Hairdressers are emerging as powerful, under-recognised influencers in tackling climate change, according to new research from academics at the University of Bath’s Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST), and the Universities of Cardiff, Oxford and Southampton.

Indigenous peoples have used forest thinning to protect against wildfires for millennia. These traditional methods – including cultural burning – have often been neglected in modern times, which is thought to have contributed to wildfires in the US and elsewhere. Now, researchers have shown for the first time in a regional hotspot for wildfire risk and drought risk that forest thinning with modern tools has an additional benefit: it increases the snowpack in winter by 16 to 30%, thus recovering lost water and helping to safeguard its supply for natural and human needs.

A newly launched scientific journal is calling for a deeper integration of artificial intelligence into environmental research, arguing that AI may be one of the most powerful tools available to address climate change, pollution, and resource sustainability.

The newest issue of The Journal of Raptor Research is a special issue focused on movement ecology — how and why raptors move. This can include classic movements like migration, as well as nomadism. Short-eared Owls (Asio flammeus) fall into the latter category — they have a penchant for small mammals that breed in “boom and bust” cycles approximately every four years. Therefore, these owls must travel great distances to find prey in sufficient numbers. This requires a high degree of nuanced perception, yet we know very little about the actual mechanisms that allow an owl to accurately locate these peaks in prey cycles. Changing climate regimes can severely impact where and when small mammals show up on the landscape, especially in the tundra, where many predators rely up on their presence. There is an increased need for conservation leaders to understand the decision-making of species whose survival is linked to these ephemeral pulses in prey, and owls are a strong choice for future investigation.

The GRACE project (Growing Climate Resilience in Remote rural Areas through Community Empowerment) started in October 2025 and is funded under the Horizon Europe Programme and the EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change. Coordinated by the Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) in Italy, the project brings together 26 partners from ​15​ countries in a four-year collaboration focused on community-led adaptation, local innovation, and capacity-building in remote rural territories. 

In a new study led by the University of Michigan, researchers have shown that batteries have gotten a lot better over the past several years that their gains will more than offset their expected heat-related degradation on a warming planet. 

Researchers at Lund University have produced the most detailed map of carbon emissions from Swedish forest fires to date. The results show that the largest emissions occur below the ground surface, in peat and organic soils.

Bird migration is awe-inspiring. Animals mostly made of feathers take to the sky and complete round-trip journeys up to 40,000 kilometers long. The extremists migrate nonstop. Some fast the entire way. Most migratory species, however, engage in what ornithologists refer to as “stopovers” to refuel, rest, and wait out storms. A new literature review published in the Journal of Raptor Research emphasizes the need for more investigation into the importance of these stopover sites, newly defined in the review as places where individuals “pause their migratory movements for at least twenty-four hours.” Raptors are top predators with far-reaching impacts on their surrounding habitat, and they respond quickly to environmental change, making them effective bioindicators. Bolstering our knowledge of which areas are most crucial to the success of these long-distance journeys is therefore necessary, and increasingly possible as tracking technology improves. 

Five EU-funded projects, MERLIN, SpongeWorks, SpongeBoost, SpongeScapes, and FutureLakes, collaborate on a policy brief aimed at advancing the European Water Resilience Strategy.