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The perfect storm? Co-occurring climate extremes in East Africa

Climate change affects the interaction, dependence, and joint occurrence of climate extremes. Here we investigate the joint occurrence of pairs of river floods, droughts, heatwaves, crop failures, wildfires, and tropical cyclones in East Africa under past and future climate conditions. Our results show that, across all future warming scenarios, the frequency and spatial extent of these co-occurring extremes will increase in this region, particularly in areas close to the Nile and Congo rivers.

Resemblance of the global depth distribution of internal-tide generation and cold-water coral occurrences

Cold-water corals (CWCs) and tidal waves in the interior of the ocean have been connected in case studies. We demonstrate this connection globally using hydrodynamic simulations and a CWC database. Internal-tide generation shows a similar depth pattern with slope steepness and latitude as CWCs. Our results suggest that internal-tide generation can be a useful predictor of CWC habitat and that current CWC habitats might change following climate-change-related shoaling of internal-tide generation.

Evaluating the impact of climate communication activities by scientists: what is known and necessary?

Climate scientists are urged to communicate climate science; there is very little evidence about what types of communication work well for which audiences. We have performed a systematic literature review to analyze what is known about the efficacy of climate communication by scientists. While we have found more than 60 articles in the last 10 years about climate communication activities by scientists, only 7 of these included some form of evaluation of the impact of the activity.

Dependency of the impacts of geoengineering on the stratospheric sulfur injection strategy – Part 2: How changes in the hydrological cycle depend on the injection rate and model used

This study is the second in a two-part series in which we explore the dependency of the impacts of stratospheric sulfur injections on both the model employed and the strategy of injection utilized. The study uncovers uncertainties associated with these techniques to cool climate, highlighting how the simulated climate impacts are dependent on both the selected model and the magnitude of the injections. We also show that estimating precipitation impacts of aerosol injection is a complex task.

The six rights of how and when to test for soil C saturation

SOIL
DOI 10.5194/soil-10-275-2024
29 April 2024

Soil C saturation has been tested in several recent studies and led to a debate about its existence. We argue that, to test C saturation, one should pay attention to six fundamental principles: the right measures, the right units, the right dispersive energy and application, the right soil type, the right clay type, and the right saturation level. Once we take care of those six rights across studies, we find support for a maximum of C stabilized by minerals and thus soil C saturation.

Interpretability of negative latent heat fluxes from eddy covariance measurements in dry conditions

Porous materials are known to reversibly trap water from the air, even at low humidity. However, this behavior is poorly understood for soils. In this analysis, we test whether eddy covariance is able to measure the so-called adsorption of atmospheric water vapor by soils. We find that this flux occurs frequently during dry nights in a Mediterranean ecosystem, while EC detects downwardly directed vapor fluxes. These results can help to map moisture uptake globally.

Carbon budget concept and its deviation through the pulse response lens

The carbon budget approach is based on a close linear relationship between the global temperature and cumulative emissions. This article reinterprets the carbon budget approach through the lens of the temperature response to an emission pulse in the role of a Green’s function, or as a generalization of TCRE. It shows that inspecting the simple model’s pulse response allows for a prediction of deviations for any possible emission scenario and derivation of a nonlinear carbon budget equation.

Quantitative imaging of carbon dioxide plumes using a ground-based shortwave infrared spectral camera

Imaging carbon dioxide (CO2) plumes of anthropogenic sources from planes and satellites has proven valuable for detecting emitters and monitoring climate mitigation efforts. We present the first images of CO2 plumes taken with a ground-based spectral camera, observing a coal-fired power plant as a validation target. We develop a technique to find the source emission strength with an hourly resolution, which reasonably agrees with the expected emissions under favorable conditions.

HydroFATE (v1): a high-resolution contaminant fate model for the global river system

Treated and untreated wastewaters are sources of contaminants of emerging concern. HydroFATE, a new global model, estimates their concentrations in surface waters, identifying streams that are most at risk and guiding monitoring/mitigation efforts to safeguard aquatic ecosystems and human health. Model predictions were validated against field measurements of the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole, with predicted concentrations exceeding ecological thresholds in more than 400 000 km of rivers worldwide.

Rates of palaeoecological change can inform ecosystem restoration

Rate-of-change records based on compositional data are ambiguous as they may rise irrespective of the underlying trajectory of ecosystems. We emphasize the importance of characterizing both the direction and the rate of palaeoecological changes in terms of key features of ecosystems rather than solely on community composition. Past accelerations of community transformation may document the potential of ecosystems to rapidly recover important ecological attributes and functions.

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