mostly calm: herons and egrets worked the shallows, Miami's skyline stretching across the horizon. Yet within the quiet, unease lingered. Winds grew heavier, clouds darkened and within hours Hurricane Irma and all its fury descended on South Florida. While residents braced for flooding and prayed their homes would hold, scientists, including FIU physical oceanographer Wei Huang, worried about the bay itself.