Phys.org: Earth science

Mangrove ecosystems rank among the most efficient "blue carbon" systems on Earth, capable of absorbing and storing vast quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). However, mangroves also release methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas, potentially offsetting a portion of their climate mitigation benefits.

Currently, scientists struggle to forecast volcano eruption events, as no universally reliable, real-time eruption forecasting framework is available. Instead, researchers often rely on retrospective analysis to evaluate eruptions. And although much has been learned from doing this, it can sometimes introduce biases, such as data snooping, hindsight reinterpretation, and post-eruption model adjustment.

Groundwater rise as a result of climate change poses a significant threat to coastal cities, says University of Rhode Island assistant professor of geosciences Christopher Russoniello. Russoniello and colleagues recently published a commentary piece highlighting hazards that are often overlooked in urban infrastructure.

In mountain regions like the Rockies, headwater streams make up more than 70% of the river network and support the downstream waterways and communities. These headwaters are also home to many forms of aquatic life. While these sources are crucial, very few are monitored, and aspects of their hydrology are not well understood.

Soils release approximately 40–60 petagrams (Pg) of carbon annually into the atmosphere through microbial metabolism. Climate warming is projected to further enhance soil microbial respiration, intensifying positive carbon–climate feedback loops. However, it remains unclear whether this feedback might weaken over several years.

Scientists have developed a new way to represent the world's cities in global climate and Earth system models (GCM & ESMs), offering a more accurate picture of how urban areas are being affected by—and contributing to—climate change.

In the summer of 2022, 20 islands in the Maldives were flooded when a distant swell event in the Indian Ocean coincided with an extremely high tide level.

As global climate talks at COP30 shift from setting lofty targets to transforming the systems that will get us there, Australia has been quietly strengthening its climate resilience rulebook.

"The truth is that we have failed to avoid an overshooting above 1.5°C in the next few years," UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently admitted ahead of the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference.

New research from the University of St Andrews has found that some coastal areas will become much more acidic than previously anticipated. With added atmospheric CO2, these areas are acidifying more quickly than thought, posing an existential threat to coastal economies around the world.

Emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from lakes and reservoirs risk doubling by the end of the century due to climate change, according to a new study from Linköping University, Sweden, and NASA Ames Research Center in the US. This in turn could raise Earth's temperature more than suggested by the UN climate panel IPCC's current worst-case scenario.

Climate change and the associated rising temperatures are melting more and more frozen ground in the Arctic. This dissolved matter contains large amounts of organic carbon which is flowing into the central Arctic Ocean.