Topic
Climate impacts research, explained
13 open-access climate impacts studies, each with a flashcard deck and a quiz.
- Arctic warming halves moist-tundra mycorrhizae
Open-top chamber warming cut moist tussock ECM OTU richness from 138 to 71, but dry tundra fungal communities showed no significant treatment effect.
- 2018 drought wilted about 11% of Central European forests
The 2018 heat-and-drought summer triggered early wilting on about 11% of Central European forest area, worst in Germany and Czechia, with greening still reduced the next spring.
- Warming slowly enlarges young perch
After 24 years of lake warming, 1- and 3-year-old perch were about 35% larger than in a reference area.
- Fire tied to 38% of global forest loss
From 2003–2018, 38±9% of annual forest loss was fire-related, and that fraction explained 89±5% of year-to-year variation in global loss rates.
- Subarctic warming still boosts plant VOC emissions
After 13 years, +2°C open-top chambers raised subarctic heath sesquiterpenes fivefold and roughly doubled isoprene and monoterpenes, with vegetation shifts helping drive the fluxes.
- Alpine birds lose range except water pipit
By 2041–2070, rock ptarmigan suitable area falls about 36% on average, while water pipit range is nearly stable.
- Moss and organic soil keep permafrost closer to the surface
Across four Canadian boreal sites, moss and organic-matter thickness lowered active-layer thickness; the tobit model explained 73% of ALT variation.
- Diatoms often break the smaller-when-warmer rule
Across a 20°C Icelandic stream gradient, diatom size did not shrink with warmth; composition, not plastic shrinkage, drove size differences.
- Warming changes forest water yield by catchment type
Across 21 North American headwater catchments, modest warming can raise or cut streamflow depending on elasticity, with conifers often yielding more water.
- Five ocean hotspots share more than just heat
Five Southern Hemisphere warming hotspots keep rapid SST rise, but acidification is unlikely to be the main 21st-century threat there.
- Adriatic mollusks rebound after ice-age climate
Nearshore Adriatic mollusk communities of the last interglacial reassembled in the Holocene after a distinct glacial fauna, a resilient climate response now threatened by local human stressors.
- Boreal canopy lichens declined from several drivers
Over a decade of Swedish forest inventory, hair lichens Alectoria, Usnea, and Bryoria became less common, with losses tied to forestry, nitrogen, and climate together—not one driver alone.
- Beech outcompetes spruce as air chemistry shifts
Since 1501, spruce hit water-use saturation under acid rain and drought, while beech kept growing as nitrogen and temperatures rose.