Ice can dissolve iron minerals more effectively than liquid water, according to a new study from Umeå University. The discovery could help explain why many Arctic rivers are now turning rusty orange as permafrost thaws in a warming climate.

The chaotic nature of Earth’s climate system means projected hazards like flooding under climate change have high uncertainty. To more accurately predict flood risks, researchers from The University of Tokyo developed a method to merge data from multiple future climate scenarios with similar warming levels. This approach is important because it provides reliable, practical flood risk information allowing socioeconomic variables to be largely ignored in favor of specific warming levels, such as 2°C or 3°C.The chaotic nature of Earth’s climate system means projected hazards like flooding under climate change have high uncertainty. To more accurately predict flood risks, researchers from The University of Tokyo developed a method to merge data from multiple future climate scenarios with similar warming levels. This approach is important because it provides reliable, practical flood risk information allowing socioeconomic variables to be largely ignored in favor of specific warming levels, such as 2°C or 3°C.

The rain delays, sorghum withers; when a storm finally breaks, complaints rise again. To break this cycle of uncertainty, scientists from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, INERA, and the University of Ghana conducted the first large-scale survey on agricultural climate services in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Senegal. Published in Frontiers in Climate, the study analyzes the expectations of 1,212 farmers and charts a credible path to turn weather reports into a profitable investment. 

Researchers including those from the University of Tokyo have successfully grown large tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, both rich in nutrients, in tightly controlled environments where the light source was energy-efficient LEDs. Such methods were often limited by the types or sizes of plants that could thrive in such conditions. This feasibility study demonstrates the researchers’ method is suitable for urban environments, potentially even in space, and can offer food security in the face of climate change or extreme weather conditions.

Biologists, who have reported discovering a bird that’s the natural result of a green jay and a blue jay’s mating, say it may be among the first examples of a hybrid animal that exists because of recent changing patterns in the climate.

A new study suggests that the risk of mosquito-borne illness in Brazil will rise significantly by the year 2080, but that climate action could help. Katherine Heath of the Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues present these findings September 18^th in the open-access journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.