If the ocean circulation, known as AMOC, shuts down, it would be a climate disaster, particularly for Europe and North America. New research shows why that might not happen as soon as some fear.
The Great Barrier Reef is facing its worst summer of sustained heat stress since the mass bleaching event of 1998, but now with less time to recover amid repeated brutal conditions.
Is there really a secret continent to Australia’s north? Not quite. The Maritime Continent is a region where hot seas and islands shape the world’s climate.
The ‘20°C effect’ could give us new insights into how temperature controls ecosystems and influences evolution – as well as how species might adapt to climate change.
Most of the 1 billion people in informal settlements are in the tropics where the threat of humid heat is rising. Poor weather station coverage that misses local hotspots puts them even more at risk.
Marco Túlio Pacheco Coelho, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL); Catherine Graham, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York) et Dave Roberts, Montana State University
A new study reveals how the geography of global climates influences the rich patterns of species diversity in an ever-changing world.
Invertebrates are “the little things that run the world”. So researchers decided to count all the ants on Earth, to help monitor how they’re coping with environmental challenges.
Climate change has already made tropical oceans too hot for some marine species to survive. As they flee towards the poles, the implications for ecosystems and human livelihoods will be profound.
Hollywood movies have long leaned into colonial representations of the tropics: imagined as romantic palm-fringed coasts full of abundance, but also scary places full of pestilence and primitiveness.
Absolute temperatures are expected to rise more slowly in the tropics than in higher latitudes and polar regions, but the combination of heat and rising humidity will make life more challenging.
Schistosome worms infect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Researchers have discovered how to use inexpensive drones to identify disease hotspots in remote African villages.
The jet stream is being distorted on both sides by fast-warming tropical and Arctic air. Should the tropics win out, weather patterns could change profoundly.