Location, location, location: New analysis of home sales makes economic case for resilient coastal forests
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Dec-2025 19:11 ET (23-Dec-2025 00:11 GMT/UTC)
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has published a new study using transaction data provided by Zillow to show that homebuyers price in the natural-defense value of mangrove after heavy storm seasons. The new research, published in the journal Review of Finance, finds that homes in coastal Florida saw smaller price declines after storms when they were near mangrove forests versus homes that were farther from them.
Higher nighttime temperatures are linked to shorter sleep times and lower sleep quality, especially for people with chronic health conditions, lower socioeconomic status, or those living on the West Coast, according to a new USC study. Researchers estimate that by 2099, people could lose up to 24 hours of sleep each year due to heat, highlighting the potential impact of climate change on sleep health. The researchers obtained data from 14,232 U.S. adults in the All of Us Research Program that was collected between 2010 and 2022. In total, the researchers analyzed more than 12 million nights of sleep, looking at how long people slept and how easily they fell asleep. They also examined 8 million nights of data on sleep stages and how often sleep was interrupted. Finally, they used location and meteorological data to find out whether sleep patterns were linked to changing temperatures. They found that a 10-degree Celsius increase in daytime temperature was associated with 2.19 minutes of lost sleep, while a 10-degree nighttime temperature increase was associated with a loss of 2.63 minutes. The effects were greater among females, people of Hispanic ethnicity, people with chronic diseases, and those with a lower socioeconomic status. In addition to shorter sleep times, rising temperatures were also associated with more disrupted sleep throughout the night and more time spent awake in bed.
A recent study by the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and Northeastern University highlights how climate change impacts pollination systems in the tropics, Mediterranean, and temperate zones. Using climate projections and simulations across 11 ecological networks, the study indicates that tropical plant-pollinator systems exhibit the highest sensitivity to rising temperatures, while temperate species may cope better. Analysis of conservation strategies to support pollination systems across these regions indicates a failure of a one-size-fits-all template and suggests designing region-specific strategies to effectively protect biodiversity and pollination services in the face of future warming.
Avenas has won first place in the Rhodium Ventures 2025 startup competition, organized by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Business and Rhodium Ventures, in partnership with Earth & Beyond Ventures, Kyocera and the MAAYAN Student Foundation. The startup secured an investment commitment of up to NIS 6.5 million from the Earth & Beyond Ventures fund, subject to a due diligence process.