Climate Shifts Research Articles

Climate change and plant pathogens: Understanding dynamics, risks and mitigation strategies

AbstractClimate change is reshaping the interactions between plants and pathogens, exerting profound effects on global agricultural systems. Elevated tropospheric ozone levels due to climate change hinder plant photosynthesis and increase vulnerability to biotic invasion. The prevailing atmospheric conditions, including temperature and humidity, profoundly influence fungal pathogenesis, as each stage of a pathogen's life cycle is intricately linked to temperature variations. Likewise, climate change alters bacterial behaviour, fostering increased production of extracellular polysaccharides by plant‐pathogenic bacteria in warmer temperatures. Heat‐adapted bacteria, such as Burkholderia glumea and Ralstonia solanacearum, are emerging as significant global threats as temperature rise. Viruses, too, respond dynamically to climate shifts, with certain species favouring warmer climates for replication, resulting in expanded geographical ranges and modified transmission patterns. Nematodes, formidable constraints in crop production, exhibit temperature‐dependent life cycles and would have potentially accelerated proliferation and distribution as global warming progresses. Molecular‐level changes in pathogenesis, induced by temperature fluctuations, influence various pathogens, thereby impacting their virulence and interactions with host plants. Modelling studies predict changes in disease risks and distributions under future climate scenarios, highlighting the necessity of integrating climate data into crop disease models for accurate forecasts. Mechanistic and observational models illustrate pathogen behaviours amidst changing environmental conditions, providing crucial insights into future disease dynamics. In addition, controlled experiments study disease responses under simulated climate scenarios, underscoring the urgency for comprehensive research to devise effective resistance strategies against severe plant diseases.

Uneven global retreat of persistent mountain snow cover alongside mountain warming from ERA5-land

The warming of mountains has become evident in recent years, with a mean global warming rate of 1.19 °C from 1979 to 2022. However, unveiling the global divergent decline of persistent mountain snow cover in the face of climate shifts remains unexplored. However, the global decline of persistent mountain snow cover due to climate change is not well understood. This study uses reanalysis and satellite data to examine changes in snow cover lasting over six months across our global mountain regions. We reveal a significant global mean decline of 7.79% in persistent snow cover over the past 44 years. The regional snow cover trends exhibit a heterogeneous and non-linear response to its regional warming rate. Our findings highlight the interplay between global warming and snow cover, emphasizing the need for sustainable development strategies to address the potential impacts of diminishing mountain snow.

Unveiling ancient Jerusalem’s pastoral dynamics (7th to 2nd centuries BCE) with multi-isotope analysis

This study explores changes in pastoral practices in the Jerusalem region (Iron Age II - Late Hellenistic) through a multi-isotope approach (strontium, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen). Based on the analysis of 135 sheep, goat, and cattle teeth and bone samples from Givati Parking Lot we demonstrate the value of this method in reconstructing past animal husbandry, revealing adaptation and resilience of pastoral communities amidst environmental and socio-political changes. Isotopic analysis indicates local sourcing for most animals, with intriguing outliers from distant regions up to 150 km away, suggesting regional exchange networks. Notably, the Persian period (5th century BCE) exhibits a wider isotope range, implying increased flexibility and exploitation of diverse grazing lands, potentially driven by climate shifts and political upheavals. Conversely, Late Hellenistic (2nd century BCE) livestock display restricted movement, while showcasing a rise in desert caprines, indicative of increased import compared to the Persian era. These findings highlight the dynamism and adaptability of past pastoral communities, adjusting their strategies in response to various pressures. This study opens new avenues for understanding human-environment interactions in the Levant and underscores the power of multi-isotope approaches in unraveling intricate socio-economic and ecological dynamics of the past.

The LTAR Integrated Common Experiment at Southern Plains.

The Southern Plains (SP) is one of 18 Long-Term Agroecosystem Research network sites that combine strategic research projects with common measurements across multiple agroecosystems. Projects at the SP site focus on the use of indicator measurements to aid in assessment of land and nutrient management's impact on soil health, water quality, carbon and water balances, and forage biomass-quality in diversified, adaptive crop-livestock systems designed to overcome shifts in natural resources and climate. The prevailing treatment is tilled winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) that is grazed, hayed, harvested for grain, or grazed and harvested for grain. The alternative treatment is year-round annual cover crop forage mixes for cattle (Bos taurus) production planted in fall and spring under conservation tillage management. The area is subject to variable weather and climatic shifts that reduce the potential to diversify forage crops and limit grazing in southern tall grass prairies and small grain systems. Incorporation of fertilized, rain-fed, annual cool and warm season mixtures of cover crops could fill forage gaps. The presence of year-round ground cover reduces sediment and nutrient loading to surface waters while enhancing soil health and water holding capacity. Tools to aid agricultural producers and land and water resource managers have been developed and implemented to determine how climate, topography, and varying conservation management practices alter hydrological structures, greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and soil resources.

Evaluating the continued significance of dam-induced vigorous downstream channel erosion in the context of projected climate change: a case study from Peninsular India

ABSTRACT Although erosion has naturally been driven by rainfall patterns, human activities have increasingly influenced erosion rates in recent times. However, as climate change alters precipitation, future erosion control may once again depend primarily on climate. The primary goal of this investigation was to ascertain whether the issue of escalated erosion, typically linked to downstream dam effects, could diminish in significance due to projected climatic shifts later in this century. An erosion potential index (Ep), formulated as the ratio of the mass of sediment influx from upstream to the frequency of the sediment-carrying flow events, was computed on a tributary of the Godavari River, located downstream of a dam. Using the Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), virtual experiments were conducted to distinguish the impacts of the dam from projected climate changes on river geomorphology. Two control scenarios were created using the current climate data and simulated regulated and unregulated states of the basin. Employing climate projections and various mitigation scenarios (SSPs) for the 2060s and 2090s, this study estimated Ep values exclusively under future climatic conditions in an unregulated state of the basin. Results indicate that, in the unregulated state without the existence of the upstream dam, future climate impacts on erosion outweigh the current effects of the dam, underscoring the growing influence of climate on geomorphology. It suggests that existing structural interventions may lose their geomorphic significance in the face of future climate conditions.

The macroecology of Mesozoic dinosaurs

Dinosaurs thrived for over 160 million years in Mesozoic ecosystems, displaying diverse ecological and evolutionary adaptations. Their ecology was shaped by large-scale climatic and biogeographic changes, calling for a ‘deep-time’ macroecological investigation. These factors include temperature fluctuations and the break up of Pangaea, influencing species richness, ecological diversity and biogeographic history. Recent improvements in the dinosaur fossil record have enabled large-scale studies of their responses to tectonic, geographic and climatic shifts. Trends in species diversity, body size and reproductive traits can now be analysed using quantitative approaches like phylogenetic comparative methods, machine learning and Bayesian inference. These patterns sometimes align with, but also deviate from, first-order macroecological rules (e.g. species–area relationship, latitudinal biodiversity gradient, Bergmann’s rule). Accurate reconstructions of palaeobiodiversity and niche partitioning require ongoing taxonomic revisions and detailed anatomical descriptions. Interdisciplinary research combining sedimentology, geochemistry and palaeoclimatology helps uncover the environmental conditions driving dinosaur adaptations. Fieldwork in under-sampled regions, particularly at latitudinal extremes, is crucial for understanding the spatial heterogeneity of dinosaur ecosystems across the planet. Open science initiatives and online databases play a key role in advancing this field, enriching our understanding of deep-time ecological processes, and offering new insights into dinosaur macroecology and its broader implications.

Oropouche Virus Infection: Differential Clinical Outcomes and Emerging Global Concerns of Vertical Transmission and Fatal Cases

Oropouche virus (OROV), a member of the Peribunyaviridae family, has emerged as a significant arboviral threat, particularly in South and Central America. Traditionally causing mild febrile illness, recent outbreaks have revealed severe clinical outcomes, including aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, and, more recently, vertical transmission leading to congenital anomalies and fatalities. Environmental changes, including deforestation and climate shifts, have expanded the virus's geographic range, as seen in Brazil, where over 8,000 cases were reported by August 2024, compared to fewer than 831in 2023. For the first time, vertical transmission has been confirmed, with cases of fetal deaths and congenital anomalies such as microcephaly and agenesis of the corpus callosum, drawing parallels to the Zika virus outbreak in 2015–2016. Despite these alarming trends, key mechanisms of placental transmission, maternal immunity, and fetal susceptibility remain poorly understood. This perspective highlights the urgent need for a coordinated global response, focusing on enhanced surveillance in newly affected regions, vector control strategies, and research into the factors driving severe clinical outcomes. Strengthening global efforts will be crucial in mitigating the public health threat posed by OROV, particularly in light of its potential for further geographic expansion and severe clinical manifestations.

An improbable driver of “just transitions”? Union power in the coal heartland of Western Australia ‘s climate and energy shift

Much scholarship in the nascent field of climate crisis and labour assumes that trade unions can readily become agents of “just transition” to post‑carbon energy systems but simply lack a willingness to do so. We investigate this problem more deeply by asking: under what precise circumstances might unions drive “just transitions”? Drawing upon a case study of one union's effort to build a just transition in the energy generation sector of one fossil-fuel reliant region in Australia, we show that union leaders have seen themselves as agents of change, capable of driving internal change and deploying power resources for a just transition. This transition from a carbon energy system is, however, fragile because the shape of a post-transition region remains unclear and sits in the hands of capital and the state.

Climatic drought and trophic disruption in an endemic subalpine Hawaiian forest bird

Overexploitation, habitat conversion, and introduced species have caused unprecedented extinctions and heavily degraded native bird populations in island ecosystems. In the Hawaiian Islands, stemming these losses has proven difficult as the highly specialized avifauna are often impacted – among other things – by poorly understood trophic disruptions as well as persistent climatic shifts. Here we investigate these dynamics by examining the trophic positions of 7 different taxa of producers and consumers across the last century in the subalpine māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) forest ecosystem on the island of Hawaiʻi. From museum collections and contemporary sampling, we analyzed the stable nitrogen (δ15N) values of producers and consumers to identify trophic and source amino acids and derive trophic enrichment constants specific to this food web. This enables us to reconstruct the diet of the palila (Loxioides bailleui), a critically endangered finch whose population recently declined 90 %. Our results show that from 1890 to 2006, the palila trophic position declined from 2.6 to 2.2, with cascading implications for its diet. Bayesian mixing model reconstructions indicate that palila trophic position changes likely arose from a 76 % decline (69.3 % to 16.6 % of diet) in the consumption of native moth caterpillars, and a 172 % increase (30.7 % to 83.4 %) in native plants. From the available ecosystem variables, exploratory Bayesian multiple regressions selected surface temperature changes, and the interactions of surface temperatures with drought and caterpillar parasitism as the primary drivers of these trophic changes. Despite the predicted increases of warming and drought, management interventions may build resiliency in this unique island ecosystem.

Erosional Response to Pleistocene Climate Changes in the Brazilian Highlands

AbstractPlio‐Quaternary climatic changes are considered to be a key driver of landscape evolution, but many unresolved questions remain, such as the extent of the impact of major climatic shifts such as the Mid‐Pleistocene Transition (MPT). Various geochronological methods are available to infer changes in surface processes over the Plio‐Quaternary, and Terrestrial Cosmogenic Nuclides (TCN) have proven to be one of the most efficient tools to reconstruct paleo‐denudation. Implementing these approaches requires very specific conditions, such as well‐preserved and extensive sediment sequences. Developing alternative methods to document the evolution of denudation is thus of major interest to retrieve information on the evolution of denudation in places where recent detrital sediment records are absent. We explore the evolution of landscape erosion over a 1 Ma timescale in an intra‐cratonic setting, the Espinhaço mountain range (Brazil), with a new data set of detrital cosmogenic nuclide concentrations (26Al–10Be). We observe a systematic disequilibrium in the 26Al/10Be ratio, which we interpret as resulting from the combination of soil mixing and a significant increase in the intensity of surface processes, close to the MPT. We discuss the different scenarios with respect to available local and global data concerning the relationships between climate evolution and erosion over this time period. Our results have important implications for the interpretation of the denudation rates derived from TCN concentrations under steady states assumption, in landscapes with low erosion rates, which have a long memory for surface processes history.

Climatic and environmental changes since last deglaciation in the steppe region of northern China and their impact on early population survival patterns

The northern Chinese steppe is situated in the periphery of the East Asian Summer Monsoon and exhibits high sensitivity to variations in monsoon intensity and global climate change. Therefore, comprehending the climatic evolution history of this region is pivotal for elucidating early human civilization development. The research focuses on a fully enclosed crater lake located in the northern Chinese steppe by utilizing n-alkanes, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) in lake sediments, based on AMS-14C dating analysis, the climatic and environmental evolution history of this region from the last deglaciation to the middle Holocene has been reconstructed, and the impact of climate change on the evolution of early human civilization is elucidated. The findings indicate that the EASM driven by summer solar radiation, exerts control over the climate and hydrology in the steppe region of northern China. Since the last deglaciation, the gradual warming and humidification of the climate environment have significantly enhanced the animal and plant resources, thereby establishing a solid foundation for the transition of early human populations in northern Chinese steppe from high-mobility hunter-gatherers to settled communities. Additionally, this climatic shift has provided an optimal backdrop for the emergence of primitive agriculture. The changes of stone tool assemblages unearthed at related sites also confirm the above views. However, the climate model underwent rapid changes during the period of 7.2–6.4 cal kyr BP, leading to the occurrence of extreme arid climate events. Consequently, regional precipitation decreased, lake ecology became imbalanced, woody plants retreated in the basin, and vegetation coverage was greatly reduced. The aforementioned factor may have played a pivotal role in the disappearance of early populations within the region. Consequently, climate and environmental change not only serve as the primary driving force behind human civilization’s development but also act as an inexorable catalyst for its decline.

Interlocking Elements to Control Erosion in Natural and Urban Ecosystems

Advancements in comprehending soil erosion alleviation, relevant to both natural terrains and urban settings, have experienced notable growth in knowledge and products. Nevertheless, the increasing influence of climate change-driven forces, extreme weather events, and human-caused actions have resulted in reduced attainment of the desired results in erosion mitigation efforts. This paper aims to investigate how interlocking elements contribute to the reduction of soil erosion in natural landscapes and urban green spaces. This will be achieved by analyzing published materials, patents, installation instructions, manuals, and reports from organizations. Furthermore, we delve into novel interlocking products and emerging strategies like soft solutions and ecologically engineered blocks designed to effectively address soil erosion within vegetated habitats while enhancing the system’s capacity to adapt and withstand shifts in climate, curbing soil loss, and diminishing the speed of water runoff, consequently mitigating the potential for erosion. Geotechnical engineering and other erosion control solutions like biobased interlocking components and interlocking permeable blocks offer promise in safeguarding natural landscapes and urban infrastructure from erosion-related impacts. The geotextiles market, for instance, which was valued at over $7 billion in 2022, is anticipated to experience an annual growth rate of 6.6% from 2023 to 2030. This growth can be attributed to increasing environmental concerns related to soil erosion and the rapid urbanization occurring in developing countries. However, continuous progress in the economic viability and sustainability of these techniques and products is crucial to effectively achieve erosion mitigation goals in the face of a shifting climate.

Battling Climatic Shifts: Vulnerability of Coffee-Based Farm Households and Resilient Practices in Coffee Farms, Wayanad, Kerala

Battling Climatic Shifts: Vulnerability of Coffee-Based Farm Households and Resilient Practices in Coffee Farms, Wayanad, Kerala

Repeated shifts out of tropical climates preceded by whole genome duplication.

While flowering plants have diversified in virtually every terrestrial clime, climate constrains the distribution of individual lineages. Overcoming climatic constraints may be associated with diverse evolutionary phenomena including whole genome duplication (WGD), gene-tree conflict, and life-history changes. Climatic shifts may also have facilitated increases in flowering plant diversification rates. We investigate climatic shifts in the flowering plant order Ericales, which consists of c. 14 000 species with diverse climatic tolerances. We estimate phylogenetic trees from transcriptomic data, 64 chloroplast loci, and Angiosperms353 nuclear loci that, respectively, incorporate 147, 4508, and 2870 Ericales species. We use these phylogenetic trees to analyse how climatic shifts are associated with WGD, gene-tree conflict, life-history, and diversification rates. Early branches in the phylogenetic trees are extremely short, and have high levels of gene-tree conflict and at least one WGD. On lineages descended from these early branches, there is a significant association between climatic shifts (primarily out of tropical climates), further WGDs, and life-history. Extremely short early branches, and their associated gene-tree conflict and WGDs, appear to underpin the explosive origin of numerous species rich Ericales clades. The evolution of diverse climatic tolerances in these species rich clades is tightly associated with WGD and life-history.

The applicability of paleontological research to the study of climate change

Paleontology—the study of prehistoric organisms, how they evolved, and what environments they lived in—can be a crucial source for understanding climate change as a whole. By studying prehistoric climates, researchers can deduce how animals in the past reacted to these climate shifts and whether they survived or went extinct. Unfortunately, various stereotypes and biases against the study of prehistoric climates, formally known as paleoclimatic studies, and the question of reliability from proxy data and climate models restrain the field’s potential to help create sufficient emergency measures for a swiftly-changing planet. This paper reviews why paleoclimatic data is assumed irrelevant in professional and public spaces and questions this skepticism. By creating a bridge between climate-caused extinction-level events and modern phenomena, we can determine the consequences of global warming that could have a destructive impact on the planet in the future.

Climate Change Effects in Stock Markets

Climate change significantly impacts global stock markets through both short-term extreme weather events and long-term climate shifts. This study examines the relationship between CO2 emissions and stock returns across 19 countries from 2001 to 2020 using regression analysis. The findings also reveal a positive correlation between CO2 emissions and stock returns, indicating that investors anticipate higher returns to offset climate-related risks. This suggests that higher CO2 emissions drive investor expectations for increased returns to compensate for potential economic losses. The study highlights the importance of balanced emission reduction strategies and promoting green finance to support sustainable economic growth. Additionally, it underscores the need to integrate climate risks into financial decision-making, offering valuable insights into the financial implications of climate change and guiding policymakers and investors in addressing these challenges. By providing empirical evidence on the link between CO2 emissions and stock returns, this research enriches existing knowledge and emphasizes the financial risks and opportunities presented by climate change. The study's results align with the carbon risk premium theory, which posits that investors demand higher returns from companies with higher carbon emissions. This study advocates for policies that balance economic growth with environmental sustainability, promoting green finance initiatives to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on financial markets.

Reassessing water resource challenges in a changing climate in the Kagera transboundary river basin, Tanzania

The dynamic shifts in climatic patterns, particularly alterations in precipitation, have significantly impacted water resource availability and accessibility. These climate-induced changes affect hydrological processes, encompassing runoff, groundwater replenishment, water demand, and biophysical patterns within river basins. This study seeks to unravel the multifaceted implications encountered and challenges in water resource management within the river basin. It employed a survey-based approach for data collection, including Key informant interviews (KI), consultation methods and documentary reviews. The study utilized Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel for quantitative analysis and thematic synthesis for qualitative insights, including local community perspectives. The findings reveal substantial fluctuations in precipitation, protracted droughts, severe flooding, and other climatic extremes. The observed annual mean rainfall of 832 mm, with a standard deviation of 248, a standard error of 361, and a skewness of −945, accentuates the pronounced variability in mean precipitation, exhibiting a declining trend indicative of climatic shifts (R2 = 0.1797 and P = 0.002). The challenges are limited access to hydrological and meteorological data, undermining prediction accuracy, infrastructure planning, and response strategies for water resource allocation and management. The absence of unified approaches, influenced by the politics of riparian states, feeble coordination, conflicting sectoral policies, and ambiguous priorities, hinders effective transboundary water resource management. The study addresses these complexities and advocates for institutionalizing robust water management strategies that capitalize on existing resources and foster innovative capacities among critical stakeholders. Central to these efforts is harmonizing and enforcing policies, regulations, and laws governing water use, coupled with a concerted focus on inclusive governance to ensure the sustainability of water resource management. Such effort entails synchronized strategies, programs, plans, and livelihood practices underpinned by active stakeholder involvement in pivotal facets of water resources management.

Impacts of a short-interval severe fire on forest structure and regeneration in a temperate Andean Araucaria-Nothofagus forest

BackgroundWarmer climate conditions are altering fire regimes globally, eroding the capacity of forest ecosystems to resist and recover from natural disturbances like wildfire. Severe and rapidly repeated wildfires are promoting tree regeneration failure of obligate-seeders and/or fire-sensitive species in temperate forests of the Southern Hemisphere. We collected post-fire field data to evaluate whether forest structure and tree regeneration responses varied between two Andean forest study areas dominated by the threatened Gondwanan conifer Araucaria araucana and Nothofagus species (southern beeches) — one area burned once, the other reburned after 13 years.ResultsTree mortality was high across species after a single high severity and/or repeated wildfire, although some A. araucana trees were able to survive both events. Post-fire seedling regeneration of A. araucana and Nothofagus spp. was poor in areas affected by severe wildfires, and the latter was absent from reburned plots. A key driver of this regeneration failure was increasing distance to live seed source trees, which was negatively correlated with these species’ post-fire seedling abundances. In contrast, species with the capacity to regenerate via resprouting (A. araucana, N. alpina, N. obliqua) did so after a single high severity fire; however, only a single Nothofagus species (N. alpina) resprouted abundantly after a reburn.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that high severity and short-interval fires can drastically change the structure of and limit post-fire tree regeneration in Araucaria-Nothofagus forests, promoting alternative post-fire forest ecosystem trajectories. Resprouting species of the Nothofagus genus, especially N. alpina, exhibit the greatest resilience to these emerging fire patterns. These forests are currently facing an unprecedented climatic shift toward greater fire activity, where resprouting is the favored regeneration strategy. If the occurrence of severe and short-interval fires increases in the coming decades, as predicted, we expect Araucaria-Nothofagus forests to shift toward a drier, more flammable shrubland ecosystem state.

Earth observation reveals the shifting patterns of China's lake colour driven by climate change and land cover

Water colour has been recognized as one of the most important Essential Climate Variables of the lake ecosystem, as it is directly related to changes in water constituents and almost all of the lake's ecological changes could alter water colour. Given the high retrieval accuracy from existing Earth observation satellite data, water colour, in terms of Forel Ule Index (FUI), can be a realistic indicator to track the long-term changes in the lake ecosystem and further explore the lake response to environmental changes. This paper aims to comprehensively investigate the spatiotemporal variation patterns of FUI in 159 large lakes (≥25 km2) across China during 2000–2022 based on the MODIS data and detect the climatic and anthropogenic driving forces of these changes. The 23 years of MODIS records revealed an overall downward trend of lake FUI across China, indicating the lakes in China shifted to bluer colour during the past two decades. Through driving factor analyses, the complicated interplay among lake colour, lake morphology, regional climate shifts and human interference dynamics was uncovered. In the long term, it was found the pronounced change in lake colour in the western lake zones was primarily attributed to climate warming and humidification, whereas that in the eastern lake zones was mainly related to the alterations in regional land cover during the past two decades. Seasonally, lake basin's air temperature was identified as the main factor impacting the seasonal patterns of lake colour, followed by wind speed and runoff. Spatially, there was high spatial variability in lake colour across China, which was mainly associated with lake elevation and lake basin's precipitation rate, although the factors exhibited considerable divergence across different zones. Based upon the above findings, the implications for lake environment protection and management in different regions of China were further discussed.

8156 Exploring Gender-Specific Characteristics Of Diabetes Among Young Adults In Korea: The Korea National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2012 And 2019-2020

Abstract Disclosure: C. Chung: None. Background: The escalating global incidence of diabetes among young adults could be linked to dynamic socio-environmental changes including pandemic and climate shifts. In this investigation, we aimed to discern the distinct features of diabetes among young adults in Korea. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 63,489,047 Korean young adults (32,173,248 male, 31,315,799 female) aged 20-39 years who participated in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2012 and 2020-2021. Diabetes cases were identified through hospital diagnoses or the prescription of insulin or non-insulinemic anti-diabetic medications. The significant insulin resistance was defined as HOMA-IR above 2.9. Complex sampling design and cross-tabulation analyses were used to examine both socioeconomic and laboratory factors. Results: The prevalence of diabetes was higher in men in both 2011-2012 and 2020-2021 (Men vs. Women, 2011-2012: 2.2 ± 0.5 vs. 1.2 ± 0.3 %, p<0.001; 2020-2021: 3.0 ± 0.5 vs. 1.6 ± 0.3 %, p<0.001). The use of insulin and oral hypoglycemic agent (OHA) was comparable between men and women in 2011-2012 (Insulin: 18.1 ± 8.2 vs. 5.2 ± 5.1 %, p=0.305; OHA, 18.2 ± 6.3 vs. 19.5 ± 6.5 %, p=0.239), but more women used insulin and more men used OHA in 2020-2021 (Insulin: 5.3 ± 3.7 vs. 28.7 ± 9.4 %, p=0.016; OHA: 31.4 ± 7.7 vs. 19.6 ± 7.3 %, p=0.009). Execution of fundus exam (25.7 ± 10.6 vs. 68.5 ± 14.1 %, p=0.021) and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy (0 vs. 8.9 ± 3.3 %, p=0.001) was higher in women in 2020-2021. HbA1c was higher in men in 2020-2021 (8.1 ± 0.4 vs. 7.3 ± 0.3 %, p <0.001), but was similar between men and women in 2011-2012 (8.4 ± 0.6 vs. 8.1 ± 0.6 %, p=0.697). Obesity, one of the most common comorbidities of diabetes, was higher in women in 2011-2012 (24.8 ± 4.8 vs. 79.4 ± 9.3 %, p<0.001), but was higher in men in 2020-2021 (94.4 ± 2.9 vs. 67.8 ± 11.0 %, p<0.001). The factors associated with increase in HOMA-IR in 2020-2021 was different between men and women. Unexpectedly, men with low mental stress showed positive correlation with HOMA-IR (B = 3.9, 95% CI 0.1-7.7, p=0.047). For women, mental stress did not affect HOMA-IR, but those with regular anaerobic exercise (B = -10.5, 95% CI -18.3 - -2.6, p=0.011) and stable employment status (B = -11.9, 95% CI -19.4 - -4.8, p=0.002) presented negative correlation with HOMA-IR. Conclusion: In comparison to before the COVID-19 pandemic, men diabetic patients showed more obese tendency after COVID-19, and there was also a statistically significant difference in HbA1c disparity with women. The higher prevalence of diabetic retinopathy despite of lower HbA1c in women during pandemic era needs to be further investigated in well-designed cohort study. Presentation: 6/3/2024