To make climate scenarios work for decision-makers, an international team of researchers developed a comprehensive interactive online platform. It is the first of its kind to provide the tools to use those scenarios – from climate impacts to mitigation and energy options – to a broader public beyond science. The scenarios help policy makers and businesses, finance actors and civil society alike to assess the threat of global warming and ways to limit it.
A webtool giving an overview of climate change in Europe and predicting subsequent developments was created as a joint collaboration between French, Spanish, German and Estonian researchers.
Valued at dining room tables and factory floors alike, cassava is worth about $10 billion in Asia. The continued growth of the commodity faces challenges from climate change, land degradation and limited investment in crop improvement and disease.
The researchers found that farms with diverse crops planted together provide more secure, stable habitats for wildlife and are more resilient to climate change than the single-crop standard that dominates today’s agriculture industry.
Drifting algae in the Austral Ocean can bring invasive species to the Antarctic coasts, according to a new study. The report describes the first scientific evidence of a potentially invasive and colonial species –the marine bryozoan Membranipora membranacea- which reaches the Antarctic latitude islands in macroalgae that drift in the marine environment.
Plant life is expanding in the area around Mount Everest, and across the Himalayan region, new research shows. Scientists used satellite data to measure the extent of subnival vegetation – plants growing between the treeline and snowline – in this vast area.
Improper adoption of climate impact modelling could leave us ill prepared for even higher temperatures and more frequent heatwaves, according to new research.
The size and ferocity of the Australian fires this summer has shocked us all. This is just the beginning of catastrophic climate change – next year may be better, we may even have several years in a row without major fires but there is no doubt that we will see further destruction until the cause of global warming is addressed and CO2 emissions are curtailed.
Botanists from have discovered that “penny-pinching” evergreen species such as Christmas favourites, holly and ivy, are more climate change-ready in the face of warming temperatures than deciduous “big-spending” water consumers like birch and oak. As such, they are more likely to prosper in the near future.
The catastrophic bushfires raging across much of Australia have not only taken a huge human and economic toll, but also delivered heavy blows to biodiversity and ecosystem function. Scientists are warning of catastrophic extinctions of animals and plants.
