EurekAlert! Climate Change - Latest News Releases

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 7-Nov-2025 15:11 ET (7-Nov-2025 20:11 GMT/UTC)

‘A canary in the coal mine’: Even fish adapted to dry climates are struggling amid rising temps, droughts

University at Buffalo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team has analyzed four decades of data from nearly 1,500 streams across dry regions of the United States and Australia, and found that the number of fish species there has declined amid rising temperatures and reduced precipitation and streamflow.

Journal: Ecology and Evolution

Coral reefs set to stop growing as climate warms

University of Exeter
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Most coral reefs will soon stop growing and may begin to erode – and almost all will do so if global warming hits 2°C, according to a new study in the western Atlantic.

Journal: Nature

Reindeer grazing can mitigate the impacts of winter climate change on forest carbon release

University of Oulu, Finland
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Winter climate change is affecting the carbon exchange of northern coniferous forests, but the response depends upon reindeer grazing, according to a new study from the University of Oulu, Finland. The study compared areas with ongoing reindeer grazing to areas where grazing has been excluded for 25 years at Oulanka and as long as 55 years at Kevo.

Journal: Science of The Total Environment

A hard look at geoengineering reveals global risks

University of California - Santa Barbara
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With CO2 emissions continuing unabated, an increasing number of policymakers, scientists and environmentalists are considering geoengineering to avert a climate catastrophe. Such interventions could influence everything from rainfall to global food supplies, making the stakes enormous. In brief, manipulating other aspects of Earth’s climate system might reduce some effects of climate change. But the wondrous complexity of our planet complicates every one of these proposals.

Journal: Earth's Future

Climate change could drastically reduce aquifer recharge in Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Study shows that most of the country’s underground reservoirs will lose their capacity for renewal, increasing the risk of water shortages in several regions, especially the Southeast and South. One strategy to address the problem is “managed recharge,” which includes techniques that promote the infiltration of rainwater or even treated sewage.

Journal: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

New electrical flash method rapidly purifies red mud into strong ceramics, aluminum feedstock

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers at Rice University has developed a faster and cleaner method for recovering aluminum and removing toxic metals from bauxite residue, or red mud, which is a hazardous by-product of aluminum production. This new technique, published in American Chemical Society Applied Materials and Interfaces Sept. 15, involves a brief electrical pulse lasting under one minute along with a small amount of chlorine gas. If implemented on a larger scale, it could revolutionize global waste management and materials recovery.

Journal: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Funder: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Chapman University research reveals tropical rainforest soils may fuel climate change as the Earth warms – Accelerating global warming

Chapman University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Chapman University researchers, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and others, published a study in Nature Communications showing that warming tropical rainforest soils release vast amounts of carbon dioxide, potentially accelerating climate change. In Puerto Rico, experimentally heated plots showed a 42–204% increase in soil respiration, among the highest CO₂ release rates ever recorded. The findings suggest that instead of acting as carbon sinks, tropical soils could become major carbon sources, intensifying global warming. Chapman’s Dr. Christine Sierra O’Connell co-led the research as part of the TRACE project.

Journal: Nature Communications

Warming temps alone fail to trigger increased CO2 levels from soil

North Carolina State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Higher temperatures combined with added carbon – and added nutrients – led to higher carbon dioxide levels released from the soil.

Journal: Biogeochemistry
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy

Can vertical farms really feed the UK sustainably? New study weighs climate costs and benefits

University of Surrey
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Vertical farming offers a much-needed opportunity to secure food production in the face of climate change, but can it truly deliver a sustainable alternative to field-grown crops? A new study led by the University of Surrey has found that while vertical farms dramatically increase lettuce yields and use far less water, the carbon footprint still exceeds traditional lettuce farming – raising important questions about how the UK can balance food security with environmental responsibility.

Journal: Food and Energy Security

Ancient crop discovered in the Canary Islands thanks to archaeological DNA

Linköping University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The lentils now grown in the Canary Islands have a history that stretches back almost 2,000 years on the site. This is shown in the very first genetic study of archaeological lentils, carried out by researchers at Linköping University and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain. Since these lentils have been adapted for cultivation in hot and dry climates for a very long time, they may become valuable for plant breeding in the light of ongoing climate change.

Journal: Journal of Archaeological Science
Funder: European Research Council, Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, the Swedish Research Council

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