Snow cover in the Sierra Nevada is expected to shrink overall as the climate warms, but avalanche frequency could remain the same or even increase at high elevations. That’s bad news for bighorn sheep that live there, according to new research to be presented at AGU’s 2024 Annual Meeting.

Harbor seals in icy regions use icebergs shed by glaciers as safe platforms to give birth, care for young and molt. New research finds that as glaciers change with the climate, the resulting changes in size, speed and number of icebergs affect seals’ critical frozen habitat. Mother seals prefer stable, slower-moving bergs for giving birth and caring for newborn pups, while in the molting season, they and the rest of the seal population favor speedier ice near the best foraging grounds.  

- Mathematicians led by the University of Leicester have applied statistical mechanics to climate change detection and attribution for first time

- They have shown how to separate the ‘signal’ of human-made climate change from the ‘noise’ of natural climate fluctuations

- Allows a dramatic improvement in the ability to detect climate change and early warnings of climatic tipping points

Fast-growing and small-seeded tree species are dominating Brazilian forests in regions with high levels of deforestation and degradation, a new study shows.

This has potential implications for the ecosystem services these forests provide, including the ability of these ‘disturbed’ forests to absorb and store carbon. This is because these “winning” species grow fast but die young, as their stems and branches are far less dense than the slow growing tree species they replace.

Wildlife species adapted to consuming and dispersing the large seeds of tree species that are being lost in human-modified landscapes may also be affected by these shifts.

Some of the world's smallest animals and their tiny poops could aid in the fight against climate change. A Dartmouth-led study reports that clay dust sprayed on the surface of seawater converts free-floating carbon particulates into food for zooplankton, which the microscopic animals later deposit deep into the sea as feces. The particulates are the remnants of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by marine plants that re-enters the atmosphere when the plants die. This new method redirects the carbon into the marine food chain.

AI predicts that most of the world will see temperatures rise to 3C much faster than previously expected.