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The Southern Ocean seasonal ice zone can be divided into 3 dynamical regimes based on the magnitude and sign of the mean submesoscale vertical heat flux using instrumented seal data.

Persistent millennial Asian winter monsoon variability is shown to be superposed on orbital 41-kyr and 100-kyr cycles across the Pliocene–Pleistocene glacial intensification using a paleomagnetically dated high-resolution Chinese Loess Plateau grain size record.

Baleen whales migrate from high latitude feeding grounds to subtropical reproductive winter grounds, translocating limiting nutrients across ecosystems. This study estimates the latitudinal movement of nutrients from carcasses, placentas and urea for four species of baleen whales that exhibit annual migrations.

A transition from carbon sink to source for the aboveground woody biomass of moist tropical Australian forests has occurred, driven by increasingly extreme climate anomalies.

The long-term natural history of long-COVID is not well understood. In this population-based cohort study from Scotland, the authors describe symptom prevalence and health-related quality of life up to 18 months after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and compare with matched test-negative controls.

Low levels of iron limit primary productivity across much of the Southern Ocean. Measurements of dissolved iron levels combined with hydrographic data suggest that much of the iron in the surface waters of the Southern Ocean is supplied by deep mixing during winter.

Available wheat genomes are annotated by projecting Chinese Spring gene models across the new assemblies. Here, the authors generate de novo gene annotations for the 9 wheat genomes, identify core and dispensable transcriptome, and reveal conservation and divergence of gene expression balance across homoeologous subgenomes.

Bats harbor diverse coronaviruses but temporal dynamics are less well studied. Here, the authors analyzed coronaviruses in Australian flying foxes over 3 years showing peak shedding and co-infections in juveniles and subadults and providing evidence of historical and contemporary recombination between viral clades.

Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization is an effective pathway to increase soil carbon sequestration through microbial necromass accumulation and plant-derived carbon inputs, as shown by a 180-year soil fertilization experiment, ¹⁴C labelling, metagenomics and metabolomics.

A study reveals how land-use change and climate interact to drive the spillover of a zoonotic virus, and identifies an ecological mechanism that prevents spillover.

William Dobyns, Daniela Pilz and colleagues show that de novo mutations in the actin genes ACTB and ACTG1 cause Baraitser-Winter syndrome, a developmental disorder characterized by distinct craniofacial features, ocular colobomata and defects in neuronal migration.

Conducting a simulated turtlegrass herbivory experiment across 650 experimental plots and 13 seagrass meadows, the authors show that the negative effects of herbivory increase with latitude, driven by low levels of light insolation at high latitudes.

Although climate warming after the 1950s is clear in many studies, records suggest an earlier onset to industrial impacts. This study combines observational data with simulations and finds a weakening of temperature seasonality, attributable to human influence, over the Northern Hemisphere since the late nineteenth century.

Knowledge of how a disease spreads can lead to useful predictions to help manage and contain it. Here, Maher et al.model white-nose syndrome spreading in North American bats, and show that concentrated habitat distribution and longer winters can mediate pathogen dispersal, matching the ecological traits of bats.

Data from the oil- and gas-producing basin of northeastern Utah and a box model are used to assess the photochemical reactions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds that lead to excessive atmospheric ozone pollution in winter.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

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 record-low Antarctic sea-ice decline in 2023 substantially altered Southern Ocean–atmosphere interaction leading to unprecedented wintertime turbulent ocean heat loss to the atmosphere, enhanced storminess and increased dense water formation.

Liu et al. investigate the ‘boiling frog’ effect and demonstrate that binary climate data visuals increase climate change perception via creating an ‘illusion’ of sudden shifts.

Brassica napus is a globally important oil crop, but the origin of the allotetraploid genome and its improvement process are largely unknown. Here, the authors take a population genetic approach to resolve its origin and evolutionary history, and identify candidate genes related to important agricultural traits.

Nitrate observations over 11 years from autonomous biogeochemical ocean profiling combined with a Southern Hemisphere dust simulation find that iron supplied by dust supports about 30% of Southern Ocean productivity.

Analysis of soundscape data from 139 globally distributed sites reveals that sounds of biological origin exhibit predictable rhythms depending on location and season, whereas sounds of anthropogenic origin are less predictable. Comparisons between paired urban–rural sites show that urban green spaces are noisier and dominated by sounds of technological origin.

Cities are becoming hotter and brighter. Using satellite data on 428 Northern Hemisphere cities, this study found that artifical night lights outweighed hotter temperatures in lengthening urban growing seasons, with important implications for management.

Climate oscillations affect weather on different temporal-spatial scales, which poses difficulty in understanding how they influence tree reproduction. Here Ascoli et al. show relationships between low- and high-frequency components of the NAO and masting in two European tree species across multiple decades.

The dry and windy Asian glacials during the mid-Pleistocene transition were probably due to the Northern Hemisphere ice sheet expansion, suggest records of grain size and magnetic susceptibility from the Chinese Loess Plateau and model simulations.

Infectious and chronic diseases display seasonal patterns, yet seasonal changes in physiology are rarely thought to affect human health. Here the authors show seasonal variation in all major blood cells and in gene and protein expression in diverse tissues, suggesting a mechanism for seasonal disease proneness and physiology.

Amphibians have seen large population declines, but the key drivers are hard to establish. Here, Miller et al. investigate trends of occupancy for 81 species of amphibians across North America and find greater sensitivity to water availability during breeding and winter conditions than mean climate.

Arctic sea ice extent continues to decline at an unprecedented rate that climate projection models commonly underestimate. In this study, authors reveal a positive feedback between ocean-ice heat fluxes, sea ice cover, and upper-ocean vortices that is missing in coarse-resolution climate models.

This study presents hourly data from a thermistor string in Lake Michigan, inspecting its response at depth to surface warming. Based on the data, the study suggests bottom lake temperatures respond to changes in turnover and re-stratification, with the ultimate possibility of the lake shifting from dimictic to monomictic.

Speleothem records from caves in Arctic Siberia allow for the reconstruction of multiannual air temperatures during the late Miocene (8.68±0.09 million years ago). These temperatures suggest that Eurasia was mostly permafrost-free during that time.

Lechat et al. examines the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using a large global dataset of users of an FDA-validated under-the-mattress sensor. These results demonstrate a seasonal component in the severity of OSA and show that this effect is partially explained by ambient temperature and variations in sleep duration.

Crop models suggest that early sowing and slower-developing cultivars could maintain Australian wheat yields despite less-favourable climatic conditions. Field trials now confirm the potential of this adaptation for wheat production across Australia.

Coastal upwelling sustains some of the most productive ocean regions. Here, the authors find that spatial patterns and temporal changes in nutrient supply explain marine microbial community structure and diversity in the Southern California Current region.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Literature analysis and numerical modeling experiments suggest the continentality of a permafrost region determines whether the ground experiences warming or cooling as a consequence of heavy summer rainfall.

The dynamic components of coastal water level can add metres to water levels during extreme events. A data synthesis reveals that Pacific regional wave and water level fluctuations are closely related to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation.

Mid-Holocene climate was characterized by strong summer solar heating that decreased Arctic sea ice cover. Here the authors show that this sea ice loss had profound effects on the climate system, distinct from direct effects of solar heating, over North America, northern Asia, and the North Atlantic.

Bovine H5N1 viruses are lethal in laboratory animals, but they retain avian traits including limited transmission. Their responsiveness to approved antivirals and candidate vaccines lowers human risk, but ongoing surveillance is critically needed.

Analysis of data on six stable crops, capturing two-thirds of global crop calories, allows estimation of agricultural impacts and the potential of global producer adaptations to reduce output losses owing to climate change.