Prototype of a global model for regulating ecosystem services of inland wetlands.

Microbial diversity regulates mercury cycling in paddy soils.

Soil microbial communities and reactive oxygen species reshape MAOC-driven PAH accumulation under seasonal trade-offs between forest filtering and cold trapping.

ABSTRACT Diversifying tree species is increasingly important for enhancing forest resilience under climate change in Sweden. Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is a promising alternative to native conifers but seedlings are sensitive to frost damage during establishment on exposed sites. This study evaluated the establishment and early growth of Douglas-fir seedlings planted under low shelters of different compositions. A field experiment in southern Sweden tested five shelter treatments: two densities of naturally regenerated birch (Betula spp.), Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) shelter, mixed birch-spruce shelter, and a clearcut control. Seedling survival, frost damage, height growth, top shoot elongation, and morphological quality were monitored over five years. Survival was high across all treatments and unaffected by shelter treatment. Frost damage was significantly reduced under all shelter treatments compared with the control, with the strongest protection provided by the densest birch shelter. Shelter also helped preventing multiple leaders, indicating improved seedling quality. No significant negative effects of low shelter on early height or shoot growth were detected. The results demonstrated that a low shelter can effectively mitigate frost risk during Douglas-fir establishment without compromising early seedling height growth, supporting its use as a practical silvicultural tool for climate-adapted forestry in Sweden.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying species diversification remains a central question in evolutionary biology, with ongoing debates about the relative roles of natural selection, genetic drift, and geographic isolation in shaping biodiversity. Nierembergia linariifolia exhibits intraspecific variation recognized as taxonomic varieties. These varieties are distinguished by vegetative and floral traits and are distributed across lowland and highland areas of different ecoregions in South America. In this study, we integrate ecological niche and genetic analyses to investigate diversification drivers across N. linariifolia populations. Specifically, we assessed whether differentiation among varieties is related to current climatic conditions and explored the potential influence of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations on their diversification. Current distribution models reveal a strong association between varietal differentiation, ecoregions, and altitudinal gradients, which is also reflected in species’ bioclimatic envelope and climatic niche. Molecular dating indicates that the detected genetic divergences most likely occurred during the Early Pleistocene, preceding the diversification of the taxonomic varieties and suggesting that varietal divergence is more recent. Ecological niche models projected onto Pleistocene climatic scenarios show distinct responses to climate change among varieties, likely influencing their current diversification patterns. Overall, our findings support a relatively recent diversification process, consistent with ecological divergence probably driven by Pleistocene climatic fluctuations through a combination of allopatric, parapatric, and ecological processes.

ABSTRACT Rapid urban development and climate change reveal limits of traditional construction, highlighting a need to integrate adaptive and innovative technologies in architecture. A systematic review of sustainable projects and technologies connects architectural strategies with remote sensing data. Case studies, including Malakoff, Tianbao, Roskilde, and Macau, assess spatial, structural, and functional flexibility to evaluate adaptive, energy-efficient solutions and long-term environmental performance. Key principles of adaptive design are highlighted, encompassing genetic algorithms, parametric methods, machine learning, intelligent and bio-inspired systems, AI-based technologies such as micro-GAs (exemplified by a building façade in Boston, U.S.A.), evolutionary computation, artificial neural networks, generative design, ML algorithms, digital twins for urban forecasting, a bio-inspired ventilation system at the Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, and energy-efficient façade and spatial systems at the Vancouver Convention Centre West in Canada, while factors limiting widespread application of these intelligent technologies are identified. Achieving sustainable architecture goals requires a comprehensive approach integrating intelligent and adaptive systems tailored to specific conditions, thereby creating harmonious buildings that meet societal demands and support environmental sustainability.

The climate change–armedconflict interaction creates a reinforcing cycle where conflict increases vulnerability to climate change, and climate change impacts increase the risk of armed conflict, locking communities in a cycle of violence, vulnerability and climate change. To help break the cycle, we propose a new framework that integrates climate change adaptation and peacebuilding concepts to build synergistic capacities in conflict-affected communities. • Climate change and conflict reinforce each other in vulnerable communities. • Adaptation and peacebuilding often operate in separate policy and practice sectors. • Yet, there are overlaps that may be important to integrate these sectors. • Key overlaps include education, networks, employment, and healing. • A new framework is proposed to integrate adaptation and peacebuilding. Communities living in areas impacted by armed conflict are increasingly vulnerable to climate change. These communities experience forced displacement, destruction of infrastructure, militarisation of land and water access, and movement restrictions that limit their capacity to adapt. Climate change adaptation and peacebuilding interventions focus on building capacities to prepare for and minimise the impacts of climate change and conflict. Yet, these interventions have traditionally been implemented in separate policy and practice sectors, with limited cross-sectoral interaction. This study identifies some of the overlaps between climate change adaptation and peacebuilding and explores ways to integrate these areas to respond to cumulative and reinforcing climate change and conflict impacts. Using a two-stage case study in a region affected by climate change impacts and armed conflict in Colombia, including semi-structured interviews and document analysis, we find that although climate change adaptation and peacebuilding interventions are rarely integrated, they overlap in potentially synergistic ways. We find six major areas of overlap: (1) access to information, (2) education, (3) social networks, (4) employment, (5) environmental management, and (6) healing. We also find two gaps (i.e., areas that were a major focus in one type of intervention but were not present or considered in the other): (1) protection and/or safety and (2) socio-cognitive constructs (e.g., social identity, risk perceptions). Building on these overlaps and gaps, we propose a new synergistic framework to integrate climate change adaptation and peacebuilding. This framework provides novel insights into how to develop adaptation and peacebuilding interventions to prevent reinforcing cycles, whereby conflict increases vulnerability to climate change and climate change increases the risk of violent conflict. We argue that using this framework provides an important step to building resilience and peace, thereby preventing maladaptation and the increase and/or redistribution of vulnerabilities.

Climate change poses an escalating threat to global brain health and is increasingly linked to stroke incidence, outcomes, and inequities in prevention and treatment. This World Stroke Organization scientific statement summarizes current evidence on the associations between stroke and the environmental variables exacerbated by climate change, with a focus on risk and outcomes. We systematically identified and reviewed published studies assessing associations between stroke and environmental variables, including extreme temperatures, temperature variability, humidity, barometric pressure, wildfires, dust and sandstorms, and compound weather events. Air pollution, unrelated to wildfire exposure, was excluded, as a subsequent statement will focus on this. Paired reviewers screened titles and abstracts. Full texts were evaluated for study design, sample size, geographic context, and strength of evidence, with attention to impacts on vulnerable populations where data were available. Study type, exposure assignment, and strength of evidence were further confirmed by a team member with Master's level qualification in epidemiology. Most of the included studies were based on ecological designs. Cold exposure, temperature variability, and extreme thermal events were most consistently associated with increased stroke risk. Although cold effects were generally stronger than heat effects, heat effects have been increasing over time. Increased stroke incidence was also associated with low or varying barometric pressure, rapid humidity shifts, and exposure to wildfire smoke, dust, and sandstorms, particularly among older adults and those in low- and middle-income countries. Compound weather events, such as concurrent heat and humidity extremes, showed additive or synergistic effects on stroke incidence and mortality. Despite heterogeneity in definitions and methods and most evidence supporting associations rather than proving causation, the overall direction of evidence across exposures was positive, coherent, and biologically plausible. Advancing mitigation efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions is essential, since limiting further climate change directly decreases the environmental drivers of stroke risk and protects long-term population brain health, along with broader climate-related health risks. Stroke professionals and organizations can meaningfully contribute through local, regional, and global advocacy. Climate-related environmental variables already meaningfully increase stroke risk and exacerbate existing health inequities. To further counter these trends, stroke prevention and care systems should integrate climate risk awareness, patient education, and early-warning mechanisms into clinical practice and health system planning. Priority areas include targeted protection for vulnerable groups, standardized exposure metrics, longitudinal surveillance, systematized education on climate change's impact on brain health, and expansion of research in underrepresented regions. Strengthening global collaboration and embedding climate resilience into stroke systems of care are critical for reducing both stroke-related morbidity and the wider health impacts of a climate-impacted world. This scientific statement has been reviewed and approved by the WSO Executive.

Warming climates, fewer bats? Assessing future risks to pest suppression services

Lung transplantation is conspicuously resource intensive, yet the carbon footprint of solid organ transplantation, and lung transplantation in particular, remains relatively unmapped. Moreover, there is growing evidence that climate change adversely affects lung transplant recipients, directly and indirectly. This review explores opportunities to integrate sustainable practices across the lung transplantation pathway, with the dual aims of reducing environmental impact and reducing recipient morbidity and mortality. Published literature outlines mitigation strategies to reduce the drivers of climate change, and adaptation strategies to modify the hazardous effects of the climate crisis on healthcare services. Opportunities to create "green chains" of transplant care start with appropriate recipient and donor selection, with both elements optimised to maximise operative success and avoid donor organ discard. The peri-operative phase offers scope for decarbonisation via the reduction of anaesthetic gas emissions, green procurement, and waste reduction. In the post-transplant phase, enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programmes feed into longer term surveillance and care delivery, with increasing opportunities for telemedicine and noninvasive allograft monitoring, to reduce travel-related emissions. The co-ordinated adoption of low-carbon, sustainable practices within lung transplantation offers a meaningful opportunity to reduce environmental harm, enhance healthcare infrastructure and workforce resilience, and improve patient outcomes in a patient cohort vulnerable to climate change. Lessons can be drawn from the global surgery movement; however, it remains the responsibility of transplant practitioners to foster a culture of environmental advocacy and to implement systematic measurement and targets for climate change and health indicators.

Climate and land-use interactions shape the future of an endangered butterfly in a warming world

An optimization framework for integrating electric vehicles and carbon capture: Bridging cost gaps via electric vehicles deployment

To survive climate change, forest trees will have to shift seed production poleward. However, warming will not stimulate tree fecundity in the north if it is limited by other habitat variables. We evaluated the responses of tree fecundity to climate change for 292 tree species in North America and Europe, using response velocity, defined as (climate sensitivity) × (climate-change rate). The sensitivities to climate were estimated for each species and combined with rates of climate change to quantify how temperature, moisture deficits, and late freeze are influencing biogeographic shifts in tree reproduction. The results show that moisture deficit and late freeze, not annual temperature, drive changing seed production. Unlike annual temperature, which is increasing generally, change in these climate variables is not driving poleward shifts in seed production. These findings do not challenge the expectation that forests might eventually shift poleward. Rather, they show why current efforts offer divergent interpretations. The changes happening now are not consistent with annual temperature trends. As warming continues, fecundity changes can best be anticipated from temperature interactions with precipitation and extremes that impact flowering and fruiting in winter and spring.

Synergistic impacts of heat, pollen, and air pollution on allergic rhinitis and asthma under climate change: A 20-year time-series study.

Increased groundwater recharge under climate change will enhance nitrogen fixation in groundwater-dependent ecosystems.

Blue carbon inventories of Spain and Portugal for their inclusion in national climate mitigation strategies.

Over the past two decades, despite significant fluctuations in China's soybean planting area, high-resolution assessments quantifying the spatially heterogeneous and nonlinear impacts of compounding economic, climatic, and policy drivers remain scarce. To fill this gap, this study uses satellite remote sensing data (2000–2022) to map 1 km gridded soybean areas across China’s three main producing regions: the Northeast China Plain (NEP), Huang-Huai and Middle-Lower Yangtze Plains (HH-MLYP), and Sichuan Basin (SCB). Integrating yield and cost‒price data, we calculated the comparative economic benefit (CEB) between soybean and maize. A random forest model with SHapley additive explanations (SHAP) quantified the contributions of CEB, climatic, and topographical variables. Results revealed that CEB, growing season precipitation, and growing degree days were the most influential drivers, explaining 14.88%, 14.47%, and 13.70% of area variation, respectively. These impacts exhibit strong spatial heterogeneity: economic factors dominate in the NEP, whereas climate is more critical in the HH-MLYP and SCB. Subsidy policies effectively expanded planting in the NEP, despite diminishing marginal effects. These findings provide a scientific basis for optimizing planting strategies and designing targeted subsidies.

The timing of phenological events, such as the start of season (SOS) and end of the season (EOS), is critical to understand the response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change. Phenology patterns in space are not easily detected in multi-layered canopy structures, such as broadleaved deciduous forests; discrepancies in measures from the ground and space are known. Lidar signals can penetrate canopy and is potentially useful to solve some of the challenges in remote sensing phenology. Here, phenology time series derived from LiDAR-based Plant Area Index (PAI) from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) were compared with passive optical Leaf Area Index (LAI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and further evaluated using high-resolution Sentinel-2–derived phenological metrics Results evidence clear differences in the detection of the senescence phase in broadleaved European forests at different latitudes, with GEDI-PAI estimating EOS up to 49 days later than MODIS-LAI. Sentinel-2–derived EOS dates were intermediate between MODIS and GEDI estimates (∼35 days), supporting the interpretation that GEDI captures structural signals persisting beyond optical senescence. GEDI-PAI consistently retrieved later EOS dates and longer growing season length, reflecting its sensitivity to canopy structural changes during leaf fall. Robust phenological signals were detected in broadleaved forests, whereas needleleaved forests showed limited seasonal GEDI-PAI variability. In contrast, MODIS-LAI better captures changes in leaf color and greenness and better represents fine-scale variations during the active growing season. Overall, these findings demonstrate that optical and spaceborne LiDAR sensors capture complementary aspects of forest phenology, and that their integration improves phenological characterization relevant to ecological and climate change research. • GEDI-PAI has the capability to detect seasonal variations in European forests. • GEDI-PAI and MODIS-LAI showed a high correlation in broadleaved forests. • MODIS-LAI values are higher than GEDI-PAI during the active growing period. • In contrast to MODIS-LAI, GEDI-PAI detects the senescence phase later in broadleaved forests. • GEDI-PAI_z captures foliage changes in vegetative/non-vegetative periods along vertical profile.

Mountain forests provide essential ecosystem services, including protection against natural hazards. However, climate change and the predominance of structurally homogeneous Norway spruce stands increase their predisposition to disturbances such as windthrow, bark beetle infestation, and snow breakage. Given limited resources for proactive and reactive forest management, prioritizing silvicultural interventions is crucial. We present a framework for the spatially explicit assessment of forest predisposition to snow breakage, windthrow, and bark beetle infestation at 10 m resolution across regional scales. The approach integrates high-resolution forest structural and site factor attributes primarily derived from nationally available airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. These attributes are weighted using an expert-based model according to their influence on disturbance predisposition. Weighted values are aggregated and classified into four predisposition classes, from low (< 50th) to extreme (> 95th percentile). Validation of local foresters at 142 reference sites showed significant correlations between forester-rated and modeled predisposition for windthrow and bark beetle, but not for snow breakage. New bark beetle infestations were strongly associated with increasing predisposition classes. Forest structural parameters such as forest mixture and spruce share, development stage, and canopy layering were key predictors and could be determined with high accuracy, enabling detailed and accurate predisposition mapping even in steep terrain. Assessing predisposition to snow breakage remains challenging due to the high stochastic variability in the location, characteristics, and amount of snow fall. As the main predictors are derived from nationwide ALS data, the methodology is transferable to other mountain regions. Developed in close collaboration with practitioners, the framework supports operational forest management by improving prioritization of interventions. • Framework for spatially explicit predisposition mapping in mountain forests. • Use of detailed forest structure parameters based on nationwide airborne laser scanning. • High correlation between predisposition mapping and on-site forester assessment. • Increase of detected bark beetle nests with increasing predisposition class. • Support of spatial prioritization of forest management interventions.

Climate change and entrance channel reconfiguration impacts on a low inflow estuary