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Decreased time spent outside during COVID-19 lockdowns may have impacted population vitamin D levels. Here, the authors investigate evidence for this effect using routinely collected vitamin D testing data from Bavaria, Germany.

Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic assessment of these relationships and highlights the role of subjective attribution.

Inhibitors of the protein kinase Wee1 are promising drugs for cancer therapy. Here, the authors show that these drugs activate the integrated stress response via GCN2, synergising with mRNA translation defects. They suggest strategies such as PROTACs or ISR inhibitors to improve WEE1 mediated toxicity.

The width of the tropical belt affects the subtropical dry zones and has expanded since 1980. Analyses of observations and climate–chemistry model simulations suggest that the northern tropical edge retracted between 1945 and 1980.

Comparisons between past regional drivers of precipitation extremes found time series data from Lake Ohrid and modern climate models of the Mediterranean may help to reduce simulation uncertainties in predictions of the Mediterranean climate.

Refugee populations have been at high risk of COVID-19 but the impacts of the pandemic on healthcare-seeking and diagnosis of other conditions are not well described. Here, the authors use data from a network of refugee centres in Germany to explore impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on incident diagnosis patterns.

Surprisingly consistent replication failure of gray matter correlates of childhood maltreatment raises questions about publication bias in prior literature and about prevailing models linking maltreatment to brain structure in adult populations.

Organic aerosols in the Arctic are predominantly fuelled by anthropogenic sources in winter and natural sources in summer, according to observations from eight sites across the Arctic

Permafrost in Europe’s mountains has warmed by more than 1 °C per decade in certain places, matching the levels in Arctic lowlands. The strongest warming occurred at cold bedrock at the highest elevations and latitudes or after permafrost degraded.

India’s methane emissions have been quantified using atmospheric measurements to provide an independent comparison with reported emissions. Here Ganesan et al. find that derived methane emissions are consistent with India’s reports and no significant trend has been observed between 2010–2015.

Individual dietary specialization is impacted by development, social learning, genetics, and environment. Here, the authors document European brown bear diet in a multigenerational female sample, finding that social learning during rearing was the most important contributor to dietary specialization.

The Australian–Indonesian monsoon is an important component of the climate system in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. High-resolution records of monsoon-controlled austral winter upwelling during the past 22,000 years reveal that glacial–interglacial variations in the Australian–Indonesian winter monsoon have been in phase with the Indian summer monsoon system.

Proto-monsoon expansion doubled rainfall in Central Asia during an early Eocene hyperthermal, leading to a rapid if transient expansion of forests replacing the steppe-desert.

Using large-scale data describing five decades of wheat breeding progress in western Europe, a study shows that breeding for high performance enhances wheat productivity under not only optimal conditions but also conditions with reduced agrochemical inputs.

The study reconstructs 16 new time series for rock glacier flow in North America, marking the first for the continent. Analysis shows 2-3 fold accelerations in surface velocities over the past 60-70 years, linked to rising air temperatures.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

The water chemistry in reef systems can be significantly different from that of the open ocean. Now research based on observations from Bermuda shows that the responses of coral reef communities to ocean acidification could partially offset changes in seawater pH and aragonite saturation.

Selenium deficiency is a major health problem, particularly in the selenium-poor belt in China, yet its distribution in the terrestrial environment is poorly understood. Here, the authors combine geochemical and palaeoclimate data and show that selenium distribution in China may be related to East Asian monsoon rainfall.

Studying cultivar-specific sensitivities of yield components to environmental variables during developmental subphases provides deep insight into the three-way interactions between phenology, yield formation and environmental fluctuations.

The International Barley Genome Sequencing Consortium reports sequencing and assembly of a reference genome for barley, Hordeum vulgare.

Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 at the national scale tracks emerging variants.

How sand dunes situated in arid areas change under warming is not well known. Here the authors assess predicted changes in sand-moving wind regimes and find that dune shapes, speeds and directions of movement will probably change in many regions, as well as the potential expansion of sand seas and a reactivation of currently dormant dune fields.

Data for the Hindu Kush–Karakoram–Himalaya region from satellite laser altimetry and a global elevation model shows that glacier thinning varied by an order of magnitude across the region, with surface debris not seeming to provide effective insulation, and that the melting ice added several per cent to the annual discharge of the mountain rivers.

Satellite observations reveal that the Conger–Glenzer Ice Shelf collapse in East Antarctica occurred in four stages spanning a period of 25 years, culminating in its rapid disintegration in March 2022.

Marine life depends on zooplankton like krill, but it’s uncertain how these species will respond to a warming ocean. This study of genome variation in the Northern krill uncovered many gene variants that could be crucial for environmental adaptation and support stock assessment under climate change.

Quantum repeaters have been conceived as a means to extend the range of quantum secure communications, but can handle only distillable entangled states. Here, the authors introduce and study quantum key repeaters, devices which may allow long-distance quantum key distribution with non-distillable states.

Wood is the main terrestrial biotic reservoir for long-term carbon sequestration. High-resolution cellular-based measurements of wood formation dynamics in coniferous forests in northeastern France suggest that woody biomass production lags stem-girth expansion by over a month

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium causes acute gut inflammation, which promotes the growth of the pathogen through unknown mechanisms. It is now shown that the reactive oxygen species generated during inflammation react with host-derived sulphur compounds to produce tetrathionate, which the pathogen uses as a terminal electron acceptor to support its growth. The ability to use tetrathionate provides the pathogen with a competitive advantage over bacteria that lack this property.

A 500 kyr long record of vegetation change from SE Europe demonstrates that forest resilience is lost when precipitation decreases below a threshold limit, and highlights the vulnerability of Mediterranean forests to near-future climate change

Rising CO₂ levels have been thought to potentially increase plant growth due to improved fertilization, but such a general effect is spatially and temporally affected by precipitation. Grassland experiments show constraints and increases in the fertilization effect due to seasonal-based precipitation, inferring that any potential plant growth could be mitigated by natural rainfall changes.

Forest carbon source and sink processes may have contrasting climatic sensitivities. This analysis on 177 coniferous forest sites shows that carbon fluxes and wood formation are coupled but not fully synchronous at intra-annual scales, with peaks in cambial activity preceding those in photosynthesis and respiration.

Metastable helium is a promising target for remote-sensing observations of Earth’s thermosphere. This paper reports on the development of a resonance lidar capable of resolving metastable helium density profiles and presents initial results

Warm and moist air-mass intrusions into the Arctic are more frequent than the past decades. Here, the authors show that warm air mass intrusions from northern Eurasia inject record amounts of aerosols into the central Arctic Ocean strongly impacting atmospheric chemistry and cloud properties.

A 30-year monitoring study of brown bears in Sweden documents the demographic impact of regulated hunting, which includes pronounced life history changes despite sustainable management.